Trust This is a transitional album, perhaps more so than Get Happy!!, as EC moved away from the earlier New Wave stylings to a broader pop - I'm going to say sophisto-pop - direction. Earlier, we had hints that he admired songwriters like Burt Bacharach, and he followed that path further on Trust. Dabbling with different types of popular music more than ever before, we can see that he was wanting to move his career away from being pigeon-holed within a sub-genre, maybe to reach a larger audience in the long run. Personal difficulties probably limited his success at the time, but he was moving. Not everything worked, although we can see through our explorations of Trust that almost all of his attempts reached his listeners differently. There were a few failures such as 'Luxembourg' that few of us liked, and more than a few that were liked/loved by most of us. And then the others. Not disliking the song, I didn't comment on 'Big Sister's Clothes' because I didn't connect to it at all. My feelings about some of the others I rated below very good range from 'meh' to 'good'. My favorites in order of appearance: 'Clubland', 'You'll Never Be a Man', 'Strict Time', 'New Lace Sleeves', and 'From a Whisper to a Scream'. Overall, I think that Trust is a very good album 4.2/5 (8.4/10)
Good assessment. Credit also for the ability to turn the pen on himself and realise he also could be a tool sometimes. This can be seen in some of the songwriting. A change, or break from the accusatory, angry young man persona.
Trust Many of the songs sound stylistically very different from all the previous albums, with non-standard structures and melodic detours, and these are the songs I enjoy most on the album - remarkably the group consensus is very similar to my own rankings. Although I only gave top marks to 2 songs, there are plenty of others just bubbling under, and only one real clunker, so this exercise has made me realise that I play Trust less often than I should because I tend to pick the albums with my obvious favourites on them, whereas Trust has more than enough of the 'bubbling unders' to make it a great listen. 4/5 P.S. it would have been even better with "Black Sails..." on there.
FWIW my Trust album opinions. Off to a kicking smart start with a 5/5 in Clubland. I'm back to hearing classic Costello tunes like Radio Radio and Pump It Up. I do wish the band could have stretched out a bit more either before the bridge or after it but this is a near best of or greatest hits-like tune all around. Lovers Walk manages the feat of being both simultaneously slight and overwrought. No small feat. I want to say it stinks but that is too harsh but is the first misstep in mostly what will next flow into an otherwise cohesive musical side of songwriting and arranging which resumes with You'll Never Be A Man. Both Clubland and Man move like a fine pair. The songs open up and evolve as they gain their momentum. The paired vocals in both songs add to the attraction. Pretty Words is also musically effective and maybe even ambitious in how it develops in structure and time. Fits in musically with Clubland and You'll Never Be A Man. All 3 of them have a flow with enough changes and dynamics to share a common style and cohesiveness. No words of consolation, just cartoons and chitter chat(ter) a favorite line amidst a favorite last verse. Like the 'woo' backing vocals through the last chorus. Strict Time gets off to a promising start with the funky guitar riff. Not my favorite but includes an amusing floating, repeating chorus line drifting through the song as well as an effective, melodic half-chorus to break with the strict time the band and lyric are focused on. Not my favorite set of lyrics on Trust but a good album track. Does it fit with the first 3 songs? Sonicaly it kind of does even if not stylistically. Luxembourg. In this context, an immediate skip. Watch Your Step continues what would otherwise be a strong and cohesive side of songwriting, performances, arrangements, with Clubland, You'll Never Be A Man, Pretty Words, Strict Time, and now Watch Your Step. Then there are some of the non-LP Trust tracks coming up later to maybe add to side 1 unless for New Lace Sleeves. If New Lace Sleeves ended the side as above, it'd be pretty much a perfect side or close to it. And then I lose some faith in the album. The cheesy in too many ways From A Whisper. Torture but for Bruce Thomas. Way too long and goofy. Different Ring is an interesting title imo in that the lyric refers to rings in the plural. I think the title is a pun re: the style of music having a different ring to it as well as the subject matter. I like this one alright. It's