|
Elvis Costello has become the master of the modern love song. Since "Alison," a brooding lament for a woman deluded by love, became a hit in 1977, the year British youth was screaming for anarchy, he has cut out-takes from everyday romance into each album.
"So Like Candy" (from his 13th album, Mighty Like a Rose, released this year). which has received the usual scant radio airplay, is no exception. Love is a serious subject in the Costello repertoire. None of his songs treat the subject frivolously.
In fact, his only frivolity is laced with serious, dire undertones, such as in "Hurry Down Doomsday," also from the present album, a punk diatribe inciting Armageddon for a sick world.
"Sad or poignant stores are easier to tell than happy ones," he says from Tokyo before leaving for the Australian leg of his world tour.
"They can alleviate pain and lift people out of it. It's that whole principle of blues music. It's not to make you feel more blue, it's to make you feel better."
Asked if that makes him despise the state of popular music, he says: "It's pretty pointless to sound off (at pop stars).
"It wouldn't have much bearing on what people listen to. It would just sound like I was jealous of them. I just ignore it and listen to what I like."
The band for Costello's Australian tour is the same as his original band, The Attractions: himself on guitar, backed by drums, keyboards and bass.
But he says the band will steer away from The Attractions sound. The gigs will change every night and feature songs from his 15-year career.
"We will be playing some of the really old ones, which we've changed a bit to keep interesting. and some from the album," he says.
Little has been written about Costello that can't be gleaned from his vast range of songs. The frustration in the controversial, acerbic "Tramp the Dirt Down," about dancing on Margaret Thatcher's grave, is reflected in his attitude to pop stars.
The plain realism of nearly everything he says is articulated in "The Other Side of Summer."
Perhaps the only thing his music excludes is his endearing humility.
Asked what sort of people go to his gigs these days, if they have changed over the years, he says: "You always hope that a different group of people come all the time.
"But I just hope people turn up. I don't want to be there alone."
| 
