One at a Time: "Armed Forces" (1979) by Elvis Costello and The Attractions

#482 "Armed Forces" (1979) by Elvis Costello and The Attractions

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.


I think that part of the reason that my big-ass re-rank of Rolling Stone's 2003 list of 500 Greatest Album's slowed down so much was that in using a random number generator to select the album I would do next, I was on occasion completely unprepared. I'm trying to listen to as many of these in advance of writing about them, but it's hard to pre-listen to the one that's going to get randomly selected. So, I'm going to start listening to ones that I don't know that well in preparation, but writing and ranking ones that I already own and have heard before.

So, starting at the bottom (for no reason at all) and going up to the first album that I know well enough to write about right now, we've got "Armed Forces" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions from 1979.

"Armed Forces" is a little over-long - there's only twelve tracks but even that is a little bit too much filler here. Overall, the songs structures and shells, as written, are excellent as per Costello's standard, but it could probably stand to lose a few tracks. It's not that any specific one is bad, it's just that sometimes you need to find the weakest and cut it. Obviously, the big songs are fantastic...the "Accidents Will Happen"s and the "Oliver's Army"s, and I don't know what song I'd actually cut, but the point still stands. Also, while the tunes and the lyrics are always astounding, the production at times might seem like a bit much. Almost like there was crazy disco versions of these songs that got cut, but there's still some traces of that production.

Depending on what version we're looking at, the UK version or the US version, the album also has one of Costello's best songs, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding." Written by Costello's friend and producer on this album (plus the two preceding this and the two succeeding) Nick Lowe, the song as recorded by Costello was included as a B-Side to Lowe's single "American Squirm," and then included on the US editions of "Armed Forces."

I've never really heard of that happening, where a B-Side is a song performed by a different artist, but Costello's version was produced by Lowe, and recorded a few years after Lowe's band Brinsley Schwarz's version. Nick Lowe never recorded his own version of it.

The song is so wonderful in its earnestness and sincerity, which stands out here even more so when it's coming from detached and sarcastic-spewing hipster-irony-types like Costello and Lowe. It's all right there in the title.

Because I'm being generous, I'm imagining this album with that song, which seriously boosts it in my eyes. "Armed Forces" is going to debut at number 10 on the list of albums so far, below "The Bends" but above "Stop Making Sense".

1. "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" (1963) by Bob Dylan
2. "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" (1973) by Bruce Springsteen 
3. "Tapestry" (1971) by Carole King
4. "Tea for the Tillerman" (1970) by Cat Stevens 
5. "Car Wheels On a Gravel Road" (1998) by Lucinda Williams 
6. "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" (1974) by Richard and Linda Thompson
7. "Number One Record" (1972) by Big Star
8. "Bookends" (1968) by Simon and Garfunkel
9. "The Bends" (1995) by Radiohead
10. "Armed Forces" (1979) by Elvis Costello and The Attractions
10. "Stop Making Sense" (1984) by The Talking Heads
11. "Honky Chateau" (1972) by Elton John 
12. "Green River" (1969) by Creedance Clearwater Revival
12. "Burnin'" (1973) by The Wailers 
13. "The Rolling Stones Now!" (1965) by The Rolling Stones
14. "Born Under A Bad Sign" (1967) by Albert King
15. "Heaven Up Here" (1981) by Echo and the Bunnymen
16. "The Slim Shady LP" (1999) by Eminem