Side three:
“Stella Hurt” — Good fuzztone. Ooh, excellent compressed piano sound. Crap lyrics (the chorus starts “don’t bring me down/I’m trouble bound”), but an excellent groove. Kickass underwater-Duane-Eddy guitar solo courtesy of a Danelectro baritone guitar and our friend the wah-wah pedal. Razor cut ending.
“Mr. Feathers” — Backwards tapes into a McCartney-style psychedelic-music-hall tune. Many reviewers are almost certainly going to call this the worst song on the album, but I’ve always liked this sort of thing, which EC has done surprisingly little of in his career given all his interest in stylistic exercises, and this is a fine example of the form.
“My Three Sons” — I think I disagree with the sequencing here. Following “Mr. Feathers” as it does, this sounds a bit treacly in a way it might not if it was somewhere else. Nice little ballad, regardless.
The lure of the Costello/gatefold/vinyl fetish combo is driving me mad with desire. I may have to go out and buy this thing today. Thanks for sharing, Great One.
I heard “Turpentine” on the way into work on WXPN. The drums reminded me of an older EC song but couldn’t place it…wasn’t digging it too much. The song didn’t seem to go anywhere really… I can’t stand the album title and I haven’t even read that restaurant profile yet…
He did seem to be in fine voice though. (But didn’t I hear he was doing some music for some silly dance piece recently? WTF?)
My (Jaded) 2cents.