Punch The Clock - Elvis Costello (CD 1995)

Elvis Costello has covered a great deal of stylistic ground in his career. He hit the airwaves during the period in the late 70s when the public were open to unconventional songs from unconventional performers. Music marketroids had taken punk, filed off the rough edges, sugar-coated the result and called it "New Wave". Whatever. The door was open, and Elvis sneaked in. The media branded him an "Angry Young Man", and he released taut, muscular music with fiendishly clever lyrics. Then, before our eyes, he started changing...

Elvis is a music fan. The media and the public had branded and pigeonholed him, but he didn't play along, releasing albums that ranged from country to folk to chamber music. Somewhere along the way, he created Punch The Clock, which was an all-out pop extravaganza. He hired Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, who at the time had the Midas touch and were cranking out hits with startling regularity. Costello decided to mix his twisted lyrical humour with their glossy pop production. The resulting album traps you with its catchy sound, yet manages to provide long-term lyrical food-for-thought.

Casual fans will certainly recognize "Everyday I Write The Book". It was one of his biggest hits in North America, and represents Elvis' stab at the Mersey-beat sound. He says it took ten minutes to write. "The Greatest Thing" features a dense vocal that skewers the romantic status quo of the day:
"Since nights were long and days were olden
Woman to man has been beholden
But since then times have been changing
She sends back his tribute of a rose
And says his ring is better suited for the nose
He's always fingering"

"Shipbuilding" is a sedate tune with an amazing Chet Baker trumpet solo. Written in the shadow of Britain's Falklands conflict, it underlines the stupidity of any "economic revival" that ultimately depends on sending your citizens off to die at war.

"Mouth Almighty" does a wonderful job of chronicling the sad tale of an unsuccessful lover pining for better romantic days:
"Now every girl I get close to
Seems to be wearing your perfume
The clock strikes the letters of your name
Both midnight and noon"

He wishes he could take back the things he said, but ends up chalking the whole sorry incident up to experience.

The entire album is strong, and the fantastic lyrics and uptempo pop melodies just keep on coming. Elvis seems to regard Punch The Clock as a throwaway album. Perhaps it's so easy for him to crank out killer pop tunes that this album was the musical equivalent of batting practice. The end result is still a pop masterpiece, packed with cutting wordplay and catchy melodies, and is definitely worth owning.