Armed Forces is the third studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, released on 5January 1979 in the United Kingdom through Radar Records. It was his second album with the Attractions—keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation)—and the first to officially credit them on the cover. The album was recorded in six weeks from August to September 1978 in London under the working title Emotional Fascism. Produced by Nick Lowe and engineered by Roger Béchirian, the sessions saw Costello exert more control over production compared to This Year's Model, while Nieve contributed more to song arrangements.
For Armed Forces, Costello sought a more commercial sound than the punk rock style employed on his two previous records, resulting in a more pop-oriented production reflecting the new wave era. The overtly political lyrics concern the effect of politics on human relationships. The UK release featured an elaborate fold-out LP packaging, with a cover depicting a herd of elephants; it was simplified for the US release through Columbia Records, featuring an alternate drip-cover.
Supported by the successful UK singles "Oliver's Army" and "Accidents Will Happen", Armed Forces reached number two in the UK, becoming Costello's biggest commercial success up to that point. The American version, released in February 1979, omitted "Sunday's Best" and replaced it with Costello's version of Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding". The album received positive reviews from music critics and appeared on several lists of the year's best albums. Costello and the Attractions supported the album on the Armed Funk tour in America.
In later decades, Armed Forces has continued to receive positive reviews, with many highlighting the production. Others noted that it contained musical styles Costello would utilise for later records. It is considered one of Costello's best works and has appeared on various best-of lists. The album has been reissued multiple times, including in 2020 as a super deluxe edition, which was positively received.
Background and recording
thumb|left|upright=0.7|alt=An older man with glasses and gray hair|Armed Forces was the third of five consecutively produced Costello albums by [[Nick Lowe (pictured in 2017).]]
Elvis Costello's second studio album This Year's Model (1978) was his first with the backing band the Attractions–bassist Bruce Thomas, drummer Pete Thomas (no relation) and keyboardist Steve Nieve, after using the American band Clover for his debut album My Aim Is True (1977). From mid-July to mid-December 1977, Costello and the Attractions underwent a rigorous touring schedule before taking a break to record This Year's Model. Another gruesome touring schedule followed throughout 1978, which contributed to growing exhaustion for the artist and band. Nevertheless, Costello continued writing new material; songs that would appear on Armed Forces began appearing in the setlists starting in May. In July, Costello recorded his song "Stranger in the House" with country artist George Jones, which appeared on the latter's My Very Special Guests album in 1979, after which the former began recording Armed Forces.
Under the working titles Cornered On Plastic and Emotional Fascism, Armed Forces was recorded at London's Eden Studios starting in August 1978 and lasted six weeks. Returning from This Year's Model were musician Nick Lowe as producer and Roger Béchirian as engineer. Costello's work ethic during the sessions was strong. His on-again/off-again romantic partner at the time Bebe Buell recalled: "Elvis wasn't the kind of guy who slept all day. He got up and went to the studio to record and rehearse. He was a working boy, not a loller." Unlike the previous album sessions, he asserted himself as the final decision maker on all takes, production and mixes. He later admitted: "By the third [album] I thought I was God's gift. I was totally convinced. I had no doubts."
Despite tensions present, Lowe remained instrumental in keeping high morale and orchestration. He was also responsible for incorporating the new sounds Costello wanted for the record. Béchirian later explained: "The whole way those things were directed and put together was very much down to Nick. Nick had a real pop sensibility about him." For his process, Lowe had the band record backing tracks first before commencing on overdubs. Nieve, in particular, was more involved in the song arrangements, particularly on "Oliver's Army". Writer Greil Marcus noted that compared to its two predecessors, the sound of Armed Forces is "suppressed, claustrophobic, [and] twitching". Lowe's production, which some compared to the Wall of Sound-style of Phil Spector, ABBA influenced Nieve's keyboard part for "Oliver's Army" and due to his greater contributions to the arrangements, his keyboards are more prominent throughout the entire album, The interplay is reflected by the album's working title Emotional Fascism. More specifically, the song is about the brutality of big business in striking those down who are too weak to obtain power for themselves. It contains the first reference to the 'armed forces'. Writer Franklin Bruno states that while "Accidents Will Happen" was a showcase for Costello's voice, "Senior Service" "reintroduces" the Attractions and contains a widely different production style from the previous track. Continuing the political theme is "Oliver's Army", which boasts a pop-friendly production and melody over sinister lyrics on military imperialism. According to Gouldstone, the song's narrator is "presumably" a British soldier serving in Northern Ireland. Costello refers to the Irish as "white niggers" and references the conquest of Ireland in 1649 by the English Parliamentarian leader Oliver Cromwell. Musically, Bruno makes comparisons to ABBA's "Dancing Queen" (1976) and the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby" (1964).
