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Get Happy!!
Elvis Costello And The Attractions
Andy Edelstein
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Get Happy!! is easily Costello's densest, most immediately inaccessible album, challenging the listener to make sense of the messages concealed in the 20 short songs on the album. These are not snappy pop songs as we've come to know and expect from Costello, but a series of disjointed mini-dramas which end abruptly, similar to shutting off a riveting tv program before the denouement has occurred. Yet once contact is made (after a minimum of perhaps ten listenings), Get Happy!! takes on its own identity and yields moments of pleasure, especially the delicate, country-like "Motel Matches" and the manic "Human Touch." Costello's vocals are characteristically submerged in the mix, making it all the more difficult to discern the patchwork of puns, double entendres, and elliptical phrasings he has constructed. Still, his singing is less restrained than on previous efforts and the Attractions play with more bite (especially Steve Naive's drumming) as the group veers toward a leaner, r&b-based sound.
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Page scan.
Cover and contents page.
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