Elvis Costello & The Attractions "Get Happy!" 1980

Get Happy!! was born as much from sincere love for soul as it was for Elvis Costello's desire to distance himself from an unfortunate verbal faux pas where he insulted Ray Charles in an attempt to get Stephen Stills' goat...
...Either way, it resulted in a 20-song blue-eyed soul tour de force, where Costello doesn't just want to prove his love, he wants to prove his knowledge. So, he tries everything, starting with Motown and Northern soul, then touching on smooth uptown ballads and gritty Southern soul, even finding common ground between the two by recasting Sam & Dave's "I Can't Stand Up (For Falling Down)" as a careening stomper. What's remarkable is that this approach dovetails with the pop carnival essayed by Armed Forces, standing as a full-fledged Costello record instead of a genre exercise. As it furiously flits through 20 songs, Costello's cynicisms, rage, humor, and misanthropic sensibility gel remarkably well. Some songs may not quite hit their targets, but that's part of the album's charm -- it moves so fast that its lesser songs rush by on the way to such full-fledged masterpieces as "New Amsterdam," "High Fidelity," and "Riot Act." Get Happy!! bursts with energy and invention, standing as a testament to how Costello, the pop encyclopedia, can reinvent the past in his own image. - Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
traxfromwax:
1 I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down 2 Black & White World 3 Five Gears In Reverse 4 B Movie 5 Motel Matches 6 Human Touch 7 Beaten To The Punch 8 Temptation 9 I Stand Accused 10 Riot Act 11 Love For Tender 12 Opportunity 13 The Imposter 14 Secondary Modern 15 King Horse 16 Possession 17 Man Called Uncle 18 Clowntime Is Over 19 New Amsterdam 20 High Fidelity
Ripped from Vinyl by RYP with Audacity 3.2.3 : Thorens TD 318/Audio-Technica 95E - Yamaha A-S301 - Q Acoustics 3020i / Yamaha NS-SW050