at a glance...

Hometown: Liverpool, England
Born: 1954

Personnel:
Elvis Costello -vocals, guitar
Bruce Thomas -bass
Pete Thomas -drums
Steve Nieve -keyboards

Bands in the Family:
Nick Lowe, Burt Bacharach, Brinsley Schwarz, The Specials, The Pogues, Squeeze, Roger McGuinn, Ian Dury, Paul McCartney, Clover, The Brodsky Quartet, Wendy James

Notes:
He's been through more styles in less time than Bob Dylan, and it's to "the Big D" he's probably best compared in terms of influence, lyrical craftsmanship, and willful perversity, but Elvis Costello has the edge in terms of melodic craft. He was born Declan Patrick MacManus in London, the son of an Anglo-Irish music-hall bandleader, but his debut album on Stiff Records showed no signs of music-hall bounce at all: My Aim Is True was filled with angry, frustrated, impotent songs informed by punk, reggae, and rockabilly. But even as the album was released, Elvis had assembled the crack outfit called the Attractions, and together they formed one of the best working bands in the world. Every subsequent album showed more chutzpah and chops, and Costello's clever songs of rage made him a hero to fans on both sides of the Atlantic, but many casual followers deserted him when he branched out into country (Almost Blue), orchestral pop (IbMePdErRoIoAmL), and just plain radio pop (the underrated Punch the Clock). After one truly horrible album (Goodbye Cruel World), he regrouped in 1986 by forming an extremely diverse band called The Costello Show for King of America. Some would claim that the 1990s were largely wasted for Elvis, but 1998's Painted from Memory, his highly acclaimed collaboration with Burt Bacharach, had critics and record buyers salivating again.

Elvis Costello and the Attractions took the late '70s at a breakneck pace; they toured incessantly, and wrote and recorded their albums on the run. That velocity infuses this record, a partially successful attempt to jump off the new wave merry-go-round.

Musically, its an extended (very extended; twenty songs on the original vinyl, thirty on the Rykodisc reissue) love letter to mid-'60s soul, but taken at a clip that'd satisfy an Oingo Boingo fan's need for speed. Still, it's a salutary combination that keeps the ballads from lapsing into the lugubriousness that has marred some of Costello's more recent work.

This record is especially focused on affairs of the heart, viewed with a typically jaundiced eye; "Possession," "King Horse," "Riot Act," and "Love For Tender" each render a moment of romantic cruelty or collapse with an impressive clarity that's matched by the Attractions' idiomatically faithful playing.