After the release of his album “Trust” in 1981, I officially became obsessed with Elvis Costello. At first, “Trust” felt like a disappointment following “Get Happy.” But I got over it. I just needed “Trust” to take, and of course, it did. As a kid, I had less patience for the artists I loved than I do now. I wanted every song on every record to be a classic immediately, mostly because of my limited funds and limited access to more. I only had enough money for one or two albums a week and if one or both ended up being lemons, it’d crush me until my next trip to the record store. Now I take my time with music, allowing a new piece of work by a favorite artist to reveal itself over several plays. “Trust” just needed that time, which as a wound-up teenager, I couldn’t find.
Elvis Costello had now released five brilliant albums in under four years and I wanted more. All of those fantastic non-LP b-sides found on an endless supply of 45’s from England, were not enough. I needed a new record and I needed it fast, and so did my Costello disciple friends. We were all obsessed. So, you can imagine the collective throat punch to fans that was the all country covers record “Almost Blue.” We had been eagerly awaiting the next classic and instead were blindsided with Loretta Lynn and George Jones songs. Years have been kind to “Almost Blue.” I enjoy it from time to time. But in 1981, it was cruel and inhumane.
Mercifully, it took less than nine months for E.C. to ameliorate our misery. Elvis Costello & The Attractions made up for their folly by releasing “Imperial Bedroom,” a record that most of us deemed a masterpiece after only one listen. This record took over my life. I listened to this record five times a day. I went as far as getting a t-shirt made using cheap felt iron-on letters at a local Greenwich Village head shop that read “How Wrong Can I Be Before I Am Right,” a lyric pulled from “Tears Before Bedtime,” the second track on the album.
Forty years later, the conversations regarding Costello's genre-hopping still take place, with the oft used phrase, "It all went down hill when Bruce Thomas left." Bruce Thomas, of course, one of the great bass players in rock and roll. But I have always defended those post-Thomas records. "When I Was Cruel," "The Delivery Man," the Bacharach collaboration "Painted From Memory," "Momofuku" and especially his recent trifecta, "Look Now," "Hey Clockface" and "The Boy Named If," can stand up to any catalogue in rock and pop music.
But something dawned on me as I took "Almost Blue" off the shelf this morning. Elvis Costello was genre-hopping from day one. Maybe the jump from "The Juliet Letters" to "When I was Cruel," or "Painted From Memory" to "Wise Up Ghost, his collaboration with The Roots is a bit more glaring. But let's be reasonable. "This Year's Model" doesn't really sound like "My Aim Is True." "Get Happy" doesn't really sound like "Armed Forces." "Imperial Bedroom" doesn't really sound like "Trust."
There are few artists who have been able to convincingly dabble in everything from country and classical, new wave and R&B as Elvis Costello. Does Davey Faragher sound like Bruce Thomas? No, he doesn't. But he's an excellent player and singer, and all of those records deserve more spins than they seem to be getting.
That is your Elvis Costello PSA for Wednesday, September 13th, 2023.
25 comments:
yes
Spot on analysis of Costello!
He and Nieve are doing duo concerts throughout th EU- last week they did one close to me, at the historic Alhambra in Granada, but it was suspended only 30 mins in due to electrical issues. Will supposedly rsum in 2024. Hope to be able to make that one.
I agree with most of the above, but I still think the country album was at best an overreach and at worst unlistenable.
ISorry — I still haven’t forgiven him for the country album.😎
The genre-jumping is part of what I enjoy about Elvis Costello. Many artists are happy to serve up another set of songs that sound similar to the last. Many fans want just that, but not me.
- Paul in DK
I was enthralled with Trust from the moment I cracked the plastic wrap on it. I never really warmed to Almost Blue, and it was all but forgotten when Imperial Bedroom came out. (Side note: I never warmed to Van Morrison's Pay the Devil, either...maybe it's just me and country covers).
No one genre hops like Declan. I've always liked Almost Blue. Thanks for playing the Charlie Rich cover, Sal, it's one of my faves on the LP. John McFee does a good job on lead guitar. Guys like Elvis Costello, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Prince and Todd Rundgren are inspired artists who crank out so many records it's hard to keep up or even keep track. Elvis Costello has made some crumby records but this isn't one of them. Most of the critics who complained about it said he didn't sing the tunes as convincingly as a "real" C&W artist. Or why covers? But why the fuck not? I tried to turn people on to this record back then and there were few takers. Some wouldn't even give it a chance. Hardened hearts had festered. I think time has been kind to this record. Is it his greatest? No. But it deserves a lot more respect and understanding than it gets.
And the tour for Almost Blue was excellent, even if he played larger venues. Saw the L.A. show and it was epic. McFee joins 'em on the tour as well.
VR
Almost Blue opened up a whole branch of music that I never would have listened to (and now love) if Elvis hadn't released it. So for that, I give it a thumbs up. I don't listen to it that much, but when I do put it on, I generally enjoy it. The act of making and putting it out tot he public was the major artistic statement.
I hear you on the immediate gratification vs the slow simmer. Growing older has made me more patient with these things, and I can let the album take its time to make an impression on me. Or not. But that's fine too.
Bill
In the fall of 1981, I was a freshman at SUNY Oswego. I was getting acclimated with my new friends who more into the Dead and southern rock. Meanwhile, I was trying to prove how hip I was with my Furs, Clash, Talking Heads and Elvis Costello records. So when Almost Blue came out in October, I remember buying it at the college record store and running back to my dorm room to play. I invited all the guys on my floor to join me. Ten minutes later the room was empty and the hallway was blasting Molly Hatchet.
Elvis, I forgive you.
