ELVIS COSTELLO
When I Was Cruel (Island Def Jam)
Reviewed by Melanie Campbell

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Amazingly, Elvis Costello was spawned from the same British punk scene that begat the Damned. He was the ultimate geek God with a bad attitude, a clutch of snotty, three-chord pop gems and a deliciously loud backup band. But that didn't last long. While the Damned ended up more or less showing up every decade or so with another Damned record, Elvis Costello embraced every other friggin' musical genre on the planet. Eloquently styling everything from country (1981's Almost Blue) to classical (1993's outing with the Brodsky Quartet), EC never let the critics get in his way, and set about doing things his way, dammit. And with When I Was Cruel, he comes full circle, getting back to rocking out, his angry-young-loser pose as pointedly nerdy as ever. The metaphor-laden "45" features the singer's herky-jerky electric guitar, as does the catchy singalong "Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution)." And all his experimentation over the years with different genres has paid off handsomely, as Costello effortlessly weaves tango riffs, bizarre sampling, horns, and blues influences into the mix. The result is an abundance of unexpected, yet musically satisfying, twists and turns to the songs. Anybody else would have created a muddle, but Costello draws from his myriad of influences to create a work that sounds uniquely, superlatively his. It is a bit on the wordy side, but then again, he's always had a lot to say. Or, perhaps he's just been holding it in all these years and he's playing catch up? Naaaah. He'd have cut himself in half with all that sharp wit by now...

© 2002 - Melanie Campbell