Customer Reviews

King of America

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is essential listening -- and it's one of Elvis Costello's finest albums. The lyrics are full of the bite and snarl you'd expect from an Elvis album. But what sets this CD apart is the music. It's complex and diverse, and they stay with you long after the record is finished. It's very comparable to Imperial Bedroom, and in many ways it is superior.

Elvis used musicians from Elvis Presley's band for some of the tracks, as well as legendary jazz bassist Ray Brown on some others. If you are an Elvis fan, you will be an even bigger fan once you are done with this CD.

This record isn't a brilliant mistake; instead, it is probably Elvis Costello's best album. Including several masterpieces such as "Indoor Fireworks", "Brilliant mistake" (also known as King of America) and "Suit of lights", Elvis sang blues, country and folk songs. I know the songs by heart and in my opinion this is the best album of the eighties.

all is great on this, the tune, the voice the eighth track is so amazingly written.. i love that

It's difficult not to recognize the similarities between Elvis Costello's King Of America and Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks. King Of America is stark and moving folk, and like Blood On The Tracks, the tone is barren. Elvis is at his poetic peak: he can pen captivating images with one or two lines, and has enough smarts to toss lyrical barbs. "She said that she was working for the ABC News. It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use" from `Brilliant Mistake'. I'm not certain what the line "I was a fine idea at the time. Now I'm a brilliant mistake" (Brilliant Mistake) means, but it certainly sounds melancholy. He paints woeful pictures of love: "You think that you'll be sweet to her, but everybody knows that you're the marshmallow valentine that got stuck on her clothes" (Our Little Angel). `American Without Tears' has a slight country feel. Elvis writes a romantic ballad with a catchy male-female reversal (Sleep Of The Just).

Expect bittersweet organ chords from Mitchell Froom (Producer - Richard Thompson), touches of blue guitar from James Burton (Could this be the same James Burton that was a member of Elvis Presley's TCB?) and a solid back beat from session extraordinaire Jim Keltner. With 15 tracks, Elvis gives the listener his money's worth, but I'd prefer that a few of the selections had been dropped. `Lovable' and `Eisenhower Blues' are uninspired lightning fast rock-a-billy songs, and the speedy country tunes (Glitter Gulch & The Big Light) are out of place. Picturesque poetry, softhearted ballads and first-class musicianship. Maybe Elvis is the King of America.

When Elvis Costello decided to finally to roots rock HIS way (as opposed to the mis-fit of "Almost Blue'), he switched his name back to Declan MacManus and forged ahead into brilliance. With the exception of the slippery jam session of "Eisenhower Blues," the 15 songs on "King Of America" are as flawless a whole album as anything from his early years and his most successful collaboration with a producer, in this case, T-Bone Burnett, save Burt Bacharach.

By recruiting some of the best musicians old and new, songs like "Brilliant Mistake" and "American Without Tears" effortlessly blossom with atmosphere and honesty. Even though Elvis describes his state of mind in less than flattering terms in the CD's extra liner notes, it's incredible just how seamlessly the songs here flow through the course of the album. Almost every song here glimmers with the kind of purity that Burnett would eventually trademark with the likes of "Oh Brother Where Art Thou." Even the Attractions, who at this venture, had become estranged and embittered, contribute one of their best performances ever with the single song "Suit Of Lights." Given the song's topic of entertainment as entrapment and the image of a southern mob's tar and feather party as "the closest to a work of art that they will ever be," it's not surprising that they could relate.

In fact, Elvis seemed to be at a more relaxed state of lyricism than since the underrated "Trust." Compare the fire analogies of "The Only Flame In Town" (on "Goodbye Cruel World") to the far superior "Indoor Fireworks" here. Or such leap from the speakers couplets like "She said that she was working for the ABC news, it was as much of the alphabet as she new how to use" from "Brilliant Mistake." There is also one of my all-time favorite Costello-isms, as he describes a relationship with a contrary girlfriend to be akin to "a chainsaw running through a dictionary." Perhaps my favorite moment on "King Of America" would be the two person viewpoint of the disc's closer, "Sleep Of The Just." A tale of an army pin-up girl and her soldier brother, it's a masterful tale of conflicting family and emotions, with a slow sad organ fade.

Now that Elvis has renegotiated his pathway to roots music and blues via "The Delivery Man," "King Of America" shows the vitality of his early exploration of the genre. It remains one of the many five star albums in his Columbia years worthy of rediscovery.

