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Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 08:47:22 CST
From:         Dave <USTS060@RUST1.DPO.UAB.EDU>
Subject:      LA Times review of TJL

Here's another shameless attempt at promoting one of my favorite
artists.  This is being transferred from the Costello list without
permission.


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------

Date:          Thu, 21 Jan 1993 14:29:03 -0800 (PST)
From:          VECTR01V@VAX.CSUN.EDU (Ron Heeb - rheeb@vax.csun.edu)
Subject:       LA Times review of TJL
To:            costello@gnu.ai.mit.edu

Following is a review of the new E.C. CD from the Los Angeles
Times.  Reprinted without permission.

-----

           Costello Gets Pumped Up (With Strings Attached)

                          ELVIS COSTELLO
                     AND THE BRODSKY QUARTET
                     -----------------------
                      "The Juliet Letters"
                         *Warner Bros.*


     It's usually time to be wary when a pop-rock artist takes a
radical turn from his demonstrated strengths.  Remember Lou Reed's
"Metal Machine Music," a 1975 collection of grating electronic
noise by one of rock's genuine poets?

     So the concept of Costello's new album is warning enough to
brace yourself:  Rock 'n' roll's master of acrimony and wordplay
has joined forces as writer-vocalist with the Brodsky Quartet, a
veteran, highly regarded British group that is more accustomed to
playing music by Shostakovich and Haydn than by anyone whose style
comes from the well of Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan.

     Yet "The Juliet Letters" proves to be a wonder work -
Costello's freshest and most compelling album in nearly a decade.
It's almost as if Costello became such a master of songwriting
technique in the '70s and '80s that he became a prisoner of it.
Freed from the rules of the songwriting craft and the sometimes
smothering expectations around him, Costello once again exhibits
the sheer joy of creative discovery and risk-taking.

     In this sometimes disturbing, sometimes witty but ultimately
warm panorama of human feelings, Costello sings/recites imaginary
letters that he and members of the string quartet wrote for the
album.  Rather than form a narrative story, the letters simply
offer glimpses of human character - from letters as stark as a
suicide note to as offbeat as a cranky aunt's rejoinder to a
nephew's sly effort to gain some of her fortune.

     There are glimpses in the letters of love - lost and found -
and even the junk mail that often comes so attractively packaged.
Sample line from the latter:  *Your troubles will vanish / Your
tears will dry / Your blessings will just multiply / Guaranteed at
a price that is almost unbeatable / This offer is unrepeatable*.

     In the end, "The Juliet Letters" is a celebration of life that
is as endearing - although never as relentlessly sentimental - as
a classic holiday-season movie.  Stretching the fiction to its
limits, the album ends with a bittersweet but ultimately endearing
letter from beyond the grave: *Banish all dismay / Extinguish every
sorrow / If I'm lost or I'm forgiven / The birds will be singing.

                              -ROBERT HILBURN
======================================================================
Rev. Dave Hall                |  "It's not the voting that's
usts060@rust1.dpo.uab.edu     |   democracy, it's the counting.
                              |     -- Tom Stoppard
======================================================================
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