Trust

Certain Songs #407: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – “New Lace Sleeves”

December 30, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Trust
Year: 1981

Some songs sneak up on you. They take days, weeks, months, years to reveal themselves to you. In the case of “New Lace Sleeves,” it took almost 35 years.

I literally didn’t realize how much I loved it until last week. In terms of songs from Trust, I always knew that I would post “Strict Time,” but I figured I’d go with “Clubland” or “From a Whisper to a Scream,” and while those last two are great songs, “New Lace Sleeves” is the one I realized I loved the most.

Certain Songs #406: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – “Strict Time”

December 29, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Trust
Year: 1981

Coming in between the genre exercises of Get Happy!! and Almost Blue (not to mention the 20 song odds and sods Taking Liberties), even at the time Trust seemed to be a victim of Costello’s almost unprecedented prolificness.

It was all too much to digest. Of course, with the benefit of 35 years, it’s clear that Trust is one of his most consistently excellent albums, and and is weirdly underrated because its basically the only album of his early period not to have a musical framing device.