musically modest and kind of slight but effective. There's no denying the melodic qualities of White Knuckles. It seems to go from violence to insight to preaching to silliness to confusion all in the same song. I feel similarly about Shot with regards to melody and performance but gives me the impression of a Springsteen soap opera. Reminds me a bit of Lost in the Flood and even Thunder Road on piano now that I think about it but not as precise and vivid, imo, with the imagery or characters or story. It's still a bit of a mystery to me but that's okay too. Fish N Chip Paper redeems this side a bit, for a moment, if for forgetting that Sleeves opened it with much fanfare. As does Big Sister's Clothes redeem the side for me a little more. The couple are a pair of little victories and good footnotes to end the proper album on. 3.75/5. With a few of the bonus tracks in other places on the proper album, a sure 4/5. Throwing out a few lines re: if Big Sis refers to or is about Thatcher as per EC as per mentioned upthread. I was thinking 'kid glove' as opposed to 'iron lady' and the idea of deception and persona vs. reality? The sheep get slaughtered either 'in the name of love' (oh I thought this must be love) or through sheer devotion or convention. You think she's a dish but she's really bought and paid for serving only her own interests or those of the elite (royalty) or her priorities and interests lie elsewhere hence the rest of the line she is the blue chip that belongs to the big fish. Sister see, sister do perhaps blindly following, dutifully, even sincerely. Easier to say I love you than yours sincerely. I'm just going with the lyrics and what was said upthread that was related. I can't figure it out but trying to answer that question a little bit. Was also wondering about the title as it might relate to a play on the emperor has no clothes.
Just listened through the whole album from Clubland to Big Sisters Clothes and I enjoyed every second of it! It’s as good as it ever was, and I like it exactly the way it is. Not that I would put Luxembourg or Fish ’N’ Chip Paper on a mix tape/play list, but in the context of Trust I enjoy them very much and never skip them. Consistency isn’t everything and imperfection isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In that way Trust reminds me of the White Album (which I believe @eeglug mentioned somewhere upthread). It has been a great experience rediscovering this album and it has been enlightening and enriching to read other people’s comments on it. In particular, I appreciate the discussion of White Knuckles and the various interpretations of it. It made me see this song in a different light (or rather different lights). I hear a different Elvis compared to the previous albums. His words and his voice speak more directly to me. He sounds more earnest, more desperate. The lyrics are often obscure, but less so than before. Top 5 Pretty Words Watch Your Steps New Lace Sleeves Big Sisters Clothes Clubland Album ranking 1. Trust 5/5 2. Get Happy!! (5/5) 3. This Years Model (4.75/5) 4. Armed Forces (4.5/5) 5. My Aim is True (3.5/5) Not familiar with the bonus songs coming up. I’m excited to hear them for the first time.
As I've said before, I think Trust is underrated, even though it's uneven. Even the stuff I don't like has its place in the sonic tapestry, which on the whole I love. The album has a particular mood and sensibility that marks early 1981 in my mind, a time I miss more as the years go by. Tier 1 (5/5): "Pretty Words," "Watch Your Step," "New Lace Sleeves," "White Knuckles" Tier 2 (4+/5): "You'll Never Be a Man," "Strict Time," "Fish 'n' Chip Paper," "Big Sister's Clothes" Tier 3 (3+/5): "Clubland," "Lovers Walk," "From a Whisper to a Scream," "Different Finger" Tier 4 (1-2/5): "Luxembourg," "Shot with His Own Gun" Even with the two losers, this adds up to a 4.5/5 album in my book. Updated album ranking: This Year's Model Get Happy!! Trust My Aim Is True Armed Forces
Trust Definitely seemed to wilt under the song-by-song analysis here. I find it plays a little bit better and I've always considered it listenable, if uneven, there's also a certain conservatism to the way it sounds. Seems like the engineer EQ'd and mixed everything in the identical way to This Year's Model, which didn't always get the best from the songs. It does include New Lace Sleeves though, which is spellbinding and shows the way forward. This was the first record by him I didn't listen to in real time, I searched it out a few years later, it's still Elvis and The Attractions at the end of the day, there's good stuff to be found amidst some less than stellar moments.
