Elvis Costello: Classic or Dud

Ha, curm, I had exactly the same experience, maybe you were sitting near me.

I thought the ...and in every home/lucy in the sky mashup was funny; loved the spare Alison. Beyond Belief and Man Out of Time were strong encores.

Shabby Doll came out rockin' as well, but I still think my favorite version is one he did on tv with Fioner Rapple.

I've decided to give this guy another chance, even though his music historically has done very little for me...

Just this year I noticed how Bruce Thomas's Shabby Doll bass soloing is a nod to Stevie's "I Wish" (I assume).

The minimal version of Alison was impressive. Beyond Belief and Almost Blue also worked well too.

also liked green shirt

Wld pay money at this stage of my life for this.

I've decided to give this guy another chance, even though his music historically has done very little for me...

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Friday, June 23, 2017 1:56 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So, after sitting through every album from My Aim is True up to Spike over the last few days, my opinion hasn't really changed all that much. Costello comes across to me as being the type of dull classicist that people accuse Paul Weller of being, but even Weller went on to make a house album and occasionally experimented. He's also nowhere near as good a songwriter as Weller either, as evidenced by the fact that I'm fresh off listening to 11 or 12 of his albums, and the songs that I remember were the ones I knew anyway - I literally can't recall one single deep cut that made me go "wow, it was totally worth listening to the album for this"

One thing that I did take away from the experience is how much Costello sounds like Bryan Adams when he starts bellowing.

File under "new wave artists that you only really need a singles compilation by" alongside The Police.

Costello fairly drastically changes elements of his sound from album to album and Paul Weller probably wrote like 5 good songs in his life

We'll call you when he makes a house album tho

He slightly changes elements of his sound from album to album, not drastically. I would have personally loved it if there had been a drastic change in sound, but there wasn't. A bit more variety in the composition of his toplines would have been nice, too.

As for Paul Weller, there was no indication at the start of his career with The Jam that he would have had a Confessions of a Pop Group or a Modernism: A New Decade in him, let alone a 22 Dreams, Sonik Kicks or a Saturn's Pattern. When I got to King of America in Costello's discography, it wasn't a surprise at all.

Costello's 4th album was a Stax-esque soul record, his fifth was a foundational new wave record, his sixth was a straight up country album, and his seventh was orchestral, Beatles-esque music hall

I can understand why someone wouldn't like Elvis Costello, but criticizing him for "not experimenting" is silly

The differences were minimal. Like I say, if they'd been as drastic as you say, maybe I would have changed my mind.

North (pianoey lounge jazz), Juliet Letters (scrapey scratchy string quartet song settings), and When I was Cruel (spooky rock with drum machines) sound more than minimally different to me, and certainly don't resemble Almost Blue. His voice is unavoidably on all of them, I will grant.

Not to mention his most recent album, Wise Up Ghost, which he did with The Roots

Not sure how anyone could hear the differences between EC albums as "minimal," unless you consider the differences between all rock albums to be minimal.

and the songs that I remember were the ones I knew anyway

Even if this was your standard, I would be shocked if you knew less than, I dunno, 15 or 20 EC songs, which is a pretty nuts high number, and definitely pushes him beyond the realm of "singles act." (Save that category for Squeeze.) And anyway, even if you didn't think EC's singles or albums or album tracks or dozens of b-sides and one-offs and other things were worthwhile, the Attractions are an absolutely incredible and endlessly inventive band that is worth listening to on its own merits.

I'm not sure how many artists there are out there who drastically experiment between every record and still sound like themselves, but whatever that's a stupid way to judge an artist's body of work. But it's very hard to deny that Costello approached each album with different musical and thematic ideas--and it's very hard to mistake a song from This Year's Model for a song from, say, Get Happy!! despite identical personnel.

xxxpost:

Well, I didn't get that far in the discography - kinda figuring that getting 11 or 12 albums in was more than enough, and at this stage I don't really feel the need to investigate further given that the albums I heard were pretty much all of his so-called "canonical" ones.

But yeah, I was expecting to find a lot to like in Costello's discography given that I love his contributions to McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt and thought that as a producer he brought a great deal to Squeeze's East Side Story - unfortunately, I don't.

I can see why the likes of Rolling Stone liked this guy so much - putting out King of America in 1986 must have been right up their street. The rest of us had the Pet Shop Boys.

The biggest difference between This Year's Model and Get Happy!! was in the production.

Well I was just about to listen to an Elvis Costello record, but I forgot that I can't enjoy both Elvis Costello and Pet Shop Boys or else I would... make the Rolling Stones angry, or something?

xp well they were both produced by Nick Lowe, so obviously something changed, bud

I remember reading a post by Josh in Chicago a few years back where he stated that Costello might be more highly regarded today if he hadn't put out "too much music", which I disagree with a great deal. Prince, for example, couldn't have been any more prolific, but he's more highly regarded than Costello is today because his music was more interesting.

