|
This Year's Model, Elvis Costello (Columbia)
The smash follow-up to 1977's My Aim Is True showed that Mr. C. wasn't content to retread his first album. Elvis' sound matured with the eeriest organ in rock today. The songs, like "This Year's Girl" (a scathing attack on media-made females) and "Hand In Hand" (a love song about dragging one's lover down with you) proved his motherload of hate, guilt and revenge is far from being depleted.
And hoo da thunk it, but "Radio, Radio," the music industry's epic in a little over two minutes, became a single. Obviously, no one can "shut up or cut out" Elvis, and his new album, titled either Cornered By Plastic or Emotional Facism, out in January should continue Costello's string of blockbusters.
Darkness On The Edge Of Town, Bruce Springsteen (Columbia)
The long-awaited fourth album from Bruce Springsteen proved he was not a "media flash-in-the-pan" or a "one-album" performer. For the most part, the songs of "Darkness" surpassed but embellished the streetwise Born To Run.
With "Adam Raised A Cain," Bruce carved a clearly defined niche in the rock world. His riveting account of father-versus-son is a bright spot in an album of supernovas, a perfect album to remember the summer of '78 by.
Who Are You, The Who (MCA)
In their last album with the Who lineup that stayed intact for 16 years, The Who have crafted a delicate, but powerful effort. Colored less by Pete Townshend's insecurities and doubts and fueled with a surprising reprisal of what rock should do, The Who have done what few people expected: Put out an album of high caliber, comparable to the oft-forgotten Quadrophenia.
Some Girls, The Rolling Stones (Rolling Stones)
I know I gave this album a right panning when it was time to wrap up the summer albums; "It's not as good as something they did earlier" I whined. But after the heat of some cleverly contrived put-downs, the album began to stick in the right places.
The Stones may suffer from the unstoppable march of time, but they have not lost the balls that made them the number two rock band ever (before the Who and after the Beatles, right?).
Mick Jagger has retained his energy, if not his vocal chords and Keith Richards still lays down some damn fine licks. Upon closer inspection, the album remains a great party record; its diverse contents are sure to please everyone at least once. Time proves a winner.
More Songs About Buildings and Food, Talking Heads (Sire)
The unique sound of Talking Heads, a bizarre marriage of guitar, bass, synthesizer and drums, welded to a finely honed styled by producer-musician Brian Eno, is captured aid set free in this enthralling release.
More cohesive than their earlier release, the Heads (David Byrne, guitar, vocals, songwriting and dancing about; Chris Weymouth Franzt, drums, smiles; Jerry Harrison, guitar, keyboards, second vocals, slightly decadent air; Martina Weymouth Franzt, mighty bass, eyes) shine on numbers like "The Big Country," "Stay Hungry" and an inspired version of "Take Me To The River." Definitely a band ahead of their time.
Peter Gabriel (Atlantic)
The second release from the Gabe is a moody, dense, but untimely appealing offering. Although the combination of Pete and Robert Fripp, eccentric guitarist and producer par excellence, did not work out as well as it could, songs like "White Shadow", 1978's great forgotten single, "D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself)" and the rocking "On The Air" redeem L'Ange Gabriel as a potent musical force.
Street Legal, Bob Dylan (Columbia)
A controversial pick to be sure, but the moaners and complainers critical of Dylan's work always complain whether he changes his style or continues in the same vein.
Much of SL is of love lost, never found or the combined fear of love and loneliness. With a very noticeable blues influence, Dylan has not created a "new" sound, but a style which draws and expands on the roots of rock music.
Dylan has continued to make basic statements about life that are common to his listeners while embellishing his stories with biblical midrash: "New Pony" is a song of black magic and the devil. He promises to continue this "new" style on an album soon to be released, probably entitled Masterpieces.
| 
