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Trust. It's something that Elvis Costello has not associated with the rest of the world. The road Costello has taken to the top of new music has been laced with arrogance, suspicion, slugfests, name-calling and sometimes justified anger.
Costello's album covers more than exemplify his disaffection and stand-offish attitude with his fellow man: the distant rock 'n' roll icon stance on My Aim is True; the glaring, emotionality boxed-in photographer behind the camera on This Year's Model; Costello avoiding the camera on the back of Armed Forces by leaping through the window; the prone, heavily-jacketed Costello further disguised by the '50s graphics of Get Happy!!; the in-joke, reversed negative for Taking Liberties.
And now Costello has released Trust. The cover shot shows him peering nervously yet imploringly over his trademark black rim glasses, quick to retreat into his shell if he senses even the slightest rebuff.
Costello clearly demonstrated at his recent Los Angeles Sports Arena show that he wanted to open up and show everyone he's not such a bitchy prima donna. Opening with "Shot With his Own Gun," from Trust, a haunting, plaintive piano tune, Costello faced the audience alone with only Steve Naive in the darkened background. He was affable and congenial towards the crowd and surprised everybody with three encores. This attitude is only an outgrowth of a superior release.
Costello has neatly blended in Trust his yearning to be a country-western singer/songwriter (he's already recorded with George Jones and Johnny Cash), the energetic beat picked up from his production association with the Specials, and the English pop flavoring and production values in Armed Forces, courtesy of Nick Lowe again.
One of Costello s most valid points in Get Happy!! and Taking Liberties was economy. At a time when the highway soap operas of Springsteen, Costello's nearest peer in terms of talent and prestige, and rock tunes in general were clocking in at 5 to 10 minutes, with no corresponding level of consistency, Costello chose to be brief, to the point and punchy, with his characteristic high level consistency. In Trust, he rightfully continues to be different and develops his songs more fully in length and in lyrics, still without sacrificing conciseness and crispness.
Costello's lifelong affinity for old soul, C/W and rock gives Trust an accessibility that is profound, simply because he is so familiar and at ease with the genres, creating music that is deeply rooted in the past yet fresh and new to a generation that has heard only garbled, bigger-than-life stories, not the music, of the old days.
On the back photo, Costello is complacently strumming his guitar as he confidently leans against the piano. This man knows his front-line position in music and with that knowledge the luxury of a more relaxed guard towards audiences and the media (though, even with such an attitude, Costello should not have had to suffer through Tom Snyder's inane questions Tuesday night.)
Hopefully, the warming trend will continue.
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