Tracks: Make Me Know It//Fever//The Girl of My Best Friend//I Will Be Home Again//Dirty, Dirty Feeling//Thrill of Your Love//Soldier Boy//Such A Night//It Feels So Right//Girl Next Door Went a-Walking//Like A Baby//Reconsider Baby
Yes, Elvis is back and better than ever! I couldn’t resist saying that, and I’m sorry. It’s not even particularly accurate – I mean, yes this a better album than Elvis Presley was, but that’s not really saying all that much. And there’s the fact that I said most of what I have to say about Elvis back in my review of his debut... Well, let’s get on with it.
Firstly, just what is Elvis back from? The army and a corresponding drop in public profile, that’s what. Elvis got called-up in ’57, and after finishing filming on King Creole he was promptly shipped-off to Germany for two years, where he would no doubt spend a great deal of time mucking-about in tanks and making lewd comments about bratwurst. And fun as that may be, it also meant two years without new Elvis! These days a two-year break between albums might not seem like that big a deal but back in the late fifties, acts were popping-out two or three albums a year -often more. And now such a drastic ebb in the tide of Elvis. How would the world survive in such a horrible state? It’s like the Ruskies finally dropped the bomb and we’re suddenly living on tinned beans and old lingerie catalogues. How terrifying.
Well, the stop-gap solution was that RCA did a bit of a Buddy Holly, and kept releasing singles and albums from a stockpile they had accumulated during intense recording prior to his enlistment. And it worked. So even though he was half-way around the world he’d never really gone away (what a relief). But he couldn’t do live shows and he couldn’t do media appearances, and so people started to get a bit antsy. This is a guy who was arguably more about the image than the music, after all. And then throughout there was the deep curiosity as to whether, when he finally did get back from Germany, Elvis would still have “it” (whatever the hell “it” is).
The short answer is, yes, although “it” may in fact be at least a couple of years out of date. While there’s nothing really wrong with Elvis is Back, it’s not the most instantly exciting stuff. It’s just a solidly enjoyable slab of turn-of-the-60s pop rock, with no real highs or lows. If that’s enough for you, then great! Although personally I’d sort of hoped, given his reputation, that Elvis might deliver something a little more exciting given all his years of experience.
Still, it’s a qualitive leap of considerable proportions from the rather scatter-shot realm of his debut. Which is only to be expected - by this point they’d been putting out his albums for several years, and had a very clear idea of both who Elvis was and how he (or his creative team) should be presenting himself. So this is a very polished effort. The songs are all catchy, immediately likeable and well-performed. Personally I’m not all that taken with Elvis rather muddled attempt at “Fever”, but considering the Peggy Lee version is one of my absolute favourite songs that’s only to be expected. I mean, it started-out as a rock tune so maybe, when compared to the original, this is a dazzling work of genius. Maybe. To my ears it just sounds poorly mixed and Elvis is a little off the beat. Those finger-snaps are just ill-advised.
But hey, there’s a lot of other stuff that’s actually pretty good. A few songs even manage to step beyond being “pretty good” and into the realm of genuine, rocky greatness! “The Girl Next Door Went Walking” is just such fun. I am a fan of any song built around a double entendre, it’s true. It’s better than “Dirty, Dirty Feeling”, anyway, which has great rhythm but features a rather bizarre and perhaps ill-advised “minstrelesque” vocal. Still, that’s immediately followed by “Thrill of Your Love”, which is a gorgeous piano-led ballad with very clear R&B influences but without the silly voice, so it all balances out. Ah, and there is a much bigger emphasis on balladeering by this point, which is good, since Elvis really does excel at ballads. “Soldier Boy” is just lovely, and has obvious resonance (however manufactured) with Elvis’ own recent past. It doesn’t have to be true, it just has to get the bobby-soxers swooning. Oh god! And the break-out chorus on “Such A Night”. Heh, and then all the little orgasmic moans. For a guy who reportedly had so much trouble with women, Elvis sure could be a sexy devil. I suppose the Jordanaires help more than a little. Actually scratch that the Jordanaires help a whole lot. The see-sawing backing vocals on “Like A Baby” are just amazing.
Anyway, this broader variety is what really makes the album work. It’s short, and it changes it up a bit, and the result is something that’s constantly entertaining even if it’s not especially deep. The lyrics are decent, the songs are fun, and Elvis throws himself into the performances without ever lapsing into the twitchy lunacy that marred his earlier performances (although doing a sub-par Ray Charles impression on “Reconsider Baby” may be just as great a crime – the song works, but not till he drops the mimicry and goes his own way). The songs have a focused, restrained compositional approach that lets them rock-out without ever becoming annoying. So, it’s not as raw and dirty as a lot of black music Elvis is drawing on, but if I wanted that I would just go and listen to Howlin’ Wolf or something. By this point in his career, Elvis seems to have a much surer sense of himself as a "pop" rather than a "rock" musician, and his music is nothing if not the better for it.
So, this is one of those albums where I start writing the review with one opinion and by the end of it I’ve done a complete 180. Elvis delivers a solidly enjoyable rock album that ticks all the boxes for what I’d want from something of this period, and frequently manages to veer into something like greatness. I never really bought the Elvis myth, and even if I still haven't changed my mind, albums like this are enough to make me understand where all the obsessive whack-jobs are coming from. Hell, if it weren't for "Fever" I might even give this album a 9.
Anyway, pretty darn good.
8/10
Download: Elvis Presley - The Girl Next Door Went a-Walking Mp3
Download - Elvis Presley - The Thrill of Your Love Mp3
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