Don't think of Brutal Youth, Elvis Costello said, as a reunion with the Attractions. He certainly doesn't.
"We brought in people because we thought they'd do a good job with the songs. It just seemed the right thing to do," he said of his new album, due out Tuesday. "I just sort of gathered them gradually, which is why I don't even think of it as a reunion."
Call it what you will, longtime fans of the British singer/songwriter/musician — who many critics say is equaled only by Bob Dylan — will be thrilled with Brutal Youth. After the classical The Juliet Letters, recorded with the Brodsky Quartet, and the dense Mighty Like a Rose, Costello has returned to the stripped-down sound he and the Attractions used when he smashed the barriers between punk, pop and rock on classic albums such as Trust and Armed Forces.
Like fans of Neil Young, Costello devotees are frustrated with his career at times. He can effortlessly toss off pop/rock classics such as "Alison," "Beyond Belief" or the new songs "This Is Hell" and "London's Brilliant Parade."
But he chooses to spend years exploring other less-familiar terrain.
"I've heard a bit of this kind of talk before," he said. "Those people either have a more traditional or conservative view of what I do. They don't like me to deviate too much from that image.
"In some cases it's people who maybe listened to me when I started and that's their idea of what I do — maybe the first five albums. After that, they start to get a bit perplexed because of the detours. Without doing those things, I think they'd be equally tired of you. They'd say, 'He's just trotting out the same pld formula.' So you can't really have it both ways."
He laughed.
"On the other hand ... I understand that attitude. I've had that same attitude about people. I mean, I don't like every Neil Young record, though I'm a big Neil Young fan. My favorite stuff is Ragged Glory, and when he's doing that, I love it."
Other Young diversions, even including Harvest Moon, don't strike Costello as much.
"I'm aware of those people, and I know maybe they get exasperated sometimes by me following my instincts about music and trying to do things that I think are interesting and worthwhile," he said. "I believe in the long run it's richer for the next musical thing you do."
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