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The clown with the idiot smile on the cover of Spike isn't that much different from the dour-faced King or the miserable Napoleon who graced the covers of King of America and Blood & Chocolate, respectively. Nor does Elvis Costello (clown, King and Napoleon) hide much real mirth behind the black-and-white painted mask — the songs on Spike are just as, if not more, furious and full of spite than anything he has recorded.
Spike is a masterpiece, make no mistake about it — Costello has abandoned the first-person self-inflicted venom which previously defined his songwriting in favour of penetrating third-person narrative. If marriage and age has calmed his insecurities, that has only allowed him more time to examine and contemplate the world around him.
E.C. has covered a lot of ground with his LPs in the past — from the punk-pop of My Aim is True to the smoky country of Almost Blue to the Stax-soul recidivist Punch The Clock — but he's usually limited himself to one style at a time. Perhaps because of the two-plus years between LPs — unprecedented for a man who averaged better than an LP a year between 1978 and 1986 — Spike covers more musical territory than on any of his previous LPs.
E.C. gets help from an all-star cast of cronies including Paul McCartney, Roger McGuinn, Chrissie Hynde, Jerry Marotta, Christy Moore, Mitchell Froom and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Yet, while containing everything from neo-gaelic dirges ("Any King's Shilling") to funky pop ("Chewing Gum") to a soulful instrumental ("Stalin Malone"), it is an utterly cohesive and complete piece of work.
There is no greater example of Costello's new found narrative power than "Tramp The Dirt Down" which uses the title as a metaphor for the British working class' treatment at the hands of the ruling, Rather than an explosion of anger, "Tramp" uses barely restrained tension which more effectively communicates the crushing weight of sorrow and anger. The mixture of traditional instruments like Bouzouki, Indian Harmonium and Uileann pipes produce a most compelling setting for E.C.'s finest lyric. It's possibly the most achingly tender and sad song that Elvis Costello has written or recorded.
The venom-spitting old Elvis is evident on "Let Him Dangle," an anti-hanging tirade which uses the real-life example of Chris Craig and Derek Bentley as the skeleton upon which the flesh of this song sits. Derek Bentley was hung for a murder which Craig, his underage partner committed. Hung for a crime which he was not even convicted for!
The cheapening of existence is a uniting theme throughout Spike, whether the larger societal issues of "Tramp" and "Let Him Dangle" or the more personal devaluation of "Veronica" and "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" — which harkens hack to E.C. of yore. Even death is cheapened in "God's Comic," where a dead comedian takes on the task of the grim reaper.
The surprise track of the LP though is the instrumental, "Stalin Malone," which opens with a descending horn riff redolent of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" and moves into a swinging, funky jam. That's nut really so surprising though considering the fact that it's played by the aforementioned Dirty Dozen Brass Band — New Orleans' finest brass band.
Taken as a whole, Spike stands easily alongside Armed Forces and Blood & Chocolate as one of the best LPs that Elvis Costello has produced. High praise considering that he has produced some of the finest LPs in the last decade. Only time will tell how great Spike is. For the moment it's varied, complex and overwhelmingly moving. That's enough to make it essential listening.
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