Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Armed Forces - 1979

"It is full of gimmicks and almost overpowers some songs with paradoxes and subverted clichés piling up into private and secret meanings. I was not quite 24 and thought I knew it all" - Elvis Costello

  

After 1978's This Year's Model, by 1979, Elvis Costello and The Attractions had made their organ and bass-dominated sound something of a trademark. Nowhere is it exemplified better than on this album, which became on of their most popular. 

Personally, there are others I prefer more, but it is twelve (thirteen if you include What's So Funny About Peace, Love And Understanding) perfectly constructed three minute "New Wave" pop songs set against some observant, cynical lyrics. Bruce Thomas's bass never sounded better than it does here. This was an all-out attempt to make a poppy-commercially-appealing album, leaving behind the slight reggae influences of tracks like I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea and the punkiness of Pump It Up. Perversely, however, while the music was becoming more accessible, lyrically, he was becoming a tad more insular, cynical and paranoid in a "they're all out to get you" 1984 kind of way. 

Songs like Goon Squad, Senior Service, Green Shirt, Busy Bodies and indeed, Oliver's Army are all fine examples of this. So, while it was evidently poppy, there was still an intense, urgent density to it as well, making it quite a beguiling record. The cover and inner sleeves were full of photographic symbolism and slogans like "emotional fascism" that only helped to add to the feeling. Costello, looking back at the album many years later, had this to say convcerning his songwriting -

"....Some of the highly charged language may now seem a little naive. It is full of gimmicks and almost overpowers some songs with paradoxes and subverted clichés piling up into private and secret meanings. I was not quite 24 and thought I knew it all....". 

Despite all its good points, there was just a little something about this album, though, and its presentation, that came across as a bit self-satisfied and possessing of a feeling that it was better than it actually was. Backed by a mainstream TV advertising campaign (highly unusual, if not unique, for "pop" albums in 1979 - and just showed how far "punk/New Wave" had come in three/four short years), the big hits - Oliver's Army, with its Abba-inspired keyboard riff, and Accidents Will Happen are obvious standouts.

Other highlights are the sparse, mysterious Green Shirt (what was that one all about?), the futuristic-sounding organ-driven Busy Bodies, the quirky but catchy Big Boys, the upbeat, bluesy grind of Goon Squad and the lyrically potent, uber-cynical Two Little Hitlers. Senior Service has a quirky, staccato appeal too, while Party Girl is the album's one example of the sort of smoky ballad that Costello would record many more of over subsequent years. 

There are a few inconsequential, somewhat characterless songs, though, the fairground organ swirl of Sunday's Best, the cod-funk of Moods For Moderns and the pretty impenetrable Chemistry Class in particular, which all appeared together on the old 'side two'. 

Better was to come, however. For some, though, this was The Attractions' best album. For some reason, though, I rarely return to it all these years later, usually choosing This Year's Model or Get Happy!! Maybe I should, because listening to it again I am really enjoying it, and the sound quality played through a good system is excellent - big, full and bassy, as it should be. Costello himself views it quite positively though, especially viewed through the context of The Attractions' progress as a band -  

"...The confidence and cohesion of The Attractions' playing is the product of twelve months of intense touring. The sessions were not without dissent and tension, but we probably never had quite this level of consistent musical agreement again...".