Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 25, 1994: Difference between revisions
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Reunited with the Attractions for the first time since the ''Blood and Chocolate'' sessions of the mid-'80s, you'd expect the cleverest Elvis to use the occasion to rock out with multi-syllabic abandon, but ''Brutal Youth'' is one of the bespectacled one's politest offerings to date. | |||
But attitude is relative isn't it? Costello is far too literate a rocker to be satisfied with crafting angst-filled platitudes like the grungy wankers that have so many critics in a tizzy these days | |||
Still, nobody wields a verbal cutlass or turns a phrase quite like EC. Whether musing on the inconvenience of having a doppelganger that feeds off of his emotional pain in "My Science Fiction Twin" or the middle-brow comedy of the circus work stoppage he describes in "Clown Strike," Costello is perceptive to a precious fault. | |||
As scabrous as his wit is, Costello can't help but couch it in a pop context that's far less intimidating than it once was. | |||
There's nothing wrong with a strategy that highlights one's strength, and Costello remains unrivaled on the lyrical front, but there has to be a more contemporary expression for the anger he's given such brilliant display to since his punk days in the late '70s. | |||
The pop arena is full of intriguing experiments of the sort he'd do well to look at. | |||
Meanwhile, ''Brutal Youth'' is slightly better than his last great pop-effort, ''Spike'', and 100 times better than his pretentious last album, ''The Juliette Letters'', thanks to the presence of Pete and Bruce Thomas, Steve Nieve and Nick Lowe. | |||
Not exactly ''My Aim Is True,'' but better than most of the top 10. | |||
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Revision as of 06:17, 21 April 2016
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