Elvis Costello wasn't lying when he said his aim was true.
With his debut album, Costello took the basic ingredients of rock and roll and gave us something fresh and original. With his second album, This Year's Model, he has given us another fine set of powerful and urgent rock and roll, with that same neurotic Costello twist.
The sound on this album is much fuller than on the last one. The most notable difference is the addition of keyboards, which gives the music a celebratory, circus-like feeling that stands in sharp contrast to Costello's biting lyrics. The harmonies are a lot glossier, too, and Costello's voice and guitar are over-dubbed on a few numbers. The songs are still very simple, melodically, but a bit more complex rhythmically (great bass and drum work}.
Lyrically, it's the same old Elvis. Costello, a neurotic, expends a lot of mental energy on matters of minor significance. The relationships he sings about are entirely centered around and defined by, his own reactions toward them; nearly everything he sees triggers a series of paranoid, violent fantasies in his brain.
The power of Costello's art lies in his ingenious ability to transform his tortured vision into vital and moving rock and roll.
|