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Elvis Costello's Brutal Youth reunites the myopic maestro with his great old band the Attractions, the first time they have recorded together since 1986. This is, of course, the dream ticket that brought you Costello albums such as This Year's Model and Armed Forces — the kind of music that made many of us Elvis fans in the first place.
The good news is that Brutal Youth is classic Costello — driving, feral music and a lead singer who sounds as if he has swallowed a thesaurus of contempt. No artist ever seemed quite so much in his element when raging about the foibles and failures of human nature.
There is some great stuff here — "20% Amnesia" and "Sulky Girl" start with explosions and build from there, while, on "13 Steps Lead Down," Elvis pours out one of his great sneering torrents of words, perfectly at home in his role as Bob Dylan's short-sighted, psychopathic younger brother.
Because he is so suspicious of cheap sentiment, this other Elvis is capable of writing love songs that ring so true that they are almost unbearable. Brutal Youth has its moments of supreme tenderness, such as the superb "Still Too Soon To Know," but they are fragile and fleeting.
Much more typical is "My Science Fiction Twin," with its acid references to "a little blonde trophy wife".
For most of Brutal Youth, it is clear that — despite the passage of time, despite the experiments with string quartets — the ice has yet to melt inside Elvis Costello. He is exactly as irascible as he always was. Needless to say, it suits him.
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