Elvis Costello

Before Imperial Bedroom, Nick Lowe was Elvis Costello's producer of choice. For this 1982 masterwork, Costello turned to Beatles producer/engineer Geoff Emerick for an album that reaches for the grandeur of Lennon/McCArtney and to sophisticated songwriters such as Bacharach, Porter and Gershwyn. That's a tall artistic mountain to climb but Costello actually succeeds by always sounding like himself instead of just a pastiche of influences. Best song? Take your pick -- "Man Out of Time," "Kid About It," "Beyond Belief," "Town Cryer" or "Almost Blue" which has gone on to become a modern jazz standard. Costello would lose some of his intense focus after this, often releasing sets with many incredible songs on them instead of complete, knockout albums.

I admit it--I love the lyric sheet. Helps me pay attention, though not always, and persuades me absolutely that "The Long Honeymoon" and "Kid About It" are as great as songwriting ever gets. But it also shores up my impression that he can be precious lyrically, vocally, and musically, and gnomic for no reason at all--in short, pretentious. And while I'm glad he's got soul, too often he invests emotion in turns of phrase he should play cool. (Grade - B+)