Elvis Costello
Elvis and his Attractions are back with more cerebral celebrations of the possibilities of pop music, as chockful of ideas and enigmas as ever. A typical track on this LP is Shipbuilding, an oblique attack on British jingoism in the Falklands war: "Within weeks they'll be re-opening the shipyards/ And notifying the next of kin. Once again/ It's all we're skilled in/ We will be shipbuilding." Then there's Everyday I Write the Book, which tells, of a man writing a book about his love: "Don't tell me you don't know the difference between a lover and fighter/ With my pen and my electric typewriter/ Even in a perfect world where everyone was equal/I'd still own the film rights and be working on the sequel." Nobody said Elvis was easy to follow. Nobody said he wasn't original, either.
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