Nineteen eighty-six was a busy year for one of the UK\u2019s greatest New Wave singer-songwriters, Elvis Costello, with the release of both King Of America<\/i> (an album made with Elvis Presley\u2019s \u201870s backing band the TCB band) and Blood & Chocolate<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The album was the last for ten years with his classic backing group The Attractions (comprised by Steve Nieve, Bruce and Pete Thomas). It was produced by another New Wave star, Nick Lowe, and boasted with three personas for Costello: Declan MacManus as the songwriter and either Elvis or his alter ego Napoleon Dynamite on vocals. The strength of the album is Elvis Costello\u2019s emotions, which always appear on the edge of anger, and the sharpness of his lyrics. <\/p>\n
Opener \u201cUncomplicated\u201d just pounds into your mind with Pete Thomas laying down a boom-boom beat while Elvis rails against disappointment in love, albeit with a very interesting girl: \u201cI asked for water \/ You gave me rose wine \/ A horse that does arithmetic \/ And a dog that tells your fortune,\u201d he laments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Hope You\u2019re Happy Now\u201d again is a bitter swipe at lover who has jilted him, which sticks the knife in at the end with \u201cI knew then what I know now \/ I never loved you anyhow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most musically adventurous track is \u201cTokyo Storm Warning,\u201d a nightmare vision of the future that actually led to a three issue comic book in 2003. <\/p>\n
\u00a0Stevie Nieve subtly squeaks and groans his organ through \u201cHome Is Where You Hang Your Head,\u201d which even so somehow still feels that is has a country influence to it.<\/p>\n
The centerpiece of the whole album is \u201cI Want You,\u201d where Costello for 6 \u00bd minutes bullies, cajoles, pleads and begs an ex-lover to come back. It builds to a crescendo and then drops back to a whisper, and as he becomes more desperate, every other line becomes \u201cI want you\u201d and finally you can feel his heart breaking as he sings \u201cI know I am going to feel that way till you kill it \/ I want you, I want you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both \u201cHoney Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?\u201dand \u201cDown In The Blue Chair\u201d are both typical Costello, featuring all his different vocal nuances.<\/p>\n
\u201cBattered Old Bird\u201d looks at a house full of eccentrics and the music is equally full of twists and turns, changing pace with Costello in full holler by the end.<\/p>\n
On \u201cCrimes Of Paris,\u201d Elvis is joined on backing vocals by Cait O\u2019Riordan, his wife at the time and previously a member of The Pogues, who Costello had produced. Again, it is a bittersweet take on love: \u201cAll words of love seem cruel and crass \/ When you\u2019re tough and transparent as armored glass.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Hammond organ again to the fore, \u201cPoor Napoleon\u201d sees the song initially being delivered from a female point of view, with the great line \u201cYou can take the truthful things you\u2019ve said to me \/ And put them on the head of a pin.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final track \u201cNext Time Round\u201d is one of those songs that, as soon as it starts, you feel that you have heard it before and you could imagine going on forever. Again the lyrics are sharp \u2013 \u201cYou used to take the breath out of me \/ Now I think you\u2019ll be the death of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
For me, this is the last great Elvis Costello disc; he has never again been quite as angry or consistent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":30450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5825],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-42114","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-elvis-costello-the-attractions","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42114"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}