Elvis Costello: Classic or dud

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It must have been done before but I never saw the thread. So, anyway, his name came up in another thread and I remembered what I thought about the guy and found myself wanting to ask ilx folks what they reckon:

A spikey sonofabitch second-rate Dylan update with a narcissistic streak the size of the Nile, sneering and locked in an insular and self-obsessed world bereft of anything of any note to write home about, save those books he read which had some interesting things in them you know, looking out through glazed goggles, deaf to his own damnable noisenik posturing and riding the times like a jezebel cowboy or an innovative and influential songsmith and commentator of the first and finest order, offering up pinpoint accurate insights with a disarmingly bittersweet wit.

― Elvis Costello, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 09:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I prob'ly go with dud myself for all the reasons I mention.

― Roger Fascist, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 09:53 (twenty-three years ago)

He's one of those guys where I bought a lot of his albums when I was 19, figuring they had to be great because the critics loved him so much. But god, he's written so many boring songs. His first best-of in Columbia, relased around 1985, is great start to finish. That and the first album are all I need.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 27 August 2002 10:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Armed Forces is pretty mongo great, tho

― J0hn Darn1elle, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 11:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Shipbuilding covered by Robert Wyatt is all you need...
The voice of Mr Costello is enough to make me reach for the off button.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Tuesday, 27 August 2002 11:56 (twenty-three years ago)

it has been done before, but i have no idea how to search past ILM entries i'm afraid. absolute genius - never really understood the whole dylan thing until i realised how much people feel about bob how i feel about elvis. the voice is FANTASTIC - bile dripping, passionate and completely extraordinary because he pushes a rather limited vocal range without ever really over reaching himself. i also find myself guitily enjoying the incessant wordplay as well. pretty much all of "armed forces", "this years model", "blood and chocolate" and "the juliet letters" (yes i know i'm rare in loving it but i do) are wonderful BUT his classics have to be to me "imperial bedroom" and the godlike wonder that is "get happy"

― commonswings, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 12:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic!

I always found it odd that people point to the songwriterly aspects of his music, since as far as I can tell, he fumbles with harmony and structure on those early songs as much as any other inexperienced songwriter trying to digest their influences. Despite the whole tenuous-relationship-with-punk thing, I always thought he had a lot more in common with people like the Buzzcocks - pop songs with vitriol, songs about failed relationships and getting screwed over, ect ect.

Search:
all of My Aim Is True
all of This Year's Model
certain bits of Armed Forces and Get Happy
'I Want You', 'I Hope You're Happy Now' (from Blood & Chocolate)
all of 'Spike'
all of 'When I Was Cruel' (it's really good you know)

― Dave M. (rotten03), Tuesday, 27 August 2002 13:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Search ILM here for now I guess. Im going to take a stab in the dark and guess that the old greenspun one someone set up in the midst of a thread is probably invalid now the threads are on ilXor.

Oh and Elvis rawked classicaly hard on the 1st three albums. There are moments where I wonder this punk tag I've heard given to him and others where it seems only natural. Doubly classic for letting himself get punked off in Spice World, one of my favorite music movies even if I dont like the music in it particularly. Also triply classic for the "hold hold, I can't do this any more" moment on SNL switching from Allison to Radio Radio. Second greatest musical moment I caught on the show, the other was Neil Youngs freak out in the 90s.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 27 August 2002 13:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Sometimes I wish I never ventured outside of the Accepted Canon re: Mr. Costello - I LOVE LOVE LOVE the first three albums (even if _My Aim..._ is spotty), if only because the vitriol & sarcasm & bubbling bile is fresh-sounding (?), or possibly tempered by him & the Attractions stumbling around, seeing what works, flush with newness of it all. _Get Happy_ is cool enough, but draaaags (and, damn, that Rykodisc edition with THIRTY+ TRACKS kills ME; I'd hate to see less obsessive folks sit through it w/out twitching). This reminds me that thanks & praise should be sent in the direction of Rhino / Reprise for reissuing EC's catalog w/ the album proper set off on one disc, and all the juicy extras on another disc - my MTV-tainted brain thanks you a thousand times.

