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Outside of the Bacharach album, it's his best in a long time. But in order to know that, you will have to have dilligently listened to everything from Spike on -- and if you got off the bus around then, it's harder than ever to get back on.
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Alternative PressCostello clutters many fine compositions with kitchen-sink arrangements and cacophonous production that bring into focus how sorely missed estranged Attractions bassist Bruce Thomas is throughout. [Jun 2002, p.75]
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The Costello formula takes over: minimalist but experimental instrumentation, eternally durable vocals, and literate punk-wave bittersweetening.
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Costello proves that all the balladry hasn't dulled his ability to rock.
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The songs are brilliantly Costello-esque, fairly varied, and don't sound at all dated.
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It’s a confectionary delight, from start to finish: sometimes intelligent, sometimes emotional, always likeable.
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Just a little sensible pruning then and 'When I Was Cruel' would be a triumphant return to rocking form for Mr Costello.
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Costello has never experimented so freely on an album in his entire career.
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Elvis Costello is back, bashing and clanging away at what he does best: delivering out vitriolic songs of curdled romance and sodden, soiled dreams.
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Bristling with an electric current that seemingly short-circuited years ago, ''When I Was Cruel'' is the best work Costello has produced since ''Blood & Chocolate'' back in the mid-'80s.
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A shoo-in as one of this year's "best of's."
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MojoWhen I Was Cruel is bursting with bile and romance, tricky lyrics and tantalising tunes, and finds him practically trampolining with the thrill of messing about with sounds. [May 2002, p.108]
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Ultimately, I suspect Costello non-devotees will find that too much effort is required to get into these songs and there may not be sufficient emotional payoff to justify the investment.
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It's no classic, but there are reassuringly unhealthy signs of life.
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An album of taut, bilious rock that -- propelled, not coincidentally, by original Attractions members Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas -- has all the teetering-on-unhinged feel of Costello's very best work.
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Despite the presence of a few misses, When I Was Cruel will be well worth the purchase for anyone still trying to work their way through All This Useless Beauty. It's a straightforward, catchy, and of course smart record from the meanest man in the British Isles.
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An immediately engrossing and challenging collection of moody, evocative songs-- an entire album of "I Want You" and "Watching the Detectives" for those so inclined.
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Anyone expecting When I Was Cruel to be This Year's Model may be disappointed, but Elvis Costello has worn so many hats over the years that it would have been a misstep for him to try to go back.
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There isn't anything quite as special as, say, Veronica but the veins at Costello's temples are throbbing again.
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When I Was Cruel is a collection of tough tunes and textures that recalls -- but doesn't recycle -- the records that endeared him to his earliest admirers.
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If the performances here reclaimed the sputtering, spastic fury of Elvis and the Attractions in their prime, it might not matter that Costello came to play without indelible melodies and jaw-dropping lyrics, but they really don't and he largely did.
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SpinThe lyrics chew as much as they bite, and the music -- ranging from twangy jazzisms to raucous blues rock -- lets Costello honor his roots while still showing off what he picked up at the conservatory. [May 2002, p.118]
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Too often, Costello strains to squeeze more musical and lyrical notions into his simple pop songs than they can hold, leaving listeners with a scattershot collection instead of a fleshed-out statement, and a merely good album instead of a great one.
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UncutWith a bit of self-pruning, a bit MORE risk and space in the production, he might have TRULY self-reinvented. [May 2002, p.90]
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Elvis makes you suffer for the good stuff with leaden conceits, overwrought hysterics, a useless reprise. And then he makes it all up to yoo-oo-oou.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 18
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Mixed: 0 out of 18
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Negative: 2 out of 18
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Feb 12, 2020
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JabezT.Sep 22, 2007
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RitaMar 21, 2005a masterpiece, no doubt one of the best albums ever, just brilliant, 100 out of 10