Elvis Costello - Music Shop

If some nefarious individual told me I had to write a song or I'd never see one of my kids again I couldn't do it. Not because I ,m happy at the prospect of not seeing either of my kids again ever ( Although sometimes, I'd admit to being tempted...only joking ...I think) but because I don't have the talent , dedication , nous , whatever it is you need to write songs. Safe to say I don't possess a smidgeon of it and while utter dullards like say Macfly can do it, I know enough about music to understand that their songs are total trash. The point I'm getting to is that on King Of America , Elvis Costello wrote songs of such timeless brilliance that he makes the art of song writing seem both easy and incredibly difficult at the same which may seem paradoxical but hopefully anyone reading this will be convinced when I've finished ( if I ever finish)It's the way the melodies just seem to flow around the lyrics which at times are complex , allegorical and breathtakingly poetic and the way every song on this album seems to have instinctive grasp of it's own eternal truth particularly the ones alluding to personal failures . I've already upset one fellow reviewer by labelling an album a Country album when apparently it wasn't but as far as I'm concerned any album that features extensive use of mandolin , Hammond organ and acoustic guitar and uses some of Americas best session musicians could be labelled broadly as Country. That said there are elements of straight rock, blues, folk and even flecks of jazz. And to make things more interesting there a couple of covers which are actually inferior to the original McMannus compositions on the album, and one of which -"Eisenhower Blues"- seems oddly out of place on this album.So to the songs. Well the quality is truly astounding "Brilliant Mistake" sees the chorus melody stretched to its very limit and the lyrics see Costello at his lacerating finest. "She said she was working for the ABC News? It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use". The giddy effervescent "Lovable" should stick out like a flagpole on a baseball cap but somehow slots into the albums narrative. By the way I wouldn't class "King Of America" as a concept album, though I would say , and on this point I agree with a fellow reviewer, that this takes the listener on a journey across America as a metaphor for the internalised journey we all undertake in life. O f which the ballads provide the albums true moments of epiphany. "Indoor Fireworks" is a tale of a disintegrating relationship with a heart melting acoustic arrangement and some self flagellating couplets. "I'll build a bonfire of my dreams/ and burn a broken effigy of me and you" "I'll Wear It Proudly" is an eye poppingly honest account of a failed relationship which sees him "Hate this bloody big bed of mine when you're not here". "Our Little Angel" contains the classic line "Well you try to love her/ But she's so contrary/ Like a chainsaw running through a dictionary" to a lovely arrangement that accelerates gracefully into the chorus. Though slightly more up-tempo "Jack Of all Parades" is another highlight with gorgeous warm peals of Hammond organ gliding gracefully away on the choruses downbeat. "Little Palaces "has overlapping hyper mandolins while "American without Tears" sees another luxuriant melody pitted against barbed wire lyricisms. "No we don't speak any English/ it's American without tears". This box set also contains five extra tracks of which two are by Costello's alter ego band The Coward Brothers. These are all fine but don't scale the giddy heights scaled by most of the original album. A scribe in the old weekly "The Melody Maker" once wrote that Costello had a voice "Like a can opener" which was funny but missed the point about him actually being a fine expressive singer , as his vocals on this album prove, and most importantly conveniently forgot to credit him as a song writer of occasionally mesmerising depth and honesty. The mind boggles to think that just six months after this superb album Costello released the wonderful "Blood and Chocolate". Whatever fire was burning deep within Costello that year may not have been the variety entirely prevalent to long life and sustained health but by god it made for some unmisssable music.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Costello really pours his heart out here. Stand-out tracks include Jack of All Parades, I'll Wear it Proudly, Indoor Fireworks and the title track. One of his very best.

