America - where they pour Coca Cola just like vintage wine

Continuing my trip back through the 1986 album charts

02/03/86 : King Of America - The Costello Show featuring The Attractions and The Confederates


I remember this album being out but the cover meaning there was absolutely no danger of me investigating it - I've no real idea what I'm expecting from it.

Unsurprisingly, there's a kind of Americana feel to it, with a Costello style twist to it. It's all well done, but I can't say that most of it really hit the spot for me - it felt a bit like pointless musical tourism and nearly an hour was far too much for me. I did like "Indoor Fireworks" and "Suit Of Lights" though and the cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is good, I guess.

We're at #11 in the charts this week on its second week of an eight week run, with this being as high as it got. The top five this week were Dire Straits, Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, Rocky IV and Eurythmics with the highest new entry being Hits For Lovers (#7).

Wikipedia has a surprising amount on the album (281 milliPeppers) - it's his tenth album and was co-produced (as Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus) with T Bone Burnett, who he'd been touring with. T Bone was a name I knew but couldn't have told you what he'd done - he was in Dylan's band in the 70s and has done a load of stuff since, but is probably best known for production and soundtrack work, including O Brother Where Art Thou? Back to this album, The Confederates were a group of US session musicians including some famous names that I've never heard of and The Attractions only appear on one song because the sessions went really badly due to tension between them and Elvis.

The critics either loved it or thought it wasn't really an Elvis Costello album, some in a good way and some in a bad way - retrospectively, the overall opinion is that it was a good thing because he moved on to other genres (continuing his pointless musical tourism, some might say). They were also surprisingly keen on the album cover. Commercially, it only really did anything here, Sweden (#12) and New Zealand (#21). 

"Customers also listened to" The Coward Brothers (Elvis & T Bone), Devo, Joe Jackson and Jackie DeShannon (who I'd never heard of, but it appears I should have) - a somewhat strange mix, but that's what I was expecting. A bit like this album really.

23/02/86 - A very fine album indeed
09/03/86 - Another fine first listen

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