Elvis Costello's Armed Forces

Description

Thirty-Three and a Third is a series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the past 40 years. Over 50,000 copies have been sold! "Passionate, obsessive, and smart." -Nylon "...an inspired new series of short books about beloved works of vinyl." -Details Franklin Bruno's writing about music has appeared in the Village Voice, Salon, LA Weekly, and Best Music Writing 2003 (Da Capo). He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from UCLA, and his musical projects include Tempting: Jenny Toomey Sings the Songs of Franklin Bruno (Misra) and A Cat May Look At A Queen (Absolutely Kosher), a solo album. He lives in Los Angeles.

Franklin Bruno's criticism has appeared in The Believer, Slate, Salon, Best Music Writing 2003 (Da Capo), and Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music (Duke University Press). After several records as a member of Nothing Painted Blue and as a solo artist, his most recent musical project is Civics, the debut CD by The Human Hearts (Tight Ship); he is also a recording and occasional touring member of The Mountain Goats. He has taught philosophy at UCLA, Pomona College, and Northwestern University; currently, he is Visiting Assistant Professor at Bard College.

...Bruno's structure of alphabeticised installments allows him to pursue the romantic and political brutality explored on Armed Forces far and wide...the intelligent, slightly feverish companion that Armed Forces deserves. * Uncut * I'm convinced that Franklin Bruno knows more about Armed Forces than even Elvis Costello does. His dense interrogation of the album traces its roots through punk back to Ray Charles and Burt Bacharach, examining the nuanced integration of so many different styles into something new, fierce, and idiosyncratic ... As contradictory and as caustic as his subject can be, Bruno understands that Costello's shortcomings only make him more fascinating as a human and more compelling as a guy trying to figure out how to rebel against the rock'n'roll establishment. -- Stephen M. Deusner * Pitchfork * I decided to give this book a try precisely because it's by Bruno, both a musician and a poet, which gave me hope that he could get inside the music technically and yet communicate it beyond the technical. Plus, who better than a poet to handle Costello's gnarly wordplay with aplomb? It was a good bet. Listening to Armed Forces again for the first time in ages after having read Bruno's analysis, I could hear more in it. -- Barry Schwabsky * Hyperallergic *