Trust is the fifth studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, and his fourth with the Attractions—keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation). It was released on 23January 1981 through F-Beat Records in the United Kingdom. Produced by Nick Lowe, with assistance by the engineer Roger Béchirian, the album was recorded in London from October to November 1980 between DJM and Eden Studios. The sessions were riddled with alcohol and drug issues and tensions were high between the band members. Squeeze's vocalist Glenn Tilbrook and the Rumour's guitarist Martin Belmont made guest appearances on "From a Whisper to a Scream".
Envisioned by Costello as crossing the melody of Armed Forces (1979) with the rhythm of Get Happy!! (1980), Trust is a pop rock album that exhibits several musical styles, including jazz, rockabilly and country. The lyrics were partly inspired by events in Costello's own life at the time, including the effects of being a touring musician and his failing marriage. The songs depict scenarios with a lack of trust and are filled with puns and double entendres. The cover artwork, in an ironic nod to the title, is a headshot of Costello appearing mistrustful.
Trust charted in the UK top ten and at number 28 in the US, while its singles performed poorly. It received positive reviews on release; critics highlighted the artist's change in tone from his earlier records, a growing maturity in the lyrics and praised Costello as a musician; it appeared on several year-end lists. The album has retrospectively received acclaim as one of Costello's best, and most underrated, works. Commentators have viewed the album as exhibiting an artist and band at their creative peaks. Costello himself was initially displeased with the album, but reversed his opinion in later years. It has been reissued multiple times with bonus tracks.
Background and development
Elvis Costello released his fourth studio album Get Happy!! in February 1980. A departure from the new wave sound of 1979's Armed Forces, Get Happy!! took influences from the soul and R&B sound of the 1960s and reached number two on the UK Albums Chart, although it sold fewer copies than Armed Forces. Throughout March 1980, Costello and his backing band the Attractions—keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation)—toured at smaller cities throughout the United Kingdom, although Costello suffered several moments of instability during the shows due to alcohol and drug abuse, including forgetting lyrics, freezing in place and poor vocals. The band were back on the road throughout Europe in mid-April, although a car accident left Nieve unable to join; his absence led to poorly received shows so he was temporarily replaced by the Rumour's guitarist Martin Belmont.
In early 1980, Costello purchased a small grand piano, which would greatly influence his songwriting over the next year; it was on this instrument that he primarily wrote "Shot With His Own Gun".
Like Get Happy!!, the band decided a different location would be better-suited and moved recording back to Eden, where they were more productive. Nieve exerted more control on the arrangements, so his piano and organ dominate the songs, particularly on "Shot With His Own Gun", "You'll Never Be a Man" and "Black Sails in the Sunset", as well as "New Lace Sleeves" and "Watch Your Step". Costello also experimented with a soft croon, having done so on Get Happy!! "Secondary Modern", but by this time, had developed into, in the biographer Graeme Thomson's words, "a silky, lascivious moan, at once amused and disgusted." At one point, Costello's voice was shot so Squeeze vocalist Glenn Tilbrook offered to sing a guide vocal on "From a Whisper to a Scream". Costello liked the performance so much he made it a duet. Belmont was also invited and added guitar to the same track.
The new album was finished by early November 1980. genres exhibited on Trust range from jazz ("Clubland"), soul pop ("Watch Your Step"), rockabilly ("Luxembourg"), Tin Pan Alley-style pop ("Shot with His Own Gun") and country ("Different Finger"). In "Lovers Walk", Costello expresses his suspicions of love as a concept and the narrator's hesitation about falling in love, with Perone singling out the lyric "making promises that they can't keep" as a perfect summary. Like Costello's "Girls Talk", the title is used as a statement rather than a phrase, warnings listeners to "be on caution where lovers walk". Perone argues that this lyric establishes a sub-theme that purveys throughout the album, wherein Trust is not only about the concept of broken trust, but it is also a direct warning to not make the same mistakes as the characters in the tracks.
First-person narrators are introduced in "You'll Never Be a Man", which describes an encounter between a man and a visibly shaken woman. The man craves for honesty and tenderness but is unable to act on the matter, leading Costello to proclaim the title line. Gouldstone likens it to the tracks on Get Happy!! that involve domestic violence, particularly "Human Touch". A new wave track with a prominent drum mix, Mason deduced the track as sounding like "Costello's take on mainstream late-'70s/early-'80s AOR." He also stated that the vocal melody would later be imitated by artists such as Van Morrison and 10cc on their more radio-friendly tracks. The narrator of "Pretty Words" struggles to communicate with his partner, which is put into a social context and used as an attack on tabloid media. With the realisation that "pretty words don't mean much anymore", the songs acts as a metaphor for society's lack of common decency; the use of "pretty words" to ease evil acts such as genocide does nothing to diminish the evil of the act itself. Musically, the song is reminiscent of 1960s pop-rock.
