This has been done before, but it's been a while, and since the group
is quiet at the moment, I thought I'd make an attempt at an up-to-date
list. It's much easier to pick my least favorites than my favorites.
MY AIM IS TRUE: "Sneaky Feelings" or "Pay It Back." Jaunty soundalike
trifles.
THIS YEAR'S MODEL: "Little Triggers." Ballads still eluded him at this
point (heresy, but I don't even care for "Alison"). This one is just
stilted; for a few minutes the album comes to a halt.
ARMED FORCES: "Sunday's Best," unless that doesn't count because it was
left off the US version in favor of "Peace, Love, and Understanding"
(to the benefit of the US version), in which case "Chemistry Class"
(some good wordplay; not much else).
GET HAPPY!!: Hmm. "B Movie," I suppose.
TRUST: "Luxembourg." It doesn't add up to much as a song, and any shot
of crude energy it contributes is mitigated by the obtuse, murky
production.
ALMOST BLUE: The whole thing is a low point, but "Honey Hush" is a
stylistically clueless performance even by the standards of this
misbegotten project.
IMPERIAL BEDROOM: I've been trying for decades to remain alert during
"Kid About It," and usually failing. Runners-up: "Pidgin English" wears
thin even before we get to the "cheep cheep cheep" bit, and I prefer
the discofied alternate take of "Town Cryer."
PUNCH THE CLOCK: "Mouth Almighty." One of the easiest ones; it's the
only track on PTC about which I like nothing at all.
GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD: "The Great Unknown." Dreary and enervated even for
GCW.
KING OF AMERICA: There's really nothing here I don't enjoy listening
to. I suppose I'd pick "Eisenhower Blues" because it adds the least to
the whole; just another American roots genre checked off the album's
inventory. It's a scorchingly well-played group performance (although
the vocal is not quite up to the challenge) that would have been more
impressive if discovered later on a bonus disc or a bootleg. Perhaps
"King of Confidence" or "Having It All" (the greatest "lost" Costello
song of all) should have replaced it in the actual running order.
BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE: "Blue Chair." Smarmy.
SPIKE: "Tramp The Dirt Down" is musically monotonous, lyrically jejune
in the manner of lesser early Dylan. Its one great strength is the
lovely arrangement, and that peaks early, before the vocal starts.
Years ago I would have unhesitatingly picked "Satellite," which also is
musically dull, but that wins some cool points in retrospect for its
creepy prescience.
MIGHTY LIKE A ROSE: Again, there's nothing here I really dislike. If
pressed, I'd pick "Playboy To A Man," for the same reason I picked
"Eisenhower Blues" above -- it adds the least to the whole. "Just
Another Mystery" is a more substantial song. (You were expecting me to
join the rest of the world in tra****ng "Broken," weren't you?)
THE JULIET LETTERS: A tough one. I'll go with "Why?" which is
lugubrious, although I suppose it does what it sets out to do --
capture the voice of a tormented child. I've always been ambivalent too
about "I Thought I'd Write To Juliet"; I find it affected and snide.
However, it does have that remarkable evocation of the siren at the
end, by the cellist.
BRUTAL YOUTH: What to choose from an album with several songs as good
as any he's ever written, but also an alarming number of fizzles? "Pony
Street"? "Kinder Murder"? "My Science Fiction Twin"? "Rocking Horse
Road"? I'm going to go with "Just About Glad" -- a slightly
embarrassing bit of rude-boy posing, as if he's trying to squeeze into
a pair of paints that fit him 15 years earlier.
KOJAK VARIETY: "Bama Lama Bama Loo." And for something more than
*slightly* embarrassing...
ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY: "Why Can't A Man Stand Alone?" If there were a
way to put this song across without making it sound tedious, strained,
and longer than it actually is, he was not the singer to discover that
way.
PAINTED FROM MEMORY: "What's Her Name Today?" That's three now with
titles that ask questions.
WHEN I WAS CRUEL: Considering I rate this album highly, I'm surprised
to see four good candidates (the album's overlength was always its
weakness). "Oh Well" was not missed from the US version; its solipsism
and its spare/faux-exotic sound weirdly suggest a mediocre PARADE-era
Prince B-side. "Dissolve," which actually *was* on the US version, is
noisy filler on an album that certainly didn't need padding to lengthen
its run time. (At least "Soul For Hire" and "Radio Silence" are
ambitious failures.)
NORTH: This is one of the hardest from which to select a "worst" track,
not because it's all so great or all so bad, but because it's very
homogeneous in tone and texture -- more of a piece than anything else
he's done, including JULIET (but not including IL SOGNO). In other
words, you're likely to feel the same way about all of it. If pressed,
I'd choose "When Green Eyes Turn Blue," a slight dip in inspiration.
THE DELIVERY MAN: "Nothing Clings Like Ivy."
THE RIVER IN REVERSE: "International Echo."
Todd K
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