So, yeah, after that, I figured I'd try _Blood & Chocolate_, since it's been praised to here & back, and (to me) it not only pales in comparison to his early stuff, it's just not that good. It sounds like the Vitriol Machine was booted up, some Music Motif punch cards were inserted, and one little mailed-in nugget after another popped out, all convenient-like. Maybe it's the confidence that turns me off? I know, for instance, that his desperation to prove his worth on, say, _When I Was Cruel_, is more appealing to me than _Blood..._ and its relatively cocky demeanor.

BTW, _When I Was Cruel_ is quite good, and even enjoyable IF you are OK w/ his histrionics and tics (vocal & lyrical) - if not, repetitive tracks like "Alibi" & "Tart", with Elvis working his shrill vibrato like a paper boy on a street corner, will grind your teeth to ashes.

And, while I'm here, let me say that seeing him work the crowd @ a concert a couple months back, coaxing call-&-response vocals to both these songs, was both strange and endearing. Turning them into near-double-digit minute band "jams" was just tiring, tho. It was a fun show, don't get me wrong, but, geez, just because you're playing at the Oakdale Theatre doesn't mean you need to PLAY like you're at the Oakdale Theatre.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 August 2002 13:31 (twenty-three years ago)

here
and here
and here

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 27 August 2002 13:44 (twenty-three years ago)

And as you can see I had some crabby thoughts...which have generally not changed AT ALL.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 August 2002 14:27 (twenty-three years ago)

i admit utter defeat on the whole 'throwaway vs. craftsmanship' thing, though.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Tuesday, 27 August 2002 15:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Ah, you either like him or you don't. The key difference between him and Dylan is that Costello writes honest-to-god pop songs - cathartic singalong music. His lyrics don't read like poetry on paper, but damn they stick in your head when he sings them. Some people find it exhilirating, some just find it obnoxious. It's "smart" music, but not music to be studied and debated and analyzed really...it's all on the table already, complicated but very direct stuff. And no band has ever made fussily arranged pop music sound half as exciting as the Attractions did from 78 to 81.

I love him pretty much right up until the Bacharach album (why does he think he can sing that stuff?) and I'll take Trust or The Juliet Letters over My Aim Is True any day.

― Clyde, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 18:16 (twenty-three years ago)

He stopped in the middle of Less Than Zero, not Alison, for the record.

― My name is Kenny, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 18:22 (twenty-three years ago)

my mistake, glad someone noticed it.

Dangers of writing things at work.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 27 August 2002 18:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I recall being so amazed at how off the money Ned was in his last reply to me on that first thread that I didn't reply (I think I had several paragraphs written that I deleted).

"Almost Blue" is best understood as an exercise in contrariety, I think, rather than classicism. And I can't hear how "Imperial Bedroom" has anything to do with the Beatles, aside from it's an LP with songs on it.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 28 August 2002 09:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Something a (ex-?)friend pointed out that I don't often see discussed re: EC-- he has a pretty amazing melodic imagination, admittedly more than his voice can sometimes pull off and not always landing in the "mindblowing pop" category many folks would have you believe. He takes melodies places others would never think to go, which is why Elvis imitations (and there are quite a few of them around) often fall flat, or at least lack what was special about the original.

Anyway, classic. Among others, Get Happy!! makes me very happy, more or less start to finish.

― wl, Wednesday, 28 August 2002 18:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I think I had several paragraphs written that I deleted

You do that too, eh? Sometimes it's just good to vent in private.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 28 August 2002 18:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Some of his songs are pretty good I suppose. The main problem I have is with his voice. It just sounds unpleasant to me.

― David (David), Wednesday, 28 August 2002 19:45 (twenty-three years ago)

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