best Elvis Costello album of the '80s

Side 1 of Trust is the peak of his career

His best singing, their best playing. No contest.

i listened to imperial bedroom last night and still feel confident in my vote...that album is so crazy, so poncey

"man out of time" is just lovely....beyond belief, so many good songs

yeah, i mean i look at this list of albums and think the dude had a pretty fucking good 80s! Nine albums and not a bad once in the bunch -- Goodbye Cruel World come the closest to being bad, but as I said upthread, it's not that bad, maybe just bad by Costello's standards at the time ... Glad someone voted for Almost Blue -- I think that's a nice record.

not a bad *one*

Goodbye Cruel World is bad, full stop.

and it's not the only one.

i can't believe trust won this over get happy or blood and chocolate (or king of america for that matter)

haha, ok maybe it's bad ...

GCW really IS a jump-the-shark moment insofar as even the good songs are nothing you haven't heard before, arranged as if he didn't give a damn.

it took a little while for KoA to sink in for me, but i'm surprised it's not more highly regarded. not a duff cut on it.
i'm surprised trust won, in my short time e-here on ilm, it seems rare to me that the best album wins a poll. not taking taste into account, it seems there are usu. other considerations(i.e.being anti-canonical for the sake of it) people make when voting.

what exactly happened w/ Goodbye Cruel World anyway, I read that he 'announced his retirement' before the album was even released and obviously took a couple years before releasing the next album, but it seems like everything about it was designed for failure before it was even out, even with it coming on the heels of one of his biggest singles.

It was an odd situation:

That gig I mentiones, he announced his new single "I hope you're happy now" and that they were going into the studio that weekend to record it.

It didn't appear, and wasn't a single, until GCW a year later.

By then, most of the tracks were credited to Declan Patrick Alouicious McManus, apart from a couple which were to Elvis COstello.

I'm guessing 'personal issues'

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The duff cut on King of America is the cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." That's a really really unpleasant-to-listen-to vocal, to my ears, and instrumentally I don't think it's a winner, either.

one of that record's rare enjoyable moments imo

Oh, I nearly forgot.

I went into London for the grand opening of Tower Records' midnight release of "Spike, the beloved entertainer" and got mine signed by the man himself (and exchanged a few words)..

We were all queued up Regent Street, when Elvis and Nick Lowe crossed the street while strumming "Leave my kitten alone" and some other song I forget just now (I think it was his single at the time).

Loads of press photos were taken, and I was right at Elvis' left side, but when the photos were in the paper, I was cropped out. So was Nick Lowe, so hey.

listening to Get Happy!!...man, this record is tops, the bass is ridiculous, kinda can't believe I didn't vote for it but I'm glad I went with my instinct that B&C needed it more.

i think part of what weirds me out about Trust is it's one of his only albums from that period that has no 'theme' or genre pastiche going on, it's just the Attractions at the top of their game doing a new wave album. in the liner notes EC almost sounds embarrassed about parts of songs being inspired by contemporaries like the Pretenders or the Police instead of old Bacharach/George Jones/Motown records or whatever.

probably a bit harsh on king of america. but the opening line of that record presents the most horrible evidence that the album you are about to listen to has ambitions that exceed its grasp. i think the divide between ppl who like 'get happy' and ppl who like 'trust' is whether they value er conceptual thoroughness above thoroughness of craft maybe? like there'd be, probably, a similar thing if we did his worst record, between ppl whose least favorite is a lazy attractions retread and whose least favorite is a poor concept

think the divide between ppl who like 'get happy' and ppl who like 'trust' is whether they value er conceptual thoroughness above thoroughness of craft maybe?

Why are the two mutually exclusive? EC has always collapsed the two.

I like Get Happy!. My rankings:

Trust
Get Happy
King of America
Blood & Chocolate
the rest

From a 2002 RS interview:

Q: My favorite album is Trust. I never convince anyone to agree with me.

A: Oh, that's a good record. I think it has one of the greatest Attractions performances, "New Lace Sleeves." Neil LaBute, who's making a film at the moment, wants to use "Lovers Walk."

always liked this video - helped me appreciate his cover:
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2016579/v2140616

maybe it was just growing up reading the LA Times - E.C. was second only to Springsteen in Hilburn's canon - but it seemed to me like Imperial Bedroom, at the time, was being lauded as The Masterpiece

I'm a Taking Liberties fan myself

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that's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by the way

probably a bit harsh on king of america...has ambitions that exceed its grasp

this is a minority view but one I concur w/. giving this alb a mixed-to-neg review when it came out nearly got me drummed out of the guild.

KOA's great songs have for a long time carried the weight of its dross, on which everyone seems to agree ("Glitter Gulch," "The Poisoned Rose," "Eisenhower Blues," the Animals cover).

"Stalin Malone" they didn't even bother to sing the words over the tune!

I listened to both KOA and IB last week and while they both have songs I love (mainly "I'll Wear It Proudly" and "Beyond Belief") they both have a lot problems for me and I'm glad to see them right in the middle of these poll results.

The duff cut on King of America is the cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."

there's a live solo version of this on some promo that is pretty awesome

Is that the one where they all sing the riff? I remember hearing that on the radio a long, long time ago.

it took a little while for KoA to sink in for me, but i'm surprised it's not more highly regarded. not a duff cut on it. Falts. About half duff, to my ears. Lord Sotosyn nails it above, I think. As a huge wanking EC fanboy, I'm always amazed how very much people's mileage varies with him. I'm all, "wottayamean you don't like 'Battered Old Bird'?!" and am an Imperial Breadloom fan and have never fallen heels-up for Trust. YMMV, indeed.

Elvis Costello and The Attractions - Punch the Clock (1983) 2

a seriously underrated album -- his last great one, i think (in all seriousness, no challops).

i still would've voted for get happy!!, though.