Trust: 3/5 Good melodies, clever lyrics, but ill-fitting production. Should we take a moment and discuss the over-arching theme of the lyrics? I mean, what do these songs say to you when you add them all up? What is the sum of all of the themes? What I get from it is that men and women are not to be trusted, virtually all relationships are flawed or worse, and love is more misery than ecstasy. This kind of paranoiac worldview was novel on My Aim Is True, brilliant on This Year's Model, but starts to wear thin by Trust. At some point, you have to start thinking that if someone is so damned smart, then how come they don't know how to enjoy life? There's a difference between intelligence and wisdom. E.C. was intelligent. But as his songs pile up, I question how much wisdom he really had. Maybe I was wrong back in high school when I figured Elvis was some sort of sage and David Lee Roth was the king of all idiots. Maybe the truly wise know that we're only young once and that's the time to yell "Everybody Wants Some!!" and not dissect the problems and flaws with everyone and everything. There will be more than enough time later, when we're no longer young, energetic, and cute.
FWIW, since this review ends soon, circa 1983, another tidbit from the Rolling Stone Record Guide... He is a burning and committed, if ultimately limited, guitarist and singer whose passion can be utterly overwhelming; should Costello reacquire the discipline he seemed to be gaining on each of his first 3 LPs, he may yet eclipse all the competition. Trust left a number of questions----including his commercial future----utterly unresolved. The review goes on to say the album had sound and production issues. About a paragraph's worth of related kinds of issues of that sort re: Trust and another paragraph about the album and EC in general. Still, it received a 3/5. I did have a US Columbia pressing for awhile and compared to the UK Porky, the US Columbia record I had sounded closer to what is described negatively in the review. The UK Porky sounds excellent to me fwiw. I like the Rhino CD's as well.
Trust My overall impression is that the album is a bit uneven. But that's maybe not borne out by my scoring on the individual songs. I'm not 100% sure I like the sequencing of this album - or maybe it's just that there are some startling changes of genre that throw me off. It does have some truly excellent songs on this album - Clubland, New Lace Sleeves, Strict Time, Watch Your Step, White Knuckles. Some very good songs and then a couple that I'm just neutral on. Collectively, and for any other artist, that would probably add up to a really good album, but I guess I've been spoilt by going through the coherence of the preceding albums (particularly Get Happy!!), and so this album seems patchier than it actually is. Since I don't keep track of my own scores, my feeling is that Trust somehow ranks below all the preceding albums. That's not a knock on Trust. It's just the others are so good... That being said, 4/5, I like at least half of this album a real lot and the rest is stuff I'm happy to listen to.
