Elvis Costello

A fantastic party record that matched tight-trousered new wave with various 1960s soul and rock styles, Get Happy! only pales when compared next to Elvis Costello's first three records. Top tunes like "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down," "New Amsterdam," "The Imposter" and "Clown Time Is Over" sometimes speed by in a frantic rush but this reveals a fun, friendlier and less bitter Costello. This just missed the U.S. Top 10 but it sold almost as well as Armed Forces -- not bad when you consider that both albums were almost completely locked out of American radio.

This Stax-based twenty-song loss leader establishes not his fecundity but his fallibility--lotsa duds. I count maybe eight originals I'll remember half as well as the Sam & Dave obscurity, and n.b.: the Sam & Dave obscurity was the hit (U.K. hit, of course I mean). His rueful disavowal of "Knock on Wood" (in a dud) is no less impressive than his proud claim on "Time Is Tight" (in a keeper), and tropes and hooks abound--why deny lines like "You lack lust you're so lackluster" or "I speak double dutch to a real double duchess"? On the other hand, why bother digging them out? (Grade - B)