Wilmington Morning Star, October 26, 1980: Difference between revisions
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NEW YORK — ''[[Taking Liberties]]''. Elvis Costello’s new Columbia album, isn’t going to endear Costello to people who think he’s already taken too many liberties. | |||
On his previous LP, ''[[Get Happy!!|Get Happy!!!]]'', Costello crammed 20 songs onto a single disk, and while some of the performances and arrangements were carefully polished, others had the rough immediacy of a songwriter’s demonstration record. ''Taking Liberties'' presents 20 more songs, and again the performances and arrangements run the gamut from processed to raw. | |||
But ''Get Happy!!!'' was a coherent album, with a characteristic sound and style of its own, while ''Taking Liberties'' is a collection of tracks from various stages of Costello’s career. | |||
The one thing the performances included on the album have in common is that they haven’t appeared on any of Costello’s American albums. Some are the B sides of singles and some are selections from English LP’s. Some are worth having, and some might as well have stayed on the shelf. | |||
The only real classic in the collection is [[(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea|(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea]], which was previously available in the United States only on the soundtrack album from the film [[Americathon]], which most of Costello’s fans probably own. There are several interesting tracks that Costello produced and recorded as a kind of one-man band — [[Ghost Train]], for example, and his surprisingly straight-forward version of the Rodgers and Hart [[My Funny Valentine]]. | |||
[[Getting Mighty Crowded]], a [[Van McCoy]] tune, is another of Costello’s stylish, energetic soul excursions, and it wouldn't have sounded out of place on ''Get Happy!!!'' Two songs, the very early [[Radio Sweetheart]] and [[Stranger In The House|Stranger in the House]], are closer to pure country and western balladry than anything on Mr. Costello’s albums. | |||
More questionable are the two alternate versions of songs from ''Get Happy!!'', neither of which is as effective as the version originally released, and Costello’s [[Girls Talk]], which was first recorded by [[Dave Edmunds]]. To this listener, Edmunds made the tune his own, and Costello’s performance of it is as superfluous as [[Linda Ronstadt]]’s. Several other songs, among them [[Talking In The Dark|Talking in the Dark]] which pinches the organ break from the [[Beatles]]’ [[Penny Lane]]) and [[Dr. Luther's Assistant|Dr. Luther’s Assistant]], are simply second-rate. | |||
Despite these and a few other lapses, the quality of the album’s music is generally pretty high. But ''Taking Liberties'' doesn't hang together particularly well as an album. It’s a collection of odds and ends, no more and no less. | |||
Columbia says Costello will have an album of new material ready early next year. Meanwhile, ''Taking Liberties'' offers bargain-basement Costello at big-store prices. | |||
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Revision as of 23:08, 18 March 2015
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