After seeing Ben Folds in concert recently my sister made the astute observation that Folds is half sensitive, perceptive songwriter and half obnoxious frat boy. She’s a big fan of the former and not too keen on the latter, and was upset that the frat boy played a prominent role in the live show.
Well, Eminem is sort of like that times a thousand. He’s guilty of some of the most obnoxious, juvenile and downright stupid lyrics known to man but he’s also capable of real insight and emotional honesty. Songs such as ‘Stan,’ ‘Cleaning Out My Closet’ and ‘Sing for the Moment’ are both great music and gut-wrenching poetry. But ‘Big Weenie,’ ‘Ass Like That’ and ‘Cum on Everybody’ … well, I’ll let the titles speak for themselves.
A year after The Juliet Letters, Costello’s most adventurous album to date, he reunited with The Attractions and put out what critics hailed as a return to old-school form.
OK, when an artist’s new release is a concept album about written correspondence performed entirely with a string quartet, he’s admittedly opening himself up to charges of pretentiousness. So yes, The Juliet Letters is sort of by definition a pretentious album.
Probably the most notable thing about Costello’s next album, Mighty Like a Rose, is the monstrous beard he grew to accompany its release. Costello says he grew the beard to get through an Irish winter and kept it around because it irritated people so much.
Following the double dip in 1986, Costello waited three years to put out his next album. During that time he signed with Warner Brothers and, as he tells it in the liner notes of Spike, was given a boatload of cash to make his next album. As a result, Costello writes, he took the five potential albums swimming around in his head and put them all out as one.