I really wanted to like Trust when I first got it, but it was one of those albums where I had to listen to it a few times for some, even most, of the songs to sink in. Before long I did like the album, but it’s like many Elvis albums: it can take a while until I “get” the album. The sequencing is not great, I remember making a cassette tape with my own song order, that helped. Buying the British pressing after struggling with the US Columbia for a few weeks was the real turning point in liking Trust. What I’ve said about a couple of songs on Trust goes for the whole album. I’m not sure if I’m going to like it when I put it on, but I always do (I often skip a couple of songs.) There are several songs I’m always glad to hear and a couple I think are among his very best (“From A Whisper To A Scream” and “Pretty Words”). The songs I don’t like as much are still good to hear every so often, even though I might not have rated them very high. After all this equivocating, I have to say it’s an album I like a lot, but as whole I can’t quite say that I quite love it. 4.4/5
Trust shows that Elvis was developing his songwriting but it's a little uneven. There is some added lyrical depth, musical diversity but perhaps the excessive drinking that Elvis speaks of reduced his focus. The album's production is overall good, a step up from Get Happy which seemed a little muddy. If i remember correctly the critics praised the album. In hindsight I think of it as a transitional album that doesn't live up to the previous albums but has many positives. I did listen to it a lot and enjoy it. It's got some great songs that aren't obvious singles, but exceptionally good album tracks. For many artists it would be a career highlight, however for Costello it's tier two. Score 4.3/5
Trust - bought it upon release. Although it did not reach the heights of Get Happy, I considered it then, and now, to be a solid album. A few clunkers but Side 2, with the exception of Fish N Chip Paper, is one of EC's best sides. 4/5 So far, my order: Get Happy 5/5 This Year's Model 5/5 Trust 4/5 My Aim Is True 3.75/5 Armed Forces 3.5/5
Trust - Elvis cranked out four very good to great albums, plus a compilation of 20 very good to great songs, in three and a half years. Burnout was inevitable. The songs and arrangements here are tired and uninspired. By this point, Elvis can easily string together puns and create decent pastiches of better material, but the end result is just a lot of sound and fury. As another band remarked a few years later, "it's such a fine line between stupid and clever", and Elvis finds himself on the wrong side of that line way too often on this album. When I listened to the whole thing before we started on it in this thread, I said to myself, "Oh, that's why I haven't listened to this in years." There are a few bright spots, but not enough to make me want to listen to it again, until I've forgotten just how mediocre it is. 2/5
Heh I knew I'd get your goat with my Get Happy!!!!!!! ranking. I'm sure you'll return the favor when we get to Imperial Bedroom... Happily, though my daughter is an emerging fan of the three artists I'm participating in song-by-song threads about (Bowie, Dylan, Elvis) (Bowie in particular, pre-Let's Dance), she's shown no interest in joining in here, so my sins against good taste will remain concealed (and she's a big Imperial Bedroom fan too, so...)
Trust finds Elvis maturing musically and transitioning into the great songwriter he would quickly become. Not that there weren't plenty of signs of this on his first four albums (plus the odds & ends collection), but there was a certain immaturity to most of that material that is less evident on Trust, where our lad seems a bit more grown up. It's by no means a perfect album - "Luxembourg" is the one clear weak spot but "Different Finger" and "White Knuckles" also drag things down a touch - but I find it a more enjoyable listen than either My Aim Is True or Armed Forces. "Clubland", "Strict Time", "Pretty Words", "You'll Never Be A Man", and "New Lace Sleeves" are among my favorite all-time EC songs. I think he's singing better here than on any of his earlier albums and the band just sounds better (partly due to the higher production qualities). The thing I enjoy most is that the album doesn't limit itself stylistically but instead ranges all over the musical map. It's never boring to me. Ranking his (non-compilation) albums thus far, the hardest choice is between Get Happy!! and Trust for the second spot. I'll give it ever so slightly to GH due to the number of songs and "Riot Act"!! 1. This Year's Model 2. Get Happy!! 3. Trust 4. Armed Forces 5. My Aim Is True
I think the whole `pub-rock` hangover (literally) was dragging him down at this point...Jake Riviera manages Squeeze, so okay, EC`s producing Squeeze, but also has Glenn Tillbrook on Trust. Plus Martin Belmont, who was playing live with Nick Lowe...on the same song. It had all got too incestuous and maybe the `clique-yness` was getting darker...if you`re drinking too much, even harder-drinking Nick Lowe may be the wrong producer for you. It`s significant EC`s next album was 6000 miles away in Nashville with the God-fearing no-nonsense Bobby Sherrill...away from British drinking culture and Jake and Nick and Martin and Glenn..
I'm not sure about your feelings on country music but the next album may be a challenge for you. You will likely enjoy the one after that!
Today’s song is “Black Sails In The Sunset” Written by Elvis Costello Elvis Costello Wiki entry – Black Sails In The Sunset Personnel Elvis Costello – vocals, guitar Steve Nieve – keyboards Bruce Thomas – bass Pete Thomas – drums This was a bonus track on 1994 and 2003 reissues of Trust.
