Complicated Shadows: The Life And Music Of Elvis Costello (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
There’s certainly a lot for the serious Costello fan to chew on here, and overall, I enjoyed this biography, with a few reservations. First of all, there are various instances where the author voices his distaste for a particular Elvis song without really elaborating. Even if there was some elaboration, I feel that this type of criticism is inappropriate for a biography. If you’re going to offer a critique of Elvis’ work, then do that. If you’re writing a biography, do that. It seems uneven and sloppy for the biographer to randomly throw these observations into his book. Like a lot of the other Goodreads reviews I’ve seen, I found it somewhat redundant to encounter the various sections of the book that are basically “This album came out. Here’s what the critics said. Here’s how it did on the charts.” After a while, it becomes a rather predictable template. Also – and I suppose this is more of an observation than a complaint – if you’re not British, you definitely need some sort of British/American translator handy. A-Levels? Tea boys? Taking the piss? Sticking plaster? I did a lot of Google searching for various words and phrases while reading this book. Some topics seemed to get a lot more attention than they deserved, which I suppose is simply a matter of opinion. For instance, while I understand the significance of Elvis curating the 1995 Meltdown Festival, do we really need FIFTEEN pages covering every single aspect of this event? Overall, a solid biography with some great new facts and trivia that will likely be new for even the most diehard fan.
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