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r 30, 1994 -
Anyone who has followed the
sometimes mystifying, always pro
ductive career of Elvis Costello will
certainly have to acknowledge that
the years with Warner Brothers
Records (since 1989) have been
disappointing when contrasted with
the singer’s earlier long association
with Columbia (1977-88). Spike
(1989) and Mighty Like a Rose
(1991) offered a good song or two, but seemed cluttered (with far too many
guest musicians) and directionless After such undistinguished work (con
sidering the artist in question), the somewhat bizarre collaboration with The
Brodsky Quartet that produced The Juliet Letters (1993) could almost seem
like a “Why Not T kind of career move Actually, I like that unusual exercise
in chamber music But despite my general respect for Elvis Costello, l could
not assume that his next musical offering would please me.
I*m happy to have been proven wrong 1994 has been the year of a
real Elvis Costello resurgence Brutal Youth (Warner Brothers) proved to
be his strongest album since Imperial Bedroom (1982), and Rykodisc re
issued Get Happy" and Truth, two of his greatest albums from, respec
tively, 1980 and 1981. Both CDs offer excellent sound quality and abun
dant additional and previously unreleased tracks As with Bob Dylan, one
of the few artists more prolific than Costello, these selections are every bit
as good as the ones chosen for the original albums
With Brutal Youth, Costello returns to the lean, mean sound of his enfant
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terrible immediate post-
punk years He appears
with a pared-down en
semble of musicians, con
sisting of the reunited At
tractions (with whom he
made his greatest
records) plus fellow-trav
eler Nick Lowe (who plays
bass on about as many
tracks as Bruce Thomas).
I would have preferred
Lowe as co-producer (with
Elvis) over the ubiquitous
Mitchell Froom, both because it would com
plete the sense of return to roots and because
I favor producers like Lowe associated with
one particular musical style Like Don Was,
Froom is all over the musical map when it
comes to the artists he produces I suppose
versatility is admirable, but I fail to see the point
Elvis Costello does not fail to see the point
on Brutal Youth, which is to cut the crap and
play the kind of urgent great music that is his
signature He seems to have returned, hope
fully permanently, to his musical senses The
first track, "Pony St ." sounds at once like the
best numbers from Armed Forces (1978) and
Get Happy rolled into one. with Pete Thomas'
trademark drum roll and the half-growl half
squeal in Costello's voice, particularly at the
end of each line To my ear, several of the
tunes on Brutal Youth aim at specific songs
on the matchless Get Happy! "Clown Strike"
is this album's “Clowntime is Over " “20 %
Amnesia’ is very close musically to “Five Gears
in Reverse ’ "My Science Fiction Twin," with
Steve Nieve* spooky organ-playing and Nick
Lowe* nothin' fancy bass throb, is a dead
ringer m places tor “Opportunity ’ What l mean
to suggest through these comparisons is the
thrilling balance the musicians strike between
tight, disciplined playing and that woozy,
swervy, swaying (let's hear it for Farftsa) feel
ing It* the kind of synthesis at which The Band
excelled, as you can hear on “Stage Fnght’ or
"W S. Walcott Medicine Show"
To mention Elvis Costello in the same
breath as The Band is to invite the scorn of
the punkophile for whom Costello, who
sported a long beard for a while and once
professed admiration for The Grateful Dead,
has always been something of an anachro
nism. Of course, this is the same Elvis who
once got punched out by Bonnie Bramlett for
uttering a racist slur on Ray Charles. The
cover photo of Brutal
Youth, which reproduces a
black and white chrfdhood
snapshot of young Declan
MacManus aka Elvis
Costello standing with a
playmate of colour (as
they spell it in the U K).
may be an attempt at
some kind of atonement
for that offense In any
case, his mercurial per
sonality has always con
fused his fans, whether
through his social comportment or the musi
cal restlessness that leads him to try his hand
at so many different styles
Even 1981, which I upheld earlier as a
time of greater stylistic consistency, saw Elvis
indulging his love of country and western-
style crooning with the albim Almost Blue (it
was not at all uncommon to see two Costello
album releases per year in those days). This
was close to the time when Costello had per
formed a duet with George Jones on his al
bum My Very Special Guests Elvis recap
tures that mournful heartbroken sound (bor
rowed from Patsy Cline, among others) of Al
most Blue on “Still Too Soon to Know," which
provides a departure from the sound of most
of Brutal YbbfhThis album, like the singer ’s
best, continues to yield up surprises
Elvis the Younger can still deliver as im
pressively as he did on Get Happy" or Trust
The reissues are among Rykodisc’s finest
achievements Both feature informative book
lets with notes by the man himself Especially
interesting are the tracks added for the CD
reissue, as well as Costello's comments about
them The ones included on Get Happy" are
a combination of alternate takes and tunes pre
viously available on Taking Liberties, a 1960
compilation of singles and B-sides Listen to
the slow version of “Clowntime is Over.* the
acoustic-guitar based “Black & White World*
and the more rocking verson of “Rot Act ’
There is even a fragment of an alternate ver
son of “Love For Tender * On Trust, the ac
cent is on previously unreleased perfor
mances Standouts include “Black Sails in the
Sunset" and Twenty-Five to Twelve *
These CDs provide extremely generous
amounts of music One curious practice is the
prolonged silence between tracks in the "Ex
tended Play" sections Strange in a way. but it
lets the suspense bmld.
Above
Gizmos and
Big Shot
Records
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