"Strict Time" combines a Latin-inspired piano line with the description of a world filled with hysteria and totalitarianism. Like "The Beat" from This Year's Model, the title is a musical metaphor, implying that everyone acts in a set-in-stone way despite appearing as though they are acting under free will. "Luxembourg" is a 1950s-era rockabilly track akin to "Mystery Dance" from My Aim Is True that uses tourism as an assault on modern life. Perone describes it as "a put-down of mainland European (or Asian) tourists that take advantage of and put down the British". As a result, these tourists are subjected to a holiday in Luxembourg, "a destination that [is] less desirable than London". In a change of tempo and mood from previous track, wherein the former increases throughout, Perone considers "Watch Your Step" a showcase for the "sophisticated interplay" of Costello and the Attractions. Gouldstone comments that "its broodingly soulful intensity is like a requiem for all vain wishes". The more upbeat music stands in contrast with the more disheartening lyrics, which takes place in a club and is filled with a variety of images, including surveillance. Perone writes that it acts as a critique of personal inconsistency, contrasting "the clean, pretty look of a young woman's new outfit with the sometimes tawdry and messy reality of sexual desire and fulfillment". Perone ties the band's performance to the mid-1960s rather than the 1980s, stating it presents a mix of pop, jazz and lounge music. Similar to "Clubland" and "Watch Your Step", "From a Whisper to a Scream" takes place in a club and is an exploration of alcohol abuse by the intoxicated first-person narrator and the problems that come with it, with the "scream" representing violence or sexual frustration. Perone opines that the vocal harmonies of Costello and Tilbrook do not blend as well as the former's later duets, while Hinton compares the pairing to a "white Sam & Dave".
"Different Finger" is a pastiche country song that addresses marital infidelity. Using observation rather than a narrator, wherein guilt is the dominant emotion, Gouldstone states that it is Costello's first song to be about "a specifically adulterous affair". A first-person narrator acts as an observer on the darker "White Knuckles", which concerns the beating and sexual exploitation of a woman by a man. The lyrics are overall sympathetic to the abuser, painting him as a victim and giving reason as to why the abuser turned to violence. The woman is receptive to the violence as she fails to see a life without it; she is reinforced to remain in the abusive relationship by her loved ones, who essentially tell her "I told you so". Like Get Happy!! "Beaten to the Punch", "White Knuckles" is a denouncement of a man who invokes violence on his partner. Perone writes that the song suggests an influence of the Stranglers both musically and lyrically.
According to Costello, "Shot With His Own Gun" is a type of "torch song" that acts as atonement for his wrongdoings of the previous three years. Solely featuring voice over piano, the impressionist lyrics touch on a particularly stale relationship and presents a more sympathetic view to the woman rather than the man, who is, metaphorically, "shot with his own gun". Gouldstone calls both it and "White Knuckles" milestones for Costello as up to this point, the women in his songs were shown a lack of sympathy. "Fish 'n' Chip Paper" is lighter in tone compared to the previous two tracks, offering a critique of the media. Regarding the track, Costello stated: "I don't think I was attacking the press in relation to my career, just generally." Perone highlights the line "yesterday's news is tomorrow's fish 'n' chip paper" as "suggesting the transitory nature and lack of real importance of public gossip". The music itself features a heavier studio production with several overdubs; Costello's voice is treated with electronic processing. "Big Sister's Clothes" was produced and solely performed by Costello and contains experimentation that Perone compares to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966). According to Gouldstone, the song concerns how deceitful love can be for people growing up and how young girls who are eager to grow up by wearing their "big sister's clothes" fail to see the consequences of wanting to grow up so quickly. Perone opines that it could also offer commentary on the state of Britain during the era of Thatcherism.
