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v "S "2 16 v; r -2 cn I ^ £ W 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 HAPPY HOUR DAILY 4pm-7pm 75* DRAFT Mondays 15* WINGS-7:30 on THURSDAY LADIES NIGHT Daily Lunch & Dinner Specials 351 B. Rroad St. 546-9506 * y Sports Bar O. Now Serving from Five Points Pick-Up & Delivery 613-0555 259 E. Brood St. • 613-0892 'Established Pizza Bakers Since 1974. ('oni|>are Our Quality, Taste and Nutrition/* 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. 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