Goodbye Cruel World (Elvis Costello album)
Goodbye Cruel World is the ninth studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, and his eighth with the Attractions—keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation). It was released on 18 June 1984 through F-Beat Records in the United Kingdom and Columbia Records in the United States. Produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, who returned from 1983's Punch the Clock, the album was recorded at London's Sarm West Studios in March 1984 during a period of turmoil for the artist. The problematic sessions included disagreements between Costello and the producers over the album's direction and high tensions amongst the Attractions.
Goodbye Cruel World
The album features a commercial pop sound in line with music trends of the time. The mostly downbeat lyrics reflect Costello's personal upheavals at the time, including his failing marriage. Daryl Hall and Green Gartside contributed guest vocals to the singles "The Only Flame in Town" and "I Wanna Be Loved", respectively. The cover artwork features Costello and the band on a cliffside against a blue sky, while the title, taken from an obscure 1960s single, was intended as black humour.
Costello supported Goodbye Cruel World through music videos and tours, both solo and with the Attractions. Upon release, the album sold poorly, reaching number 10 in the UK and number 35 in the US. Critically, it received mixed reviews and retrospective reviews consider it one of Costello's weakest releases, most criticising its production as dated. Costello himself expressed disappointment with the record. Critics felt the album's 2004 reissue, featuring stripped-down demo versions, redeemed many of the tracks.
Background[edit]
Elvis Costello released his eighth studio album Punch the Clock in August 1983. With a mainstream pop-soul sound fashioned by one of England's top production duos at the time, Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, the record rebounded from the commercial disappointment of 1982's Imperial Bedroom, reaching number three in the United Kingdom and number 24 in the United States.[1][2][3] To support the album, Costello and his backing band the Attractions—keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation)—toured for the rest of the year. The additions of the horns and backing singers, who played on Punch the Clock, to the shows added tensions between Costello and the band, who felt sidelined. Costello was also suffering personal crises at the time, having resumed his affair with model Bebe Buell, leading to the breakdown of his marriage.[4]
Believing the songs on Punch the Clock lacked refinement, which he partly attributed to the production, Costello spent December 1983 and January 1984 writing songs in an unused F-Beat Records office above a hair salon in Acton, London. Equipped with an electric piano, guitar and canvas to paint on when he ran out of ideas, he applied "more craft and focus", recording demos of "The Great Unknown", "Worthless Thing" and "Peace in Our Time" at London's Eden Studios.[a][2][4][6] According to author Graeme Thomson, there was a "a reflective, narrative thread to the new songs".[4] In mid-February 1984, Costello and the Attractions road-tested nine of the new record's 13 songs on a short six-date tour in France. Tensions between them continued and by the time recording for the new album started, the artist had privately decided it would be his last album with the Attractions.[4]
Packaging[edit]
The album's title came from an little-known 1960s single written by James Darlin.[2] According to Costello, it was intended as black humour.[5] Brian Griffin, who took the inner shots for Armed Forces (1979), shot photos for the Goodbye Cruel World album sleeve in Montpellier before the recording sessions began. The cover artwork is adorned by two trees on top of a cliffside, where Costello and the band—two in white and two in black—reside against a bright blue sky.[2][14] Hinton says that Nieve looks like a fencer while Costello appears ready for a fist fight. Analysing the slightly oft-centred photograph, Hinton believes it has "an unsettling background of pure sky, as if the whole hillock is ascending to heaven. Perhaps all four are dead, and on their way to the afterworld."[2] Gouldstone calls the sleeve "playfully enigmatic", encouraging listeners to explore the music inside.[14]
On the back cover, the musicians melt into the background: Pete Thomas appears in a supernatural-like state; Bruce Thomas is seen from the back covered by a grid of red and blue lines; Costello lacks his glasses; Nieve is represented by a fencer's visor against a flowery backdrop.[2][14] On the inner sleeve, Costello's self-portrait fragments into jigsaw pieces, half of which have flown away.[2]
According to the album's 1995 liner notes:[6]
with:
Technical