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This Year's Model
Elvis Costello
Adam Block
The cover features El as Kafka's cockroach man glaring from behind a BoLex as if it was a Howitzer. The king is back playing the victim out for total vengeance and he knows that the media is his weapon. Elvis pillages a range of classic rock models (Beatles, Beach Boys, Stones, and Dylan circa '66) but makes them thoroughly his own. This follow-up to his stunning debut opts for a more trashy pop sound (lots of psychotic skating-rink organ). A few weakly conceived cuts, but the best ("Hand in Hand," "On the Beat" and "Radio") are superb. The last, his authentic assault on Top 40 programming, could be the best single of the year.
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Rating: 4+
Pure Pop For Now People
Nick Lowe
Adam Block
It may come as a shock that "So It Goes," the best new Thin Lizzy song since "The Boys Are Back in Town," the Bowie/Eno marvel, "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass," and "I Hear They Castrated Castro," which sounds like Jonathan Richman working with The Jackson Five before it slips into a vamp of Paul Simon's "Was A Sunny Day," are all the work of one Nick Lowe. The former main-stay of Brinsley Schwarz and subsequent producer for Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, and The Damned, tries on a hilarious range of pop styles on his debut lp and almost overcomes the identity crises with his daring and sardonic wit. A must for pop ironists.
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Rating: 4
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Clipping.
Page scan.
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