The early ‘80s brought out the best and worst of some music veterans—the latter particularly when they surrendered their craft to “production value”. Elvis was hardly immune; having enjoyed some recent records by the likes of Madness and Dexy’s Midnight Runners, he enlisted contemporary hitmakers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley to give his latest batch of tunes a chartbound sheen. The results, as heard on Punch The Clock, were mixed. On the plus side, “Everyday I Write The Book” was a huge hit worldwide, complete with a wacky video depicting Charles and Diana as bored newlyweds. Two of his more inspired creations were frontloaded with political overtones that unfortunately still resonate today. “Shipbuilding” is an indictment of the Falklands War, originally written for and recorded by Robert Wyatt, but here with a gorgeous but brief and processed Chet Baker trumpet solo. “Pills And Soap” is a Casio-with-drum-machine demo embellished by Steve Nieve and released as a quickie single credited to The Imposter. However, most of the rest of the album favored a mix that brought the incessant female backing vocals and the TKO Horns section to the forefront, making it hard to hear those catchy melodies. The effect is akin to having too much ketchup on your cheeseburger.
And those melodies do exist; you just have to listen really closely. “Let Them All Talk” blasts from of the speakers with all the air the horns can muster. (Besides being unintentionally hilarious, the extended remix isolates some elements of the track that are otherwise buried.) “The Greatest Thing” goes way too fast and through too many key changes to handle the words, with an uninspired horn part that apes “In The Mood”. “The Element Within Her” features excellent dynamics in between the repeated “la la la” choruses, but “Love Went Mad” is a little too noisy, despite some clever harmonies.
Another track with blaring horns, “TKO (Boxing Day)” doesn’t follow through on the puns of the title. But “Charm School” is one of the more palatable tracks here, despite the occasionally strained lyric, and one of the few that benefits from the layers, to the point where you don’t even mind the steal from “Theme From Summer Of ‘42”. “The Invisible Man” is nearly redeemed by its chorus, but it’s just too busy. “Mouth Almighty” and “King Of Thieves” are both catchy in their own ways, the latter with mock-regal embellishments. The “Candy Man”-style arrangement of “The World And His Wife” makes for a big ending, but obscures the plot.
Punch The Clock is a pop album, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but some of us were hoping for something more aggressive. Even the album title suggested he was merely going through the motions.
The Rykodisc reissue included two of the better B-sides of the period, “Heathen Town” and “The Flirting Kind”, which Elvis says he considered adding to the album after its initial release. “Town Where Time Stood Still” and “Shatterproof” are somewhat wordy demos, while live versions of “The World And His Wife” (here played acoustic) and “Everyday I Write The Book” (in a wonderful Merseybeat arrangement) gave insight into the less labored origins of those tracks.
The Rhino reissue went even further to create nearly an alternate album, adding a whole pile of acoustic demos that show off his improved piano skills, and more than suggest he should have stuck with his initial instincts instead of eyeing the charts. (They did replace those live tracks on the Ryko with studio alternates, but brought “Seconds Of Pleasure” forward from a previous upgrade.) There’s also “Baby Pictures”, a teasing studio snippet of a song played live exactly twice before being abandoned. Two songs from a BBC session further show his irritation with current politics: “Big Sister’s Clothes” is more overtly sung to Margaret Thatcher in a medley with the English Beat’s “Stand Down Margaret”, and he either heard Percy Mayfield’s “Danger Zone” from the writer’s original or the earlier Ray Charles B-side.
The balance of the disc is filled with tunes from a live radio simulcast. “The Bells” is another Hey Love soul classic, while the other songs feature the TKO Horns, and rather unobtrusively, and The O’Jays’ “Back Stabbers” serves as the intro to “King Horse”. Given the quality of the recording, it’s another archival concert that deserves to be released in full but probably never will be. (It should also be said that this disc would have been a perfect place to include the horn-driven one-off single “Party Party” but for EC’s ongoing stated abhorrence of the song.)
Elvis Costello & The Attractions Punch The Clock (1983)—2½
1995 Rykodisc: same as 1983, plus 7 extra tracks
2003 Rhino: same as 1983, plus 26 extra tracks
this is the one album of his that i owned when i was a kid. i loved it. i liked the sound, i liked the clever word play, i liked the layout of the songs. it all worked for me.
ReplyDeleteit was only later that i found out that this was not something he considered very good. and most costello fans tend to dismiss it. makes me a bit sad. the one damn album i like and it's one of his 'lesser' efforts.
sigh. . .
My rating is merely my opinion; there are lots of diehard Costello-heads who swear by this album. I'm just not that big on horn sections.
ReplyDeleteActually, it was the Rhino reissue that helped me appreciate the album more. I've come to like some of the songs in their basic form, and heard things I'd missed under those poppy arrangements.
As for his own opinion of the album, Elvis says that hindsight causes him to cringe at some of the production, but he's still pretty proud of some of the songs. So there you go.
Always have loved this album and probably for the very reason that it is what it is- an attempt to grab the 'brass ring' of pop success. No shame in that or in trying. It also syncs so nicely for me with a period when his stage shows were such fun- so full of energy and good playing. I make no apologies for my love of this record.
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