Packaging and artwork
While the sleeve packaging for Get Happy!! mimicked the 1960s, Gouldstone argues that the packaging for Trust imitated the 1940s and 1950s. The cover artwork is an out-of-focus headshot of Costello wearing a suit and red-tinted glasses. His eyebrows are arched, his glasses are tilted and he is looking up. The cover itself lacks the artist's name and the title is underlined. Costello later said that the cover was a form of irony, as "the person on the cover looks completely untrustworthy". Perone considers it "one of the most memorable images" in early 1980s pop music. The original intended artwork depicted Costello in a film noir scene dressed like Guy Fawkes in a dark coat, glasses and fedora, lighting a cigarette. The back cover is, in Hinton's words, "deliberately skew-wiff", depicting the band playing at what appears to be a cocktail bar, although it was actually shot on a stage set. The inside of the sleeve boasts an image of the Attractions and other individuals dressed as a brass big band, with the caption "The Soundtrack of Life". Alongside Lowe dressed in a tuxedo mime-playing a saxophone, the photograph included the band's road crew, F-Beat staff and the owners of Eden Studios. The original packaging did not include a lyric sheet.
Release
F-Beat issued "Clubland" as the lead single from the album, backed by the outtakes "Clean Money" and "Hoover Factory", in December 1980 for the pre-Christmas market. It charted at number 60 in the UK, breaking a string of nine consecutive top 40 singles for the artist. Thomson commented that it "effectively marked the end of Elvis and the Attractions' flirtation with pop stardom". On 4January 1981, Costello and the Attractions commenced a six-week tour of North America – his first there in almost two years – with Squeeze as the supporting act. Compared to previous tours, the shows were longer than before, with 20 to 30 songs played every show, ranging from songs across his career and several covers. Costello's behaviour on stage was also enthusiastic and earned him positive reviews from attendees, although alcohol and drugs frequented throughout the tour.
F-Beat issued Trust in the UK on 23January 1981, while its US release through Columbia came on 29January. It peaked at number nine on the UK Albums Chart but stalled at number 28 on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart. Elsewhere, Trust charted at number eight in Sweden,
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Trust initially received mixed-to-positive reviews from music critics in the UK. Reviewers highlighted the artist's change in tone from his earlier records and a growing maturity in the lyrics. Some found the album a poor retread from his earlier works, while others thought the lyrics were too inaccessible for casual listeners. American critics emphasised the diverse and accessible musical styles, a growing maturity in the lyrics and continued to praise Costello as one of the best musicians in modern music. Some believed it was Costello's best work up to that point. In The New York Times, Robert Palmer stressed the importance of the Attractions as a backing band, writing that they have not only expanded their ranges, but sound "fuller and richer" than on Get Happy!! Palmer further saluted the artist for creating a body of work that remained consistently high quality. A reviewer for Cash Box deemed it a return to form over Get Happy!!, concluding: "New wave or old, Costello remains at music's forefront." Ken Tucker found Trust contained some of the artist's "very best" and "very worst" work in Rolling Stone, stating that its "smooth sound and clever accompaniments don't yield a forthright LP". In The Village Voices annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll of the year's best albums, Trust finished third, behind X's Wild Gift and the Clash's Sandinista!
Subsequent events and legacy
After its release, Costello was initially displeased with the record. In an interview with The Face in 1983, he stated: "I feel it's under-realised. There were some very good songs on it and some very bad songs, but overall we didn't follow it through to anything definite enough." By 2002, Costello described Trust as "a record that falls between the cracks a little bit", but stated that he felt "New Lace Sleeves" stood as one of the Attractions' greatest performances.
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Retrospectively, Trust has received critical acclaim as one of Costello's best, and most underrated, works that warrants reappraisal. Commentators have viewed Trust as exhibiting an artist and band at their creative peaks. Reviewing for Uncut in 2003, Jon Wilde found the album contained "a binge of great songwriting", summarising: "Showcasing some of [Costello's] most violently acerbic writing, with the Attractions at their most pathologically inventive, Trust boomed and slammed and whispered with sly, creative intent." AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine agreed, arguing that it is Costello and the Attractions' "most impressive album". Writers for Stereogum called the album "yet another high watermark" for Costello in 2021. Twenty years later, Paste magazine ranked it the 25th best album of the 1980s.
Reissues
Trust 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 May 1994, which came with nine bonus tracks. Rhino Records reissued the album on 9 September 2003 as a two-disc set with eight additional bonus tracks alongside those of 1994. The album later was remastered and reissued by UMe on 4 December 2015.
Track listing
All songs are written by Elvis Costello.
|align="center"|71
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| scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RIANZ)
|align="center"|17
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| scope="row"|Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)
|align="center"|28
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| scope="row"|Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)
|align="center"|8
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| scope="row"|UK Albums Chart
|align="center"|9
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| scope="row"|US Billboard Top LPs & Tape
|align="center"|28
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