Elvis Costello’s Worn Out Genius

By ROB PATTERSON

What’s getting to be long ago and feel ever more faraway was a time in my past when for me Elvis Costello musically hung all of Jupiter’s moons (21, maybe more to be found). He was right up there with Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards, Dylan, Pete Townshend of The Who and Ray Davies of The Kinks as a truly great rock music songwriter/artist And a huge favorite of mine.

His 1977 debut, My Aim Is True, blew my mind with its energy, sharp wordplay and spitfire emotionality. Every one of the four rock albums that followed were wondrous works of intensity and eloquence. His 1981 country album even worked well on its own terms. Then the following year he released Imperial Bedroom, an album of stunning musical sophistication with rich and emotionally compelling songs that played like a masterpiece. (MVP honors on it go to his brilliant keyboard player Steve Nieve.)

During those five years I must have seen Costello and his original band The Attractions play at least a dozen times. Every one of those shows ranks among the finest rock performances I’ve ever seen: urgent, smart and compelling, even even thrilling at times.

Then, in ‘82, the slide downward began. By 2004, with his album The Delivery Man, I finally found myself unimpressed if not downright bored with it. Every time I’ve checked in since the feeling was the same. Rarely has an artist so disappointed me.

Over those years he toyed with classical, jazz, middle of the road pop (an album with Burt Bachrach), a collaboration with the great New Orleans musical auteur Allen Toussaint, wrote songs with Paul McCartney and more. His ability to work within all the modes was impressive. However, the results were not.

There were a few good moments. His last album with The Attractions, Blood & Chocolate in 1986, reunited with original producer Nick Lowe, was a fierce return to top form. His Americana album that same year, King of America, was good, though if I never spin it again I won’t miss it. Costello’s 2013 recording with The Roots, Wise Up Ghosts and Other Songs, had its moments. But the eight studio albums I still cherish are now outnumbered by more than twice as many that I have no use for.

My theory is that he bought the implication in how Columbia Records advertised Imperial Bedroom with just a single word: “Genius?” That’s a dangerous trap for any creative artist.

When I started reading interviews with Costello about his most recent release, Look Now – his first in five years, he was invoking Imperial Bedroom and My Aim Is True, I figured, okay, let’s see. ... Yet again, I came away disappointed and a bit bored.

To me his musical approach has now for too long sounded like wine and cheese music for yuppies who think they’re hip. It has three songs co-written with Burt Bachrach; mind you, I love Bachrach and Hal David’s pop classics. Nothing Costello has done with him comes even close. Another song is a collaboration with Carole King shows no signs of what made her best songs so wonderful. The album left me cold.

As Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” Callahan said, “A man’s gotta know his limitations.” And one should always play to one’s strengths. Sure, all of what Costello’s done over the last three decades has been “good” in terms of quality. But it’s almost all bloodless where his earliest albums were like lifeblood. He hasn’t just lost the plot but the heartbeat as well.

Fortunately, my favorite eight of his albums still wow me, enthrall me maybe even more than ever given the also declining state of rock music. But it’s really sad to so thoroughly lose a once-favorite artist.

Populist Picks

Musical Album: Cloud Symbols by Graham Parker – One of the “angry young men” singer-songwriters that emerged contemporaneously with punk rock and especially alongside Costello, Parker, similarly to Elvis C. – but less disappointingly – hasn’t made albums for quite some time that gripped me like his early releases (and performances) did. But unlike Costello, his latest is a delightful return to top form and charms. It’s smart, soulful and swinging in a fashion not unlike his best work from the past, yet suffused with on even commenting on some numbers on his maturity.

TV Series: “The Rookie” – Regular readers will know how much I like cop shows. And from the first episode this new ABC series feels like it will be an all-time favorite. Based on a true story, it finds 40-year-old John Nolan leaving his small, comfy, yet dead end Pennsylvania hometown for Los Angeles, where he joins the police force. It has oodles of drama, good humor and insight that make it one of the best new TV shows I’ve seen in a while.

Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet.com.

From The Progressive Populist, April 1, 2019

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