release date: Aug. 5, 1983
format: vinyl (XXLP 20) / digital (2013 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley
label: F-Beat Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Let Them All Talk" - 2. "Everyday I Write the Book" - 3. "The Greatest Thing" - 4. "The Element Within Her" - 5. "Love Went Mad" - 6. "Shipbuilding" (5 / 5) - 7. "TKO (Boxing Day)" - 13. "The World and His Wife"
8th studio album by Elvis Costello - his sixth with The Attractions and the first of two consecutive albums to be produced by the pop-producer-duo Langer / Winstanley, who at this point had faced great sales with albums like The Rise & Fall by Madness and Too-Rye-Ay by Dexys Midnight Runners, and the duo's job was to secure hit material singles that had been missing on his previous album, Imperial Bedroom (Jul. '82). Langer / Winstanley stood for large-scale arrangements and they brought with them strings arranger David Bedford, the Afrodiziak [backing choir] and the brass-constellation, The TKO Horns in support of The Attractions.
The 2013 remaster is released by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab.
I recall buying the vinyl album immediately upon its release - I found the single "Everyday I Write the Book" rather nice despite signalling a new pop tone to the sonic universe of Costello. I also recall how I found the album too slick and without much else. Yes, it also contains his modern classic "Shipbuilding", originally written by Costello to be released with Robert Wyatt [Wyatt version] on lead vocals in Aug. '82 - a quite unforgettable version - and as Costello thought of it as his best song ever he included it here with his own vocals and with the addition of a trumpet solo by Chet Baker; and then a few other fine songs, but the overall impression wasn't entirely positive. The video to "Everyday I Write the Book" became an MTV staple and together with a positive Costello, who no longer rejected the press but now willingly stood up for interviews, all in all secured good sales, and the album eventually sold Gold, both in the US and in the UK, where the album peaked at a high top 3 - making it his best-selling album since Get Happy!! (1980).
Over the years it has proved to contain other fine songs but it's still an album that has that unfortunate Langer / Winstanley 'over-produced' touch all over it - a notion several contemporary critics also heard when they referred to the album as 'pretentious' - a tendency that would prove to be further accentuated on Goodbye Cruel World (rel. Jun. '84) - also produced by Langer / Winstanley. The album may be touched, or slightly ruined from poor production and too heavy arrangements, but it's still an album that reveal great songwriting, and in that perspective, it's not a bad album at all.
[ allmusic.com, Blender, Uncut, Mojo 3 / 5, Rolling Stone, Sounds 4 / 5 stars ]
