02.28.2021
ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS, “ARMED FORCES: SUPER DELUXE EDITION”
The Second Disc: Joe Marchese: February 18th 2021.
“Hey Clockface, keep those fingers on the dial,” Elvis Costello implored on the jaunty, jazz-flavored title track of his 2020 album. “You said you’d be a friend to me, but time is just my enemy and it is hurting me so…” Despite his pleas, time has been rather good to Costello’s artistry. Though initially branded an “angry young man” – and indeed, he channeled the punk zeitgeist early on with his fast and furious compositions – Costello has been able to travel wherever his muse takes him. That spirit has led him to acclaimed collaborations with Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint, Paul McCartney, The Brodsky Quartet, and The Roots, not to mention adventuresome solo work incorporating country, bluegrass, classical, and soul. Despite all of those seeming changes, Costello’s aim has remained true. Indeed, many of the themes on Hey Clockface have direct antecedents in the early part of his discography. Its mordant observations on militarism, fascism, and violence all bring to mind 1979’s Armed Forces – not a concept album, per se, but a collection of sharp, thematically-linked songs from a singer-songwriter with plenty to say. Late last year, Armed Forces was revisited by Costello and UMe in a jaw-dropping new vinyl box set consisting of three 12-inch LPs; three 10-inch LPs; and three 7-inch singles. We recently had the opportunity to review this collection which threatens to render the tag “super deluxe edition” as simply inadequate.
Oh, I just don’t know where to begin…