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MARCH 1981 PAGE 37
ELVIS COSTELLO:
IN ELVIS WE TRUST
Elvis Costello
Trust
Columbia
The cover of Elvis Costello's new
album, Trust, sports a head and
shoulders shot of him, his eyes peering
over his tinted glasses as if straining to
read a distant wall clock.
It's the same kind of quizzical stare
he used time and again on the Tomor-row
Show recently when Tom Snyder
pursued a line of question worthy of
Don Kirschner.
"Do you love your dad?" asked
Snyder, obviously a bit cautious with
New Wave types since his run-in with
John Lydon last summer. "Sure,"
blurted Costello, who then went on to
profess his admiration for Cole Porter,
Rodgers and Hart, and Hank Williams
as well.
To Snyder's immense relief, Cos-tello's
reputation for being remote or
belligerent seemed totally unwar-ranted;
on the contrary, he was the
perfect guest—sincere, responsive
and, in describing his early battles with
NBC and a few record executives, quite
funny.
But all was not peace, love and
understanding. Costello joined the
Attractions on an ice-cold version of
"Watch Your Step" (shot in black and
white, no less) from Trust, and any
notion that his new-found composure
has dulled his wits vanished as he
whispered above Steve Nieve's circling
keyboard about: "broken noses hung
up on the wall/back slapping drinkers
cheering the heavyweight brawl/so
punch drunk they don't stand at all/you
better watch your step."
THE LYRICS to "Watch Your Step"
survive Nick Lowe's opaque production
on Trust better than most. But the
tension—physical, sexual and emotion-al
that swells up inside of songs like
"White Knuckles ('on black and blue
skin')" and "Shot With His Own Gun"
("how does it feel now you've been
undressed/by a man with a mind like
the gutter press") is unmistakable.
Even Costello's stylistic leaps from
the Bo-Diddley-riffed "Lovers Walk" to
the countrified crooning of "Different
, Fingers" to the pop romanticism of
"Clubland" can't mask his intentions.
On Trust, his obsessions with guilt,
anger and loathing ride so close to the
surface you don't need a lyric sheet to
discover them. Compared with other
Lowe productions, Trust also benefits
from a cleaner, shallower mix. At least
one tune, the rockabilly rave up
"Luxembourg," seems as much the
product of Lowe's talents as Costello's.
Steve Nieve's keyboards trace Cos-tello's
witty and sly arrangements
faithfully, alluding, as usual, to a
variety of themes while navigating the
jerky, insistent rhythms laid down by
Bruce Thomas and Pete Thomas. Glen
Tilbrook's vocals and Martin Belmont's
added guitar give the album a fuller,
richer sound than anything Costello has
recorded to date. Yet there's an
urgent, compelling tone to what
Costello has to say that makes you
wonder whether he'll ever really grow
soft. Trust shows no signs of it.
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