Described by Murray as "sexual fascism", Reportedly about Buell, Costello denied this in the 2002 Armed Forces reissue liner notes, stating he wrote it for an art student he barely knew. fully comparing the disagreements in personal relationships to opposing factions of fascism. Bruno contends that the album "embodies a critique" under either title, but also deduces that it "does not present an argument".
Artwork
The packaging for Armed Forces was designed by Barney Bubbles and featured different cover artworks for the UK and US releases. In the UK, the cover was a painting depicting a herd of elephants in front of mountains, with birds flying overhead and mist overlaying the ground. The lead elephant stares directly at the onlooker, which Gouldstone notes mirrors Costello on the cover of This Year's Model. For the first time, the Attractions received co-artist credit on the sleeve.|source=—Jake Riviera, Creem, 1979|width=20%|align=left|style=padding:8px;
"Radio Radio" was issued as a standalone single in October 1978 as a stopgap release between This Year's Model and the still-titled Emotional Fascism, which was scheduled for release in early 1979. The single reached the UK top 30, earning Costello and the Attractions an appearance on BBC's Top of the Pops. From November to December, the band toured Canada, Japan and Australia and filmed promotional videos for "Oliver's Army" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding". By the start of another British tour at the end of December, the band's growing exhaustion began to affect their performances. Bruce Thomas later admitted: "We were all fried.... we just didn't get a break. I know what Jake [Riviera] was doing, but I think he pushed it too hard, I think he really did."
Now titled Armed Forces due to a complaint from Columbia/CBS, Radar Records issued the new album in the UK on 5January 1979, with the catalogue number RAD 14. The album was Costello's biggest commercial success to date, peaking at number two on the UK Albums Chart, held off the top spot by the disco compilation Don't Walk – Boogie; it remained on the chart for 28 weeks, twice as long as This Year's Model.
For its February 1979 release in the US, Columbia replaced "Sunday's Best" with "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding". This release went gold by the end of the year. After garnering significant radio exposure in the UK, "Oliver's Army" was released as a single on 2February 1979, backed by Costello's solo rendition of the 1937 show-tune "My Funny Valentine". It peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart in March. "Accidents Will Happen" was issued as a single on 4May, backed by "Talking in the Dark" and "Wednesday Week", and peaked at number 29 in the UK.
Critical reception
Armed Forces received positive reviews from music critics on release. Murray hailed the record as containing "some of the best rock music we'll hear this year" in NME, while a writer in The Observer cited it as "an album you just can't ignore". The Guardians Robin Denselow named Armed Forces the "first important album" of the year, and referred to it as musically "Costello's most relaxed, mellow and gentle album yet". In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Hilburn named Armed Forces the best album at mid-year in July 1979. Citing it as Costello's "most compelling" album yet, Hilburn described it as "a feverish, unflinching approach" that is a cross between the "social fury of John Lennon's first two solo albums" and the "haunting dissection of Bob Dylan's choicest works". The Washington Posts Geoffrey Himes also compared Costello's lyrical strategy of placing harsh ideals into more seductive settings with Dylan's break from the folk rock movement in the mid-1960s. In his review of Armed Forces, Himes singled out "Accidents Will Happen" as "the kind of high point that marks a great era of music". The same publication's Eve Zibart described Armed Forces as Costello's "third and most polished album [that] stakes out New Wave's first major fiefdom in the United States".
