New Musical Express, February 1, 1986: Difference between revisions
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<center> Danny Kelly </center> | <center> Danny Kelly </center> | ||
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'''Choker of the week (A man out of time) | '''Choker of the week (A man out of time?) | ||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
The circumstances of Elvis Costello's career and life that surround and motivate the release of this extraordinary record make it impossible to view it as just another sausage on the conveyor belt. Rather it's an abdication, an SOS, maybe even a self-addressed valediction. | The circumstances of Elvis Costello's career and life that surround and motivate the release of this extraordinary record make it impossible to view it as just another sausage on the conveyor belt. Rather it's an abdication, an SOS, maybe even a self-addressed valediction. | ||
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Still not convinced? Check the B sides. "Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo" is Costello-by-numbers but is credited, schizophrenia fans, to one Declan Aloysious McManus, and is made interesting only by flashes of bitter, corrugated, guitar by Costello himself. | Still not convinced? Check the B sides. "Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo" is Costello-by-numbers but is credited, schizophrenia fans, to one Declan Aloysious McManus, and is made interesting only by flashes of bitter, corrugated, guitar by Costello himself. | ||
The third song is also a cover, this time an agonisingly slow self-flaggelation through "Find Yourself Another Fool." Over a stuttering organ, Elvis sings ''"at last I've awakened to see what you've done / all I can do is pack up and run / now I know the rules / find yourself another fool."'' If those aren't the words of someone hacking desperately away at the past | The third song is also a cover, this time an agonisingly slow self-flaggelation through "Find Yourself Another Fool." Over a stuttering organ, Elvis sings ''"at last I've awakened to see what you've done / all I can do is pack up and run / now I know the rules / find yourself another fool."'' If those aren't the words of someone hacking desperately away at the past — his own ''and'' yours — then what are? It's unbearably crushed and truly moving. | ||
In the face of all this, then, the fact that this is Costello's "worst" record obviously matters not at all. I hope I've completely misread him, that he's playing to the gallery and will emerge widely grinning and artistically restored; I hope that he somehow needed, and is using, this record-as-public-disembowelment to bring order to apparent chaos; and I hope that "Misunderstood" isn't a landmark in the nosedive of one of the great pop talents of the past decade. | In the face of all this, then, the fact that this is Costello's "worst" record obviously matters not at all. I hope I've completely misread him, that he's playing to the gallery and will emerge widely grinning and artistically restored; I hope that he somehow needed, and is using, this record-as-public-disembowelment to bring order to apparent chaos; and I hope that "Misunderstood" isn't a landmark in the nosedive of one of the great pop talents of the past decade. |