Several problems with the reviews (You just have to give Get Happy!! 5 stars) - but he especially slams Punch The Clock. Not surprisingly there is no mention of the Postcript 2003 to the liner notes on Get Happy!!. After that, I'm surprised Rolling Stone reviewed the discs at all. It's funny how this has become a worthless rag as it relates to music, yet occassionally there are some really nice articles on social issues.
Get Happy!! ****
Trust ****
Punch The Clock **
Two gems and one pebble from the early Eighties
Prolific, weirdly charismatic and very often brilliant, Elvis Costlello released a flood of music in his early years, most of it amazing. Get Happy!! and Trust - which bookend a thirteen-month stretch from 1980 to 1981 in which Costello released more than fifty songs - brought a fitting end to this fertile period. For Get Happy!! Costello and the Attractions embrace the soul rythyms of classic Stax and Motown, discovering - against all odds - a perfect vehicle for a batch of Costello's most misanthropic songs. Typical of the spirit of Get Happy!! is Costello's sneering wordplay on "Opportunity": "The chairman of this boredom is compliment collector/I'd like to be his funeral director." Many of the bonus tracks on this package's extra disc are filler, but ther are some gems: The ingenius "Girls Talk" stands up well against Costello' finest songs.
Trust is even darker and more cynical than Get Happy!! But it was also Costello's most musically ambitious effort to date, capturing both the energy of its four predecessors and setting the stage for the moodier soundscapes to come on Imperial Bedroom. Costello also made great leaps forward as a singer on Trust, showing signs of becoming the nuanced vocalist he is today.
If the titles of Get Happy!! and Trust are offered with irony, the name of 1983's Punch The Clock is all too apt. Though just two years removed from Trust, Costello's creativity was at a career low when he turned himself over to some studio hacks for a sonic makeover. The hit, "Everyday I Write The Book" and the beautiful "Shipbuilding" (featuring a solo by Chet Baker) stand out on an otherwise flaccid collection. Richard Abowitz
Rolling Stone Reissue Review
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Boy With A Problem
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the poisoner
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Rolling Stones reviews have always equaled crap. I never agree with anything they say, even if they are praising the album, they are praising it for a much different reason than I am. It's very rare they rate an album 5 stars that I feel is a 5 star record.
Punch The Clock is a magnificent record and should be rated 5 stars, or maybe they could dedicate a 6th star to Elvis Costello since most of his albums are masterpieces. The PTC bonus disc is the best of them all, not only is it one of the most interesting, it features much more unreleased material than any of the reissues.
Punch The Clock is a magnificent record and should be rated 5 stars, or maybe they could dedicate a 6th star to Elvis Costello since most of his albums are masterpieces. The PTC bonus disc is the best of them all, not only is it one of the most interesting, it features much more unreleased material than any of the reissues.
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noiseradio
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I actually agree with the RS review of Punch the Clock as a record, but the reissue deserves one more star. It's not his best work. Trust and Get Happy are 4 ot 5 stars, and I think the writer was fine on those.
I still hate RS.
I still hate RS.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
--William Shakespeare
--William Shakespeare
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Sour Milk Cow
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They also get it wrong by any standard in saying PTC is a career low. Surely if they were going to measure a low, they would find Goodbye Cruel World to be lower than PTC.
PTC can hold its own with any Costello record, IMHO. I like it much more than Armed Forces, and even This Year's Model. Those horns are great, and there may be a couple of particularly frivolous songs on there, but I think that's part of the fun. And those demos on the reissue are outta sight.
I bet that RS reviewer probably didn't give the reissues much of a listen, probably just consulted the RS record guide and parroted whatever it says there. (Interesting that he gave a high rating to a reissue that tears RS a new a**hole in the liner notes!)
PTC can hold its own with any Costello record, IMHO. I like it much more than Armed Forces, and even This Year's Model. Those horns are great, and there may be a couple of particularly frivolous songs on there, but I think that's part of the fun. And those demos on the reissue are outta sight.
I bet that RS reviewer probably didn't give the reissues much of a listen, probably just consulted the RS record guide and parroted whatever it says there. (Interesting that he gave a high rating to a reissue that tears RS a new a**hole in the liner notes!)
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A rope leash
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Rolling Stoned
I think the songs on Punch the Clock are great, it's just the production that sucks a little bit. Rolling Stone sucks a lot.