Fun piece! Imperial Bedroom and King Of America are his unquestioned peaks! Until you listen to all his other albums. My favorite genre hopper is Linda Ronstadt. She excelled at so many varieties of music: pop, rock, country, r& b, children's, operetta, mariachi, and standards a la Sinatra! But you're right: Elvis was jumping around from the start. And think of the genres the Beatles mastered on just one album -- the White album.
Concur. With Trust being the perfect combination of all that’s great about Armed Forces and Get Happy, I later considered Almost Blue as sort of an intermission - as you mentioned, the subsequent Imperial Bedroom has little to do with Trust or what came before. Having very little exposure to any country music at the time, I was ill-prepared and unreceptive to Almost Blue. I do enjoy it now but, it did take awhile. I was much more ready for King of America when it arrived.
It often seems that if you scratch a country artist, they were once in a punk band.
There must’ve been something in the air as Joe Jackson is also beginning his explorations as well at this time (Beat Crazy, Jumpin’ Jive, Night and Day).
How much of a factor is coming to America for these British artists in their genre-jumping?
And nice one with Ronstadt!
What's "Taking Liberties," chopped liver?
Not as cohesive as the first four but right u[p there with them in quality. Just one great song after another. And the last we saw of 3-minute Elvis.
@Noam,
Yeah, "Taking Liberties" is a killer. I think I like it more than "Armed Forces." It just didn't come to mind because it's a comp.
I have to say AB was my first Costello album, so I have a deep love of it for that. Good Year For The Roses was a huge hit over here in the UK. (There's an irony in the fact that for someone who's known as a great songwriter, he only had 3 top 10 hits here and 2 of them were covers) There was actually a camera crew covering the recording of the album and it made a great South Bank Show special. Talk about 2 nations divided by one language, Billy Sherill just couldn't comprehend EC. It was available on You Tube a few years ago but seems to be gone now.
And agree about the later albums. Pretty much the only ones that never took at all with me were the 2 Sugarcanes albums, which is odd as I usually love his American records.
Taking Liberties was never released in the UK. Partly because the track listing of those albums was different in the UK from the US. We did get a cassette only release '10 Bloody Marys & 10 How's Your Fathers' which bridged the gap.
Honest Ed,
I blame T-Bone Burnett for those Sugarcane records. They sound horrible.
And I'm pretty sure "10 Bloody Marys" and "Taking Liberties" have the same track list.
@Sal, I don't think they do. Similar but not quite the same.
TL had Night Rally (which closed This Year's Model in the UK) and Chelsea (also on TYM)
Sunday's Best (on Armed Forces here)
10 BM & 10 HYF had Watching the Detectives - only a single here and not on My Aim)
Radio Radio (again, a non album single here)
& Peace Love & Understanding (which was on a Nick Lowe EP over here and not on AF).
@Honest Ed,
Just checked my "10 Bloodys" LP.
I stand corrected.
Twice in one week.
I'm slipping!
If you can find that South Bank Show, you'll enjoy it. It might be geo-blocked on YouTube in the UK.
I also remember being disappointed by "Almost Blue" after the wonderful one-two punch of "Get Happy!" and "Trust" both of which I played ad nauseam, much to the chagrin of my then-girlfriend. It wasn't too long until he put out "Imperial Bedroom" and I forgave him for that atrocity. Many years later, after joyously following him into "The Juliet Letters" and "Painted from Memory", I began to warm to "Almost Blue" and now consider it one of the highlights of his genre explorations. I felt the same way about "North" and now find myself enjoying it, although I wouldn't put it on the same level. I didn't warm up to his Roots and Toussaint collaborations but given my track record, if you give me a couple of decades I may warm to them.
Sal, totally with you. Given the choice it would be Liberties every time. "Hoover Factory" is a song I particularly love, it's kind of a profound trifle, delicate and beautiful.
Latter-day productions are over-produced to my ears. I can tell there's a song under there somewhere, but I don't want to get a headache digging it out.
He had a song on the Lebowski soundtrack in 1998 that had both the old spark and uncluttered instrumentation, "My Mood Swings." Kind of suggests what might have been without all the fireworks.
I think a lot of this depends on when one "enters the scene." My first Elvis album was actually, of all things, PUNCH THE CLOCK!
Yeah, man, I admit it - me noticing Elvis was originally precipitated on Everyday I Write The Book. That's because I grew up with very mainstream music tastes, based entirely on just two things: my parents' albums (and I still love Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Beatles, The Who, Simon & Garfunkel because of that) and the radio.
I had no musically-astute friends introducing me to stuff. No music mags or books yet (until college), of course no interwebs yet.
So Elvis had to appear on the radio for me to get on the bus. Which I did from then on, big time - I still love Punch The Clock. (despite the worst LP title ever ... unless he meant it like, "I'm gonna punch that clock out - I don't care about time!"
So to me Trust was perfect when I got it, and Imperial Bedroom maybe even better. I went back and got them all and was obsessed also.
But yes, Spike was the start of me getting off the train for a long time - again, because I loved radio and pure pop, Veronica was my favorite there. But I started caring less for Elvis until later.
Same thing happened to me with Prince after Graffiti Bridge and Batman. I loved those two, then I lost the script for a long time with the next records.
I digress. Happy Friday.
I did not know about this - Loretta Lynn with Elvis Costello on Everything It Takes
https://youtu.be/l0nRdQTyOqg?si=_V0W85cuoD6jfmgU
@Noel M...
I don't know if its the same in the US, but in the UK Punch The Clock means turn up for work dutifully but not exactly enjoying it.
Okay, I'll try harder. ;)
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