#52/1219
February 21 1986
Elvis Costello
King of America
Genre: Hodgepodge
4 out of 5
Highlights:
Brilliant Mistake
Glitter Gulch
Indoor Fireworks
My god this album is long. I forgot just how long. It doesn’t need to be this long. I haven’t listened to it in years. This is the T Bone Burnetting of Elvis Costello.
I’ve never done this. Not fully. I have, on small occasion, quoted my own review of an album that I covered in the past.
After listening to this record I went back to read what I wrote 10 or so years ago.
“After taking a year off to get divorced and maybe relax, Costello returned with King of America in the mid-80s. It's his, what, tenth studio album in about as many years? It's also his most sedate. It can rock, don't get me wrong, “The Big Light” shimmies and shakes due to some excellent country skiffle drumming by Mickey Curry, but this, the first album where The Attractions are not the only musicians but supported by a bunch of others calling themselves The Confederates. It is also the dullest.
Not to say it's “bad”. It's just so...adult. As opposed to the maturity on Imperial Bedroom, which was matched by the teeth of an angry, semi-young man, Costello just sounds toothsome.
“Eisenhower Blues” and “Jack of All Parades” sound...hmmm...as I write this I realize what I am reminded of:
Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love. Both came out within a year of each other. They are both the subdued voices of once vigorous rockers.
There are high points, most notably the album opener, “Brilliant Mistake” (Which is similar to the title of a song on Springsteen's Tunnel of Love) and I kind of like the cover of “Don't Let me Be Misunderstood”. But the rest of this record is easy listening Costello, at best. This album also represents the ascendency of Mitchell Froom.
Now, I love Mitchell Froom. But not for his work with Costello. I love Froom because he wrote the soundtrack to the futuristic pornographic film, “Cafe Flesh”. I bought that soundtrack. I loved it. I wish I could find it. I loved that an adult film HAD a soundtrack released, or at least music from it.
The edgy, pseudo New Wave sounds that Froom put to images of men dressed as mice fucking women dressed as cats is far superior to King of America.
Most reviews I read mark this record as a high point of Elvis' career. I say it's more harmless than it is fantastic.
One last thing. I will try to include it here because it bothers me SO much. “Little Palaces” is an almost note for note rip off of Warren Zevon's “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner”. That steal is obvious and unforgivable.”
Okay. That was then. This is now.
All that said, the older, more mature, more sedate, settled me, found more to like this time around. Which sort of proves my point. This is Elvis for oldies.
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