Elvis Costello - Brutal Youth (1994)

It's been a while since I caught up with Elvis Costello. I liked Imperial Bedroom and My Aim Is True when I first heard them. I don't really care to go back and listen again right now, maybe later. My read on Costello is that lots of people close to the music industry absolutely love him, but he has a relatively small devoted fanbase. That might be a bad read. It's just that I don't really feel his presence in the pop or classic music scene like I do The Beatles or David Bowie, but he certainly gets his accolades in the music press. As long as his music is good I really don't care.

The opening track "Pony St." would be OK with a better vocalist. Costello sings with a weak and nasally high tenor, and the melody of "Pony St." goes up and down seriously straining his range. A vocalist with more power would fit better here. "Kinder Murder" has a flatter melody that works much better with Costello's voice. When he doesn't have to jump all over his vocal range he sounds far less annoying.

I think I'm just gonna keep coming back to how annoying I find Costello's voice, and it gets worse when he sings backup for himself. "This Is Hell" has a line where Costello slowly sings, "It never gets better or worse!" followed by a backing chorus made up of Costello clones repeating, "It never gets better or worse." It just doesn't feel natural. When a singer does his own backing vocals or harmonizes with themselves it usually winds up sounding awkward.

"Still Too Soon To Know" is the first song on the album where I really started appreciating Costello's voice. He's not doing anything different, but the choice of instrumental backing for this one might just fit better. The song is a short sweet ballad based around minimalist drumming, piano, and guitar. Costello's voice is allowed to carry, which works better than the harder rocks songs where he has to project over the instruments.

The music on Brutal Youth is pretty good. I won't complain about an album of mostly solid classic-style rockers. Still not sure what makes Elvis Costello so impressive to so many people. I guess I kinda like the music I've heard thus far, which is more than I can say of most artists who get as many accolades as Costello does. 3 stars.