Perhaps realizing that
The Juliet Letters was one step too far, especially after the willfully eclectic pair of
Spike and
Mighty Like a Rose,
Elvis Costello set out to make a straight-ahead rock & roll record with
Brutal Youth, reuniting with
the Attractions (though
Bruce Thomas appears on only five tracks) and
Nick Lowe (who plays bass on most of the rest). Unfortunately, all this nostalgia and good intentions are cancelled by the retention of producer
Mitchell Froom, whose junkyard, hazily cerebral productions stand in direct contrast to
the Attractions' best work. Likely,
Froom's self-conscious production appealed to
Costello, since it makes
Brutal Youth look less like a retreat, but it severely undercuts the effectiveness of the music, since it lacks guts, no matter how smugly secure it is in its tempered "experimentation."
Costello certainly had the raw elements for a dynamic little record here -- the band, when they can be heard, sound good, and many songs (highlighted by "Pony St.," "Kinder Murder," "13 Steps Lead Down," "You Tripped at Every Step," and "20% Amnesia") are fresh, effective evocations of his classic work -- but it needed to be punchier to succeed. He needed to be produced by
Lowe, instead of just having him sit in on bass. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine