Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context YMMV / ElvisCostello

Go To

1* AmericansHateTingle: Zigzagged, as while he's had a fairly successful career in America, most of his albums have been far from best-sellers. The "N-word" incident hurt his early commercial momentum there.
2* ArchivePanic: He's made over thirty studio albums, plus a number of compilations containing B-sides, cast-offs, and the like.
3* AwardSnub: Infamously beaten out for Best New Artist at the 1979 UsefulNotes/{{Grammy Award}}s by Music/ATasteOfHoney.
4* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Pretty much everything he did between 1977 and 1982, especially ''Music/MyAimIsTrue'', ''Music/ThisYearsModel'', ''Armed Forces'', ''Get Happy!!'' and ''Imperial Bedroom''.
5* CommonKnowledge: Contrary to what has been reported on countless websites (including this very wiki), Costello was ''not'' his mother's maiden name. Declan [=McManus=] is the son of big band singer Ross [=McManus=] and Lillian Alda Ablett. At one point the elder [=McManus=] used the name Day Costello as a StageName, and the Costello came from his grandmother Elizabeth Costello (meaning it's Elvis' great-grandmother's maiden name).
6* CoveredUp:
7** Made Music/NickLowe's [[note]] Originally recorded by Lowe's former band Brinsley Schwarz [[/note]] "Peace, Love, and Understanding" his own.
8** In turn, Dave Edmunds did the definitive version of Costello's "Girls Talk".
9** Music/RobertWyatt's version of "Shipbuilding" is arguably better-known than Costello's version. Costello and Clive Langer originally wrote it for Wyatt -- Costello's version is actually the cover.
10* EvenBetterSequel: Although all of Costello's first three albums are highly acclaimed, ''Music/ThisYearsModel'' is generally regarded as better than ''Music/MyAimIsTrue'' thanks to the addition of the Attractions. And ''Armed Forces'' is often regarded as better than ''This Year's Model'' due to its increased musical complexity and the presence of {{Signature Song}}s "Accidents Will Happen", "Oliver's Army" and "(What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding".
11* FirstInstallmentWins: Costello's first three albums are regarded as his best and established his reputation as the "angry" pub rock/punk-adjacent and [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] singer-songwriter. While he's diversified since, he's still best known for these albums and this early persona.
12* GeniusBonus: Even SillyLoveSongs are often peppered with literary and historical references, and his lyrics in general feature a lot of clever wordplay.
13* HilariousInHindsight: Costello has used "the imposter" in several places over the years, from the 1980 song to his current backing band and even as an occasional alias. He probably didn't expect his career to become so [[MemeticMutation sus]] [[VideoGame/AmongUs in 2018]].
14* HypeBacklash: Costello feared this trope would come into play when his American label, Creator/ColumbiaRecords, promoted his 1982 album ''Imperial Bedroom'' with the tagline "Masterpiece?". Ultimately, the trope was averted; the album is regarded as one of his best by both fans and critics. In his memoir, Costello describes the company's tag choice as:
15-->"In the recipe book of disasters, that comes shortly before the instruction: ''First take your lion. Insert foot. Insert leg. Repeat with other limbs until fully consumed''."
16* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: In 1977, ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' held a contest for the GuestHost spot on that year's Christmas episode. [[ContestWinnerCameo The winner]] was Miskel Spillman, an octogenarian grandmother from UsefulNotes/NewOrleans. After learning that an old lady won the contest, the ''SNL'' production team tried to get the Music/SexPistols on as the musical guest to drum up more publicity and because they thought the contrast between the controversial punk and their elderly host would be funny. However, visa problems with the Pistols caused them to pick Elvis Costello and the Attractions instead. [[ExecutiveMeddling NBC and Costello's record label insisted]] he play "Less Than Zero", but instead he dramatically stopped the Attractions during the second line and began playing "Radio, Radio" - a song he was specifically told not to play - instead. For this he was banned for several years from the program, but ''SNL'' now actively embraces the incident as one of the coolest things to ever happen on the show. To prove this, the show asked Costello to "crash" the Music/BeastieBoys' performance of "Sabotage" during the SNL 20th Anniversary Special. After said crashing, Costello and the Beasties performed, of course, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E6fvVaVgOQ Radio, Radio]]".
17* NightmareFuel:
18** "[[ObsessionSong I Want You]]". It sounds like a sweet, gentle love song at first, but then the screeching guitar kicks in and it all goes to hell, turning into a drawn-out stalker anthem with Costello sounding more and more desperate and deranged. Just listen to the way he sings the lines 'I might as well be useless, for all it means to you'. One critic described Costello as sounding like he was 'on the end of a noose', and with good reason.
19** "This Offer Is Unrepeatable" from ''The Juliet Letters''. It's supposed to represent an extreme form of junk mail (in keeping with the album's theme of correspondence), where the receiver is promised power of life and death over the rich, amongst other things, and is asked to sign the letter in ''blood''.
20** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Slp9rDxQU Invasion Hit Parade]]. Especially after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_nightclub_shooting 20]][[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election 1]][[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit 6]].
21* OvershadowedByControversy: "Oliver's Army" is considered one of Costello's greatest songs, but it's difficult to talk about the song without acknowledging that its lyrics use the words "[[NWordPrivileges white nigger]]". The song was inspired by UsefulNotes/TheTroubles and is critical of the socioeconomic components of war, but is still embroiled in controversy over the aforementioned lyrics. [[NeverLiveItDown Costello's usage of "nigger" during a drunken rant]] in 1979—the same year "Oliver's Army" was released—doesn't help matters. Costello fans and critics will defend the use of the word as part of the song's "anti-racism" message to no end, but the controversy has largely overshadowed the song.
22* QuestionableCasting: "The Only Flame in Town" has a duet between Elvis and [[Music/DarylHallAndJohnOates Daryl Hall]]. But it's still one of the better songs on one of his most maligned albums.
23* TearJerker:
24** "[[TakeThat Tramp the Dirt Down]]''. The sheer bitterness and anger in his voice and in the lyrics is heartbreaking, especially to people who have less than positive memories of UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher.
25** "Veronica" is about Costello's grandmother suffering from late stage Alzheimer's, to the point where she's no longer sure of [[IdentityAmnesia her own name]]. The chorus even dwells on how easy it is to get frustrated with her, and assume she's just playing a joke when she doesn't recognize him.
26** "Let Him Dangle" is both this and NightmareFuel if you're familiar with the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Bentley_case Derek Bentley case]]. The howls of 'string him up' make it even worse. Costello does not hold back on describing the injustice that was done to an innocent man.

Top