Elvis Costello
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Elvis Costello, on the other hand, has tried, over the course of his last few records, to avoid falling into at least the first two holes. Since jettisoning the Attractions, the incisive trio he recorded ten albums with, he’s turned to a diverse slate of musicians, from the other Elvis’s onetime guitarist James Burton to Tom Waits crony Marc Ribot. He’s also occasionally abandoned conventional pop formats and instrumentation. On last year’s The Juliet Letters, a collaborative song cycle with the Brodsky Quartet, Costello attempted to keep the spunk alive, swapping his acidic cider vinegar for a more mature, if diluted, balsamic vinaigrette.
Of course, the third hole–the one about relating to the world via songs–has always been one of Costello’s favorite places to wallow. From the outset, Elvis established himself as a highly literate and highly literary songwriter capable of creating both startling epiphanies and utter banalities, even if the border between the two was often indiscernible. For instance, on 1980’s Get Happy!! he sang the line, “You lack lust / You’re so lackluster.” Over the ensuing 14 years, I’ve spent roughly equal amounts of time thinking that line was genius and thinking it was drivel.
