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Elvis Costello & the
Attractions
Get Happy!! (Columbia)
In the past 2 'i years, Elvis Costello
has given us one singer-songwriter
album (My Aim Is True), a rock band
LP (This Year's Model), and one mod
ern pop long player (Armed Forces).
Get Happy! ! is the bespectacled
Britisher's rhythm and blues record,
an album permeated with refer
ences to the soul music tradition.
"I Can't Stand up for Falling
Down" is an old Sam fcf Dave B-side
and both "5ive Gears in Reverse" and
"Beaten to the Punch" are virtual
throwbacks to the Stax era. "Secon
dary Modern" is a very close cousin
to the "I Heard It Through the
Grapevine" groove while "High
Fidelity" sounds like a backing track
from Motown's mid-Sixties heyday.
"Opportunity" boasts the throbbing,
slow-burn sensuality of an Al Green
song and "Human Touch" is based
on the Jamaican ska rhythm that's all
the rage in England these days.
. But the black influence extends
only to the music. Lyrically, Costello
has largely returned from the politi
cal commentary of "Oliver's Army"
and "Goon Squad" to his familiar
themes of romantic obsession and
thwarted desire. His flair for the
brilliant wordplay ("He's got double
visionwhen you wanted him
double-jointed") is still there and
Elvis struts his lyrical stuff best on
"Riot Act," the brooding "New
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Amsterdam" and the country-tinged
lament of "Motel Matches."
Get Happy!! contains 20 songs and
close to 50 minutes of music but this
admirable display of quantity isn't
quite matched on the qualitative
end. Muffled, distant production
prevents the hooks from really
sinking in. There's a sporadic air to
the album the songs sound good
while they go in one ear but quietly
slip out the other 15 minutes later
without leaving much of an impres
sion. Don Snowden
Linda Ronstadt
Mad Love (Asylum)
The scene is the West Hollywood
office of Peter Asher, producer
manager extraordinaire. As the
curtain opens, Peter is engaged in an
intense discussion with Linda
Ronstadt, singersuperstar. Linda is
furiously chewing gum and pouting
at the same time, a talent she alone in
the world possesses. The play be
gins:
Linda: Gosh, Petey, (chomp
chomp), why can't I do a punk
album? I've just gotta branch out, or
I'll go cray (chomp chomp) zee.
Peter: (a bit angry) And how do you
expect me to produce that kind of
album, anyway? I've made a very
successful career, thank you, taking
rock 'n roll and running it through
limiters and compressors and
smoothing out every rough edge
Now you want me to work with that
craftless noise? Why, it would take a
damn near Herculean effort to re
duce it to proper blandness. I'm get
.s'S
'..-apt
v
7.
Ampersand
ting on, ducks, I don't think my '
heart could take it.
Linda: Aw, Petey, yer the best! You
could do it (chomp chomp), I know
you could. You made Chuck Berry's
'Livin' in the U.S.A." sound like a
Carpenters' "B" side, didn'tcha?
(The phone rings. It is Joe Smith,
Chairman of the Board of Elektra
Asylum Records.)
Joe: Lissen, on this new Ronstadt
thing, I gotta great idea. Let's go
New Wave on this one, awright,
sweetheart? The kids'll eat it up. I
figure a couple Costello things, some
fuzzy electric guitars to kinda jazz it
up a little, y'know, can't lose
Peter: You tell Linda. I've got to lie
down. (Hands phone to Linda.)
Linda: Hiya, Joey. What's happe
ning Joe: You are, baby, you are.
(The curtain lowers.)
Richard Levinson
Public Image, Ltd.
Second Edition (Island)
Listening to Second Edition is like ex
periencing physical harm, which is
exactly what John Lydon's gang of
four, Public Image Ltd, had in mind.
The bass guitar dances circles
around you. The drums pin you
against the wall. The guitars and
keyboards stick in the knives. Lydon's
vocals pour vinegar on your wounds.
As with Brian Eno before them,
Public Image aim to reinvent music
as we know it. Their songs which
generally begin sparsely and then
expand, swell and finally burst are
simultaneously primitive and
futuristic, repetitive and intricate,
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militaristic and random. Blending
elements of reggae, ska, dub and
disco, the group winds up with a
sound that's somewhere out there.
Lydon's voice is central to the
group's oblique strategies. Twisting
words and even syllables beyond
recognition, Lydon shrieks, moans,
howls. But ultimately, the lyrics don't
matter so much as the momentum
and timing with which Lydon exor
cises them. Check out his delivery in
No Birds," a song that terrifyingly
presents heaven "Life in lovely al
loted slots" as another hell.
Some may write off Public Image
as heartless experimentalists. But
they'd be dead wrong. Their
mission teaching us to respond
differently to familiar noises and
creating new ones is quite heroic
and actually compassionate.
Buy Second Edition for your chil
dren. It's beneficial, like a good
spanking. Mitchell Schneider
Joe Pass
I Remember Charlie Parker
(Pablo)
I Remember Charlie Parker is Pass' tri
bute to the jazz world s most influen
tial figure a collection of standards
from Parker's first album with
strings. Parker didn't contribute any
originals to that date, but by all ac
counts it remained one of his favo
rites and an appropriate choice for a
guitarist with Pass' melodic gifts.
There's a reason Pass is sitting
atop the most recent downbeat Best
Guitarist poll and it's convincingly
demonstrated on "They Can't Take
That Away from Me." Glistening
33
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21
single-note flurries, walking bass
lines, perfect color and chording
all there and all beautiful. An impres
sive addition to the solo work already
turned in on Virtuoso 1, 2 and 3, Pass
must be only two or three albums
Glistening single
note flurries,
perfect color and
chording.
behind Oscar Peterson in the race
for most-recorded Pablo artist. With
albums this good, he's in no danger
of overexposure.
Terry Gloe
Lene Lovich
Flex (Stiff Epic)
Lene Lovich sings like silent movie
stars used to act her flourishes,
exaggerations, swagger and warble '
are vehicles for a delightful quirki
ness. She renders nonsensical all in
sistence that rock is inviolate as a
style. Both with Flex and last year's
brilliant debut, Stateless, Lovich and
co-conspirator Les Chappell have
made rock synthesis work, blending
disparate forms into a cohesive
whole.
The primary influence on Flex is
Middle European and Baltic music,
although strains of opera, country &
western, cabaret Wide World of Ani
mals sound effects and a severe
techno-frigidity that makes Gary
Numan sound like Andy Williams
are also prominent.
Davin Seay
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