Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Elvis Costello & the Attractions tabs Elvis Costello & the Attractions discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Elvis Costello & the Attractions guitar tabs

CD reviews

Punch the Clock

Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Punch the Clock Audio CD

A fair review of the Elvis Costello & the Attractions "Punch the Clock" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Elvis Costello & the Attractions reviews here, or go back to the Elvis Costello & the Attractions tabs.

Band: Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Title: Punch the Clock
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-05-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Let Them All Talk 2: Every Day I Write The Book 3: The Greatest Thing 4: The Element Within Her 5: Love Went Mad 6: Shipbuilding 7: TKO (Boxing Day) 8: Charm School 9: The Invisible Man 10: Mouth Almighty 11: King Of Thieves 12: Pills & Soap 13: The World And His Wife

Elvis Blows His Horn
Because that was always a favorite song of mine personally this album,knowing the tune was on it and the 45RPM had the same cover art it was something I was always curious about. My first ever exposure to Elvis Costello was through the song "Everyday I Write The Book",an excellent bit of 80's Brit-Soul and to be honest my only musical impression of him. So when I finaly got it I was hoping it was consistant. A lot of Elvis Costello fans have mixed feelings about it and are always saying things like it's uneven or just not their cup of tea. Being primarily a lover of R&B,soul and funk of all sorts I was hoping this album would have at least a few things that were likeminded. Even with all this expections I was more then happy with what I heard when I listened to it. For my own ears,maybe not yours this is easily one of my favorite albums he's done. It might be biased because if your an R&B fan,this is one of his recordings that will likely most interest you. As with Boz Scaggs and many others Elvis wasn't going for a retro project such as the 60's soul inflected hodgepodge of something like Get Happy!!. The R&B here isn't implied:it's part of the whole picture. And it's very contemporary to the period. One reason is the addition of the TKO horns,a great way to augment the already talented Attractions and those horns sound great on every track here. This album takes the element of brilliant writing and songcrafting that came into it's own on Trust and yes,many of the songs here are great rockers,and contempory ones too. "Let Them All Talk","The Greatest Thing","The Invisable Man","Mouth Almighty","King Of Thieves" and "Love Went Mad" all really augment the classic Attractions pop/rock style and add a tasteful polish and soulful power that. . . . . well certainly goes just right next to what Paul Weller was doing around the same time with his Introducing the Style Council and especially Our Favourite Shop-a blend of politics,soul and jazzy pop styles. Where this goes different is that the variety works more as a musical whole and the nature of the lyrics,as usual have a more poetic,reflective flavor as well as being tangy. Needless to say even in such good company this album has a huge ammount of highlites. One of them is the weary jazz of "Shipbuilding". Chet Baker's fine soloing and the night time flavor of the music in general really leaps right out. The bass playing of Bruce Thomas has become tighter and slappy which really carry forward on "TKO (Boxing Day)" and "Charm School",both punchy funk tunes that are two of my favorite cuts on the general album. The album ends with "Pills And Soap" and another excellent tune in "The World And His Wife",both of which round out this album with the best of it's qualities. Elvis Costello sounds like a fully mature and contemporary artist here and even though keyboards,rhythms and horns are the basis for this music rather then beats and guitars the melody,along with Elvis's ever increasingly excellent singing shines on all 13 of the tunes on this recording. It's one of Elvis & The Attractions most successful turns as a pure contemporary pop album and doesn't sacrifice any of their bite or original flavor in doing so. The heavy R&B,jazz and funk content here actually helps enhance that quality rather then hinders it. And once that comes to your mind you'll find this is a much deserved classic. It's not a whole lot like their earlier sound but Elvis has always had the ability to happily surprise his listeners and in this case he sure did with me.

Have we come this fa fa far to find a soul cliche?
He made an album absolutely nothing like the one we'd all been listening to for the entire previous year. Flush with artistic raves and the critical success of "Imperial Bedroom," Elvis Costello did exactly what we should have expected him to do. I even remember a scathing review of this album at the time that opened with a comment akin to "Well, nobody's going to call this album a masterpiece. "

OK, so that was a pretty accurate assessment. "Punch The Clock" was a maniacally obsessive pop album, primarily due to the choice of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley as producers. Their track momentum was unstoppable at the time, and they wrapped EC and the Attractions with soul vocals, punchy horns and a free swinging style of production that was the polar opposite of Nick Lowe's. If you can, imagine "Get Happy" with more breathing space in the songs.

