Take Clubland, the lead single and opening track. It sounded like a higher-fi track from Get Happy, all buried lead vocal and tremulous Hammond organ. Could be about the local scene, organised crime, or even about the clubs the title and chorus say it's about. All the vocal slithering and occasional confidential asides tie up in a big chorus with a jubilant guitar hook. Sounds very mysterious but I didn't have the energy to go on the trail. Lovers Walk comes in with a stuttering stride. The vocal yells out associations with the word lovers. Could be about something could be a list of word associations like the lesser tracks of Get Happy. The quirk in the rhythm keeps me at bay so my caring would have to exceed it. Never happened.
You'll Never Be a Man starts all at once with a strolling rhythm and clear vocal but in such a musically bland package that I don't care what the confronting title means. Pretty Words takes us right back to Get Happy with its late night vocals and band that just seem to be playing the chords rather than the song. Strict Time rams the awkward rhythm of Lovers Walk with a little engagement in the chorus vocal arrangement. Luxembourg bashes in with a rockabilly echo in the vocal but a assaultive rhythm but again it suffers from a directionless arrangement. Watch Your Step ends the old side one with a Hammond-led Motown groove. The confidential vocal is well out front without a degree of reverb. Words of excess and warning. The pleasantest musical experience on the record so far.
The subdued funk of New Lace Sleeves promises a little more of the Armed Forces brightness. The vocal is a little more gymnastic and ranges from a kind of Scott Walker to EC's own Smokey Robinson take. The lyric is intriguing and for once the quirk in the rhythm feels inspired instead of last ditch. From a Whisper to a Scream adds the melodic lollies of Squeeze. Costello even shares the mic with Glenn Tillbrook from said London based popsters. Not a bar wasted. Different Finger's Nashville bompiness points to Elvis' George Jones obsession which would plunge him into an all covers/all country album later in the year which I can't yet imagine covering here. White Knuckles bashes in with a full band and candy vocal melody. The Stax influence of the previous set returns yet again. It's ok but like more than a few tracks here adds bars and lines that strike as unwelcome.
Rachmaninoff chords on the piano start Shot with his Own Gun. Costello's tune rolls down and allows the rhythm to speed and drag like a show tune. Just EC and piano here and a dark minor key pallet. This is another future indicator that would see him working with the likes of Bacharach and The Brodsky Quartet. For all that, it's a welcome rather than an irritating change. Fish 'n' Chip Paper claps along with the rest of the albums moments of progressing from Get Happy. The quirky burlesque solos in the middle make their point and then it's more of the same. But then things change.
A reggae bass over an acoustic guitar and sober vocal and no percussion but a tambourine as Costello tells of an intrigue which ends in tragedy too early in the predawn. The chorus "But it's easier to say I love you and yours sincerely, I suppose. All little sisters like to try on big sister's clothes" is delivered with such a saddened witness that it almost makes me forget the annoyance of most of this record. It's a cinematic miniature, a kind of despairing whispered revisit to Armed Forces' Party Girl, as though he were checking in with that doomed figure.
The sound is richer than the previous one and everyone's in fine form. So what's wrong? A lot of albums can be left on through the filler and the missteps. The problem here is that there are no real missteps and no filler. All of this is intentional and offered in sincerity. I just don't like most of it. This is a breakup coffee and as with the worst of them it's a matter of saying, "it's not you it's me."
I'd see the future efforts around the traps as we still went to the same parties but it was only now and then and I wasn't always moved by even the best I saw. To this day I can't quite grow beyond albums two and three. The only reason I like Imperial Bedroom as much as I do is because it reminds me of Armed Forces. I appreciate his work with the legends and the seriously talented but I seldom stick around to the end. It's not him ...
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