There ain’t nobody like Elvis but Elvis. And I don’t mean Presley.
Elvis Costello is a singular figure in the history of pop music, encapsulating the purest forms of aloof cool, punk sneering, and pop songcraft.
But knowing him mostly as a new wave icon, I was surprised to hear that one of his most highly regarded albums is a piece of orchestral chamber pop.
If you picked up Men At Work’s sophomore album Cargo looking for anything like their smash novelty hit “Down Under,” you’d be sorely disappointed.
Of course, the single wasn’t a great representation of Business As Usual either, but Cargo separates itself even further.
A hit single can be a huge boon for a new band. It can launch their career like a jet engine, putting them in front of a huge audience.
But it can also be an albatross, painting listeners’ perception of your work. Perhaps there’s no greater example of this curse than Men At Work’s “Down Under,” which hit number one in a handful of countries around the world—despite being a poor representation of their debut album.
If ever there was a post rock crossover pop hit, it’s M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.
This record debuted at number fifteen on the Billboard Top 200. The bouncing single “Midnight City“, complete with a screaming saxophone solo, was ubiquitous. The group appeared on a number of late night talk show performances. Songs were played in commercials and movie trailers.
This is only made more impressive by the fact that it’s a double album by a band that made their name playing synth-driven drone music.
By the beginning of the 80s, David Bowie had been through enough career turns to make the most accomplished musicians dizzy. He had cut his teeth with Dylan-esque space folk before moving onto theatric art pop, glam rock, plastic soul, sci-fi disco, and harrowing Krautrock.
There wasn’t a lot of space that Bowie hadn’t already explored. So he set his sights on the best dang pop a man could create.
In the last few months, after decades of ignorance, I’ve developed a strange fascination with the pop duo Hall & Oates. Judging by their enduring (and excellent) singles that still dominate “Hits of Yesterday and Today” stations, I had expected their output to stick pretty close to the middle of the road.
I was wrong.
These days, the Knack is mostly remembered for just one single: the infectious, raunchy “My Sherona” that still gets airtime on every classic rock station in the country.
But that’s a real shame, because Get the Knack is filled with cuts that are almost more enjoyable.
