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This dozenth LP by the artist whose career first exploded in 1976 with the odd hit song "Alison" finds Elvis Costello in that same strange career position composer-stars so often get lost in: he's respected as a writer, and distrusted as an artist.
Like Bob Dylan or Henry Mancini or Joni Mitchell, Costello has found himself loved when his work developed along straight lines for several LP's, reviled by rock critics when it segued over into, say, country (as it did in the early '80s), and virtually ignored when it became lush and complex, as it did a bit later with the LP Imperial Bedroom.
Costello's response has been to ignore all the moaning and just keep writing whatever he's felt like writing, and that's served him fairly well.
Whether it continues to serve him well on Spike is another question. Those familiar with Costello, a seemingly smaller and smaller proportion of the population, have heard "Veronica," the LP's first single, which describes a woman once so winsome that "young men once sailed on ships to the sea with a picture of Veronica." Now, however, she's in a nursing home, and can't quite remember her name, recounts the song, in a memorable singsong melody which doesn't quite fit the subject.
Nor, friends have observed to us, does the heavily-harmonized vocal style allow listeners to hear most of the lyrics. Nor does anyone seem to have any idea quite why Costello is telling all this.
Which, it turns out, is a difficulty with the entirety of Spike. The LP's other strongest tune "Let Him Dangle," is evidently a retelling of some complex criminal case involving police dishonesty, but who the named characters are, or why all the chases and hangings occur, remains a mystery. In fact, the LP is bracketed by two tunes — opener "This Town" and closing song "Last Boat Leaving" — which talk about exodus for no explicable reason.
All of which makes Spike an unrewarding experience. When combined with lackluster production by Costello, Kevin Killen and T Bone Burnett (the latter hardly a master of his own LPs' sounds) and vocals occasionally so harsh that they're virtually all spitting and hissing, it's downright frustrating.
All of which makes us wish we could tell Elvis Costello that he'll be respected whatever he writes, but it would help if he'd give us a few clues as to what the songs, or even just some of the lyrics, are about.
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