Graeme Thomson, Complicated Shadows: The Life and Music of Elvis Costello

Relying on secondary sources almost surely familiar already to Elvis trainspotters (magazine interviews, radio documentaries, reissue-CD liner notes), and often falling back on tour itineraries, set lists, or studio logs when narrative momentum is lacking, Thomson nevertheless paints a coherent portrait of the once-and-future Declan P. McManus. Surprisingly, the picture doesn’t differ all that much from the effigy used by Costello’s detractors: a restless shape-shifter hungry for approval from the arbiters not only of rock but also of country, popular song, classical, and jazz. In Thomson’s view, of course, Costello is neither opportunist nor arriviste but an original and eclectic musical mind unwilling to be hamstrung by the limitations of any particular genre. Still, Thomson leaves the (in my opinion) essential question unasked and unanswered: If Costello is so effortlessly proficient at so many different styles, why is it that his relatively brief stint under the punk/New Wave banner resulted in work so much more visceral and lasting than that of not just the majority of his rock contemporaries but any of his other musical incarnations?

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