If you like your Elvis toned downed and a little folkier, this is the perfect album to get. Elvis is an extremely prolific and ecclectic songwriter, so it's sometimes hard to know what you are getting, unless you get his classic 80's stuff. Everything else is spotty, though sometimes brilliant. This album is also a good way to get to know the Gram Parson's side of his influences and just how much country means to his music. Plus, it's always interesting to hear and Englishman doing country. Definitely, it's own twist to the genre.

This album is just plain fantastic. It is informed by American folk, country, blues, etc., and succeeds where "Almost Blue" fails. It has it's rave-ups (I love "Glitter Gulch") but the beautiful moody slow numbers are what keep me coming back (Sleep of the Just, Poisoned Rose). Throughout it has a great accoustic guitar string-y sound. Hats off to producer T-Bone Burnett.

Beginning with this album, or perhaps Imperial Bedroom, Elvis takes his place as a man who can wear many musical hats, one at a time. At the time, though, it seemed like an identity crisis. He made it without the Attractions and calls the band "The Costello Show", he takes songwriting credits as Declan MacManus, and guitar credits as LHC (for "Little Hands of Concrete".) He was clearly rebelling against the "Elvis Costello" the record company wanted him to be, and he staked out a neat little piece of territory with this wonderfully coherent and beautiful album.

Elvis Costello has made a lot of albums, but few, if any, are better than this one; in my mind, only "Armed Forces" really compares (give honorable mentions to "This Year's Model," "Almost Blue," and "Imperial Bedroom"). It never had a chance in either England or the US, and that's a shame. Every single song is worthy of numerous superlatives, but even on this masterpiece there are standouts--the sardonic, defeatist "Brilliant Mistake," the heartbreaking "Indoor Fireworks" (if George Jones hasn't recorded this one, he ought to), one of Costello's best songs of a relationship gone bad; there's also "Little Palaces," a bitter and twisted song of the frustrations of the working life seemingly inspired by a story from "Dubliners," and "Suit Of Lights," a tribute to his father and an indictment of the people who couldn't understand or care what the Nat King Cole standards his father sang were really all about. And there's more than that--I've barely scratched the surface of what this album has to offer. With backing by a number of jazz, R&B, and rock greats including Ray Brown, Earl Palmer, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, and James Burton, this may be one of the finest and least appreciated albums in the history of rock 'n' roll. This album should be considered essential listening in any format.

I originally purchased this album on vinyl and fell in love with it from the first listen I gave it. I'm not sure there is a better recording to put on and unwind to. The uptempo numers such as "Lovable", "Eisenhower Blues", and "Suit of Lights" are just as easy on the brain as the beauty of "I'll Wear it Proudly", "Poisoned Rose", and "Sleep of the Just". The album as a whole simply takes you away from wherever you are and sets you down in a comfortable chair where you can get away for an hour. Ranks in my top 3 of E.C.'s works and top 10 in my entire catalogue. Incidentally, my other 2 E.C. favorites are "This Year's Model" and "Blood and Chocolate".

I am surprised at reading some of these reviews that out of all of Elvis' albums, people would buy this first. This album is not at all bad, in fact in the overall scheme of things I would rate it above average in Elvis' catalogue. It is certainly better that anything he did in the 1990's. However, this is not exactly an "accessible" album. By that I mean there was no hit single to get people interested in the album. Curiously, Columbia did endeavor to promote Elvis' version of the Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" as a single, but that is only in the middle of the pack as far as the quality of songs on the CD ("Brilliant Mistake" and "Lovable" are probably the two best songs and they kick things off). "King" probably would be a little better except for Elvis' voice. In the liner notes he states that he recorded most of the vocals in Los Angeles and the bad air strained his voice -- which is definitely demonstrated on several tracks. This is unfortunate because he wrote some great songs on both "Goodbye Cruel World" and "King Of America", but they just didn't come out that well in the recording process. For those just getting interested, a better introduction to Elvis is one of his earlier efforts -- "My Aim Is True"; "This Year's Model"; or "Armed Forces". I also like "Blood and Chocolate", which was released in the same year (1986) as "King Of America". On "Blood and Chocolate" Elvis' voice is back on track and he brings back The Attractions (he used a session band known as "The Confederates" on King). He also reunites with producer Nick Lowe on "Blood" and things really gel again.