The result might have been "Punch The Clock's" irresistibly catchy opening track "Let Them All Talk. " L&W layered the production with what was common to the period. . . the lush horns, the steamy r'n'b pulse, etc. Just as important was their finger on the popbeat of the moment, which suddenly saw Elvis flirting with the American Top 40 via "Everyday I Write The Book. " While the video was more topical than the song, it didn't mean Elvis was shying away from biting lyrics. "Punch The Clock" is loaded with such notable quotes like "I wish you luck with a capitol F" and "He said 'are you cold,' she said 'no but you are,' la la la. "

It also didn't mean that Elvis' definition of "pop" didn't include some heartfelt jabs at the current state of England. This being the era that produced Reagen-Thatcher and the Falklands War, the songs "Pills and Soap" and "Shipbuilding" were remarkable for their inclusion among the giddy pop of "The Greatest Thing" or "Mouth Almighty. " The understated, elegant lyric, along with a perfect solo from Chet Baker made "Shipbuilding" not only the best song on "Punch The Clock," but one of the outstanding songs in EC's library.

Given the success of the album (it was one of EC's first albums to reach gold status in sales), it made sense that L&W would be around for the next. If you really want to gauge how underrated "Punch The Clock" usually is, just give an re-listen to "Goodbye Cruel World," the undisciplined follow-up.

Over twenty years later, "Punch The Clock" has definitely aged well. Which means the answer to the opening line is no cliches here, but some strong 80's pop as only Elvis and the Attractions could shape it. .

Have we come this far to find a soul cliche?
He made an album absolutely nothing like the one we'd all been listening to for the entire previous year. Flush with artistic raves and the critical success of "Imperial Bedroom," Elvis Costello did exactly what we should have expected him to do. I even remember a scathing review of this album at the time that opened with a comment akin to "Well, nobody's going to call this album a masterpiece. "

OK, so that was a pretty accurate assessment. "Punch The Clock" was a maniacally obsessive pop album, primarily due to the choice of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley as producers. Their track momentum was unstoppable at the time, and they wrapped EC and the Attractions with soul vocals, punchy horns and a free swinging style of production that was the polar opposite of Nick Lowe's. If you can, imagine "Get Happy" with more breathing space in the songs.

The result might have been "Punch The Clock's" irresistibly catchy opening track "Let Them All Talk. " L&W layered the production with what was common to the period. . . the lush horns, the steamy r'n'b pulse, etc. Just as important was their finger on the popbeat of the moment, which suddenly saw Elvis flirting with the American Top 40 via "Everyday I Write The Book. " While the video was more topical than the song, it didn't mean Elvis was shying away from biting lyrics. "Punch The Clock" is loaded with such notable quotes like "I wish you luck with a capitol F" and "He said 'are you cold,' she said 'no but you are,' la la la. "

It also didn't mean that Elvis' definition of "pop" didn't include some heartfelt jabs at the current state of England. This being the era that produced Reagen-Thatcher and the Falklands War, the songs "Pills and Soap" and "Shipbuilding" were remarkable for their inclusion among the giddy pop of "The Greatest Thing" or "Mouth Almighty. " The understated, elegant lyric, along with a perfect solo from Chet Baker made "Shipbuilding" not only the best song on "Punch The Clock," but one of the outstanding songs in EC's library.

Given the success of the album (it was one of EC's first albums to reach gold status in sales), it made sense that L&W would be around for the next. If you really want to gauge how underrated "Punch The Clock" usually is, just give an re-listen to "Goodbye Cruel World," the undisciplined follow-up. Over twenty years later, "Punch The Clock" has definitely aged well. Which means the answer to the opening line is no cliches here, but some strong 80's pop as only Elvis and the Attractions could shape it.

.

You can see a complete list of all Elvis Costello & the Attractions discography, or go back to the Elvis Costello & the Attractions tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.