in the midst of listening to this album now, realising that indeed, i did miss 1989 from my pass through the #10s last week... i really didn't miss much -- i've been disappointed in this album for 23 years, frankly... not sure how this was the 10th best album of 1989 -- it wasn't the 10th best album that elvis costello recorded...
if you're unfamiliar with his work, listen to anything at all from 'my aim is true' to 'blood and chocolate' and skip this, because it's a shame that this would be anyone's first port of call for his work... there is absolutely zero focus on this album -- it's a bit like he went to a record store, decided to write down all the genres they stocked, and recorded a song from each... it's not that there aren't good songs on the album -- it's that as a unified, single musical statement, it fails... i'm not even sure he's that proud of it anymore -- i've seen him in concert a few times, and except for 'veronica', you don't hear much from 'spike' ever...
i've wandered out onto the interwebs to read positive reviews on this LP from back in the day -- and they think its being all over the place is what's good about it... i reckon that this praise was just a bunch of folks being pleased he was back on the scene after a few years of self-imposed silence... this IS an elvis costello album, after all, so there are darts, barbs and tripwires all over the place... i'm sure he'd been missed -- little could these critics have known how prolific and diverse he'd become (with MUCH more focus) after this...
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