Writing for Rolling Stone, Janet Maslin felt the album was a "killer in several senses of the word", remarking on the brief, energetic songs with dense and sometimes overly clever but snappy lyrics. Maslin felt that Costello "wants to be daring, but he also wants to dance". The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau felt Costello was using words to "add color and detail to his music" rather than as "a thinking, feeling person", though he approved of the "intricate pop constructions" and found the album overall to be "good" but not "great". Additionally, in a review titled "Swell El", Record Mirrors Sheila Prophet found the "bitter bite" of its predecessors exchanged for "depth and subtlety and new textures". Sounds magazine's Giovanni Dadomo highlighted "Accidents Will Happen", "Big Boys" and "Green Shirt", while also naming "Goon Squad" "easily the best 'political' song of the last five years". It also featured on year-end lists by Melody Maker and NME at numbers fourteen and six, respectively.
Tour and aftermath
thumb|left|alt=A man with glasses holding a guitar|Costello onstage in April 1978
To support the album, Costello and the Attractions embarked on the Armed Funk tour in America, which lasted from February to April. The tour was plagued with issues, including drug and alcohol problems, aggressive behaviour from Riviera and Costello to the press, and poor performances that led to critical and audience backlash. In March, a racism-filled exchange between Costello, Stephen Stills, and Stills' then-backing singer Bonnie Bramlett, where the former insulted various American musical artists, was leaked to the public and received additional backlash. Even though Armed Forces had reached the top ten on Billboards Top LPs & Tape chart during the tour, by April it fell off quickly after boycotts were enacted by American radio stations and listeners. Graham further contended that the fascist elements described on Armed Forces were still alive in America during the first presidency of Donald Trump, writing: "More than four decades after its release, Armed Forces feels more frighteningly vital and relevant than ever."
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In later decades, Armed Forces has received acclaim as one of Costello's best works. In 1991, Entertainment Weeklys Armond White called the album a "landmark", while Stewart Mason felt that "Party Girl" presaged the soul music he would explore on Get Happy!!, In 2000, it was voted number 264 in the third edition of English writer Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). The same year, Q placed Armed Forces at number 45 in its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever". In 2003, the album was ranked number 482 on Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and then was moved to number 475 on an updated list in 2012. NME and Sounds ranked Armed Forces at numbers 89 and 67 in 1985 and 1986, respectively, on lists compiling the 100 greatest albums of all time.
The album was also included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Reissues
Armed Forces was first released on CD through Columbia and Demon Records in January 1986. Its first extended reissue through Demon in the UK and Rykodisc in the US on CD came in October 1993. The single disc featured the original album as well as bonus tracks, including the addition of "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" as the album's closing track. Rhino Records reissued the album in 2002 as a two-disc set; disc one contained the original UK album plus "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding", and disc two contained bonus tracks. The collection was praised by critics for giving an in-depth view of the artist's work during the period.
- Elvis Costello – guitar, vocals
- Steve Nieve – keyboards
- Bruce Thomas – bass
- Pete Thomas – drums
Technical
- Nick Lowe – producer
- Roger Béchirian – engineer
- Barney Bubbles – cover artwork
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+Weekly charts for Armed Forces
! scope="col"|Chart (1979)
! scope="col"|Peak<br/>Position
|-
!scope="row"|Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
|align="center"|9
|-
!scope="row"|Canadian Albums (RPM)
|align="center"|8
|-
!scope="row"|Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)
|align="center"|13
|-
!scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RIANZ)
|align="center"|9
|-
!scope="row"|Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)
|align="center"|12
|-
!scope="row"|Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)
|align="center"|11
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums Chart
|align="center"|2
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard Top LPs & Tape
|align="center"|10
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+Year-end charts for Armed Forces
! scope="col"|Chart (1979)
! scope="col"|Position
|-
!scope="row"|Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
|align="center"|60
|-
!scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
|align="center"|25
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums Chart
|align="center"|13
|}