Customer Reviews

King of America (Dig) (Spkg)

5 star:		(5)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

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 has described his state of mind during "KoA's" recording period in less than flattering terms, 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.

After this album's perfect maintaining of musical atmosphere and flawless songwriting, Elvis renegotiated his pathway to roots music and blues via "The Delivery Man." "King Of America" showed the vitality of his early exploration of the genre. It remains one of the many five star albums in Elvis' Columbia years worthy of rediscovery.

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 described 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.

After this album's perfect maintaining of musical atmosphere and flawless songwriting, Elvis renegotiated his pathway to roots music and blues via "The Delivery Man." "King Of America" showed the vitality of his early exploration of the genre. It remains one of the many five star albums in Elvis' Columbia years worthy of rediscovery.

I am not a Costello fan. I have a couple of other CD's of his that really stink.

But this one has a very good mix of styles and songs, a showcase for Costello's talent (which he must have even though I might not fully appreciate most of it). This album sits in the broad middle acoustic/electric pop/country with clever lyrics that might include Squeeze, Gin Blossoms, or Prefab Sprout.

Brilliant Mistake has a bright arrangement of upstroke rhythm guitar, hollow body phrases, upright bass, a hint of Hammond, and a lovely dash of accordion. "She said that she was working for the ABC News/It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use". Worth the price of the whole CD, it gets better the more revealing your gear is.

Sleep of the Just opens with a "magic piano" sound, and enters a slowish lament anchored by acoustic guitar, drums mixed well forward, and Costello's voice center stage. The magic piano haunts a brief fadeout, a great way to end a record.

Sometimes I feel like one of the few people who counts Punch the Clock and Goodbye Cruel World,both very mid 80's styled soul/funk/rock/new wave styled projects the latter of which Elvis Costello apparently considers one of his lesser works. Being in that catagory of people who liked those albums would'nt it be that I was kind of turned off by all the people who rallied around this album and referring to it as a "return to form",largely based on heated criticisms of the previous album especially. Seeing the logic in the way that since I really enjoyed the previous album this would probably not be for me I've long avoided this,basing that largely on the opinion of others. Than I had a thought about how Elvis Costello's musically eclectic ventures are usually always very successful I decided to at last give this album a try. One thing I will say for this record is that while it is recorded with mid 80's technology and sound quality the music itself doesn't sound as if it's from 1986 at all. Considering the presense of T Bone Burnett by and large the album has retro 50's flavored arrangements ranging from Hank Williams Sr styled country-western of "Our Little Angel" and "Glitter Gulch" to the excellent Chicago styled urban blues of "Eisenhower Blues". Aside from...well close to modern pop productions in a cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and the wonderful original "Jack Of All Parades" the majority of the rest of thing album veers more toward the acoustic sounding folk/soul catagory and songs such as "Lovable","Indoor Fireworks","Poisoned Rose" and "American Without Tears" all capture that spirit with some wonderfully pointed lyrics comparing American and British pop culture of the mid 80's alike with their respective cultures of the mid 50's with plenty of Costello's razor sharp wit. While this album is almost deliberately non-hit worthy and seems to have been designed to some degree to appease fans who thought Elvis had sold out a bit before hand this album is definately not without it's charms and certainly gets the simple,direct flavor he was going for with the general project. Not exactly the first album I'd recommend when just starting to discover the music of Elvis Costello but certainly not one of his lesser recordings by any stretch of the imagination. Especially if you like retro 50's country and rock n roll that showcases witty lyrics and good songwriting.

I wore this album out when I first bought it as an LP in the 80s. I'm glad to hear it again. It's amazing,

i try to like elvis costello but out side of his first 2 albums im not crazy about his stuff. i bought this album to hear the big light. because i heard johnny cash preform it. cashes version is far superior