Rating: 4 out of 5

If some nefarious individual told me I had to write a song or I'd never see one of my kids again I couldn't do it. Not because I ,m happy at the prospect of not seeing either of my kids again ever ( Although sometimes, I'd admit to being tempted...only joking ...I think) but because I don't have the talent , dedication , nous , whatever it is you need to write songs. Safe to say I don't possess a smidgeon of it and while utter dullards like say Macfly can do it, I know enough about music to understand that their songs are total trash. The point I'm getting to is that on King Of America , Elvis Costello wrote songs of such timeless brilliance that he makes the art of song writing seem both easy and incredibly difficult at the same which may seem paradoxical but hopefully anyone reading this will be convinced when I've finished ( if I ever finish)It's the way the melodies just seem to flow around the lyrics which at times are complex , allegorical and breathtakingly poetic and the way every song on this album seems to have instinctive grasp of it's own eternal truth particularly the ones alluding to personal failures . I've already upset one fellow reviewer by labelling an album a Country album when apparently it wasn't but as far as I'm concerned any album that features extensive use of mandolin , Hammond organ and acoustic guitar and uses some of Americas best session musicians could be labelled broadly as Country. That said there are elements of straight rock, blues, folk and even flecks of jazz. And to make things more interesting there a couple of covers which are actually inferior to the original McMannus compositions on the album, and one of which -"Eisenhower Blues"- seems oddly out of place on this album.So to the songs. Well the quality is truly astounding "Brilliant Mistake" sees the chorus melody stretched to its very limit and the lyrics see Costello at his lacerating finest. "She said she was working for the ABC News? It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use". The giddy effervescent "Lovable" should stick out like a flagpole on a baseball cap but somehow slots into the albums narrative. By the way I wouldn't class "King Of America" as a concept album, though I would say , and on this point I agree with a fellow reviewer, that this takes the listener on a journey across America as a metaphor for the internalised journey we all undertake in life. O f which the ballads provide the albums true moments of epiphany. "Indoor Fireworks" is a tale of a disintegrating relationship with a heart melting acoustic arrangement and some self flagellating couplets. "I'll build a bonfire of my dreams/ and burn a broken effigy of me and you" "I'll Wear It Proudly" is an eye poppingly honest account of a failed relationship which sees him "Hate this bloody big bed of mine when you're not here". "Our Little Angel" contains the classic line "Well you try to love her/ But she's so contrary/ Like a chainsaw running through a dictionary" to a lovely arrangement that accelerates gracefully into the chorus. Though slightly more up-tempo "Jack Of all Parades" is another highlight with gorgeous warm peals of Hammond organ gliding gracefully away on the choruses downbeat. "Little Palaces "has overlapping hyper mandolins while "American without Tears" sees another luxuriant melody pitted against barbed wire lyricisms. "No we don't speak any English/ it's American without tears". This box set also contains five extra tracks of which two are by Costello's alter ego band The Coward Brothers. These are all fine but don't scale the giddy heights scaled by most of the original album. A scribe in the old weekly "The Melody Maker" once wrote that Costello had a voice "Like a can opener" which was funny but missed the point about him actually being a fine expressive singer , as his vocals on this album prove, and most importantly conveniently forgot to credit him as a song writer of occasionally mesmerising depth and honesty. The mind boggles to think that just six months after this superb album Costello released the wonderful "Blood and Chocolate". Whatever fire was burning deep within Costello that year may not have been the variety entirely prevalent to long life and sustained health but by god it made for some unmisssable music.

Rating: 5 out of 5

The further that his remarkable back catalogue stretches into the past, the more this looks like Costello's finest hour, when his passion still burned bright, his gift for a tune was undiminished and musicianship hadn't yet pushed the other two elements into the background. From this point onward, the tunes would start to flatten out and soon he would begin to talk worryingly and introspectively about 'songcraft' to the great and inevitable detriment of his art.

'King of America' is maybe the last album Costello made before he started to look downward and inward; a perfect storm of brilliantly realised and passionately, achingly delivered songs (whatever anyone says, without the mannerisms and vocal tics which would dominate later work, Costello's singing at this time was unique in combining both the fantastically committed and the filigree delicate). It's also thrillingly adult in its material and its approach, walking the edgy tightrope of maturity without tipping over into either MOR or AOR. This is more like Bacharach country, but with the roughage left in... you can see why they rubbed along so well later on.

Highlights? It's easier to pick lowlights - actually it isn't - but as I write this I can't get 'American Without Tears' out of my head, 'Indoor Fireworks' treats marital breakup more movingly than anything this side of George Jones, and the closing 'Suit of Lights' and 'Sleep of the Just' deliver a one-two which leaves me on the canvas every time: musically stunning, emotionally devastating.

'King of America' really delivers on every level; one of maybe a dozen or so pop and rock albums to which the term 'masterpiece' can rightly and without reservation be applied.

Rating: 5 out of 5