So you're saying that Elvis Costello falls into the broad category of "not as good as Prince" along with everybody else in the history of music give or take 10 people or so?

Yeah, but two years ago...

Nick Lowe was probably an even bigger trad. rock bore, tbh.

xxpost:

No, I'm saying that being prolific is not the reason that Elvis Costello isn't more highly regarded today. Do pay attention.

did you only listen to each album once, though? After a hits collection, my recommendations would be to pick up This Year's Model and stay with that for a while

With Cstello, it's not so much a matter of getting off (or on) the bus, but how you approach whichever stream..

Like, if some review goes "Yeah! A Return to the Attractionisms of "Brutal Youth" and "Blood and Choc"" then you might go hmm, let's give it a look. Or you might go "oh noe, what no Brodskys?". But then you might see one on Deutsche Grammophon and say "ah, now that's gonna be more like it"

Or, it might make you ponder " Elvis Costello: The Exact Moment When This Balding Fat Fucker Jumped The Shark "

xxpost:

No, I'm saying that being prolific is not the reason that Elvis Costello isn't more highly regarded today. Do pay attention.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Wednesday, June 28, 2017 8:20 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm paying very close attention but also making fun of you for your stupid opinions

(Multi xp) Think one thing was that Roger Bechirian's engineering hand grew stronger beginning with Armed Forces.

now excuse me, i'm gonna go argue with a stick over there in that mud

xxxxxpost:

This isn't the first time I've given Costello a chance, last time was about five years ago or so. I reached pretty much the same conclusion then as I've done now, but I thought I'd try again just to be sure.

i'm paying very close attention but also making fun of you for your stupid opinions

― black covfefe in bed (voodoo chili), Wednesday, June 28, 2017 1:24 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Who knew that the Costello hardcore could get so butthurt?

it's fine with me if you don't like costello, but if it's because he didn't change or adapt enough between records, it means you weren't paying attention

the world wonders what a Nick Lowe-produced Pet Shop Boys would've sounded like

xpost Who knows what I was thinking, but I'm pretty sure I was talking about EC's career as a whole (perhaps in the "jump the shark" thread?). I'm a fan, and I only ("only") like 11 or 12 EC albums, most of which were released between 1977 and 1987. Coincidence, but that's pretty much all the Prince I regularly listen to as well - about 10 albums between 1978 and 1988. In both cases, that's plenty! And they both have tons of outtakes from those years to fill in the gaps.

Pick a parcel of Costello

A. This Years Model, Armed Forces,

B. Almost Blue, Spike, King of America

C. Blood and Chocolate, Brutal Youth, When I was cruel

D. The Juliet Letters, North

E. Painted from Memory, And so blummin on, etc.

I dunno, I'll stick with "10 bloody marys and 10 hows yr fathers" ...

I can hurl two or three reasons why EC might suck, but lackig tonal and structural variety aren't among them.

he world wonders what a Nick Lowe-produced Pet Shop Boys would've sounded like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlvcqJpJquA

(The story goes that he wrote "The Bay City Rollers We Love You" to get dropped by his label, but it became an accidental hit in Japan, so he wrote "Let's Go to the Disco" as a follow-up and it did the trick.)

xxxxxpost:

Well, you kinda have to pay a lot of attention to realise how minimal the differences are between the records, so...

Terry Modern! (Xpost)

(The story goes that he wrote "The Bay City Rollers We Love You" to get dropped by his label, but it became an accidental hit in Japan, so he wrote "Let's Go to the Disco" as a follow-up and it did the trick.)

xxp maybe YOU do

I can hurl two or three reasons why EC might suck, but lackig tonal and structural variety aren't among them.

I thought his book was really good, but mostly I left with a real respect for his musical knowledge, not just showoff muso stuff but a deep understanding of and curiosity about pop, soul, jazz, etc., how and what makes it work (and how to rip it off).

Unfortunately, that's what makes pretty much all of his music so backward-looking. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with that, but if your music is going to be so backward-looking, at least write songs that stand a chance of competing with what you're ripping off.

You mean like Shipbuilding or Beyond Belief or ... ?

that retro rockabilly raver "Green Shirt."

Clive Langer wrote the music for 'Shipbuilding' ... anyhow, I was familiar with that one long before I tried to get into Costello's work first time around and I still like it - one of the very few that I do. Wyatt's version being the ultimate, although I like Suede's version more than Costello's.

Wyatt's version being the ultimate, although I like Suede's version more than Costello's.

Yeah, Chet Baker notwithstanding..