Crank, er, pump it up!Īnd you must find the proper place for everything you see. version of the album where it replaced "Sunday's Best." All thirteen songs are present on the album presentation here, remastered by Bob Ludwig and Costello with subtlety and detail. Costello's biting rendition was added to the U.S. "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was introduced by Nick Lowe's band Brinsley Schwarz in 1974. They included "Oliver's Army" (anchored by Steve Nieve's ABBA-inspired keyboard riff), a powerful and lyrically provocative anti-war broadside inspired by the Troubles in Northern Island the tense, paranoid "Green Shirt " and elegant, haunting "Accidents Will Happen," inspired in part by Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and Randy Newman's "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore." (A highlight of Costello's later concerts with and without Bacharach has been a rearrangement of "Accidents" in dramatic, orchestrated style.) One of the LP's most famed songs wasn't on the original U.K. These compact, biting nuggets (the longest is "Busy Bodies," at barely over three-and-a-half-minutes in length) blurred the lines between the political and the personal. They're lyrically dense, sharp as a rapier, sometimes punning, and musically tight. He brought a deep and abiding love of pop, rock, and R&B in all their forms to Armed Forces, working with producer Nick Lowe and engineer Roger Bechirian to craft a sound that was more intricate than that of his first two albums but still immediate and direct in its power and aggression.Ĭostello was inspired to craft some of his most enduring compositions for the album. Much was made at the time about Costello moving away from the punk sound of its predecessors and embracing the so-called "new wave," but (then as now) genre tags were simply reductive when it came to Costello's oeuvre.
It was originally conceived under the title Emotional Fascism, which says a great deal about the artist's state of mind while writing and recording.
We recently had the opportunity to review this collection which threatens to render the tag "super deluxe edition" as simply inadequate.Īrmed Forces (released January 5, 1979) was the third studio album from Costello and second with his band The Attractions (pianist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas, and drummer Pete Thomas, no relation). Late last year, Armed Forces was revisited by Costello and UMe in a jaw-dropping new vinyl box set consisting of three 12-inch LPs three 10-inch LPs and three 7-inch singles. Its mordant observations on militarism, fascism, and violence all bring to mind 1979's Armed Forces - not a concept album, per se, but a collection of sharp, thematically-linked songs from a singer-songwriter with plenty to say. Indeed, many of the themes on Hey Clockface have direct antecedents in the early part of his discography. Despite all of those seeming changes, Costello's aim has remained true.
That spirit has led him to acclaimed collaborations with Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint, Paul McCartney, The Brodsky Quartet, and The Roots, not to mention adventuresome solo work incorporating country, bluegrass, classical, and soul. Though initially branded an "angry young man" - and indeed, he channeled the punk zeitgeist early on with his fast and furious compositions - Costello has been able to travel wherever his muse takes him. "You said you'd be a friend to me, but time is just my enemy and it is hurting me so." Despite his pleas, time has been rather good to Costello's artistry. "Hey Clockface, keep those fingers on the dial," Elvis Costello implored on the jaunty, jazz-flavored title track of his 2020 album. BUY STANDARD BLACK VINYL BOX FROM UDISCOVERMUSIC.COM