Earworms: “Radio, Radio”

Earworms is where we talk about pop from the classics to hidden gems and forgotten hits.

The music of Elvis Costello and his then-new band, The Attractions, had all of the bite of punk but none of the bark. The Attractions were, for one, competent at their instruments – far better than competent, in fact. Their distinctive strength was not in the fierce guitar assault which defined punk, but their use of negative space. Their songs were crafted around the bass and keyboard, and were often as notable for what they didn’t do as for what they did. The twitchy guitar on My Aim Is True was that of a young man with something to prove; with his music with The Attraction, Costello is totally in control of his form. They achieved a balance of punk energy and pop construction that Costello – and many others for that matter – would struggle to achieve again. 

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Costello’s songwriting has always been fantastic, but rarely as perfect as on This Year’s Model. Though many try, few make songs about their ex-girlfriends that are both clever and meaningful. He is one of the few angry men types with enough self-awareness and acerbic wit to pull it off. His anger is allowed more shades of grey than typical punk – some complexity tends to get lost when you’re screaming. His attacks are just as often self-directed as they are at the girl: “Thinking all about those censored sequences / Worrying about the consequences / Waiting until I come to my senses / Better put it all in present tenses.” (But that doesn’t mean he has no harsh words reserved for the other person, for example: “You’re easily led but you’re much too scared to follow.”) As would become clear on Armed Forces, concealed in his songs are social commentaries, disguised as targeted tirades.

The star of the show, though, is the single that didn’t make the cut (in the UK at least): “Radio, Radio.” The song is the punkest thing to come from the album, lyrically and musically. Costello is madder than ever, this time at the parochial BBC playlists – which infamously blacklisted many punk bands, including “God Save the Queen” – and the promise of technologically-mediated salvation. “Radio is a sound salvation / Radio is cleaning up the nation,” he sings. Like Wire’s “Ex Lion Tamer,” with its sardonic entreaty to “Stay glued to your TV set,” Costello thinks the radio run by “a lot of fools”; unlike that song, “Radio, Radio” supports a reading of it as finding real salvation through the music. 

It’s built around a recurring keyboard riff which is as forceful as anything a punk band has ever mustered, and The Attractions manage to impart an urgent undercurrent throughout which gives force to Costello’s singing. Pete Thomas’ drumming is a show of restraint, accenting exactly where it's needed. As with all their songs, The Attractions know when to build tension and when to release it, mirroring the themes of the lyrics. Pressure builds during the verses as Costello tells of anger and apathy, before finally the keyboard comes back: salvation.

Costello is sympathetic with, but still manages to see above the punk mindset. He complains that the radio is “Tryin’ to anesthetize the way that you feel,” with their presentation of only “polite” – bland – playlists. He also correctly identifies the self-destructive streak in punk: “I wanna bite the hand that feeds me / I wanna bite that hand so badly.” But he avoids the nihilism of The Sex Pistols and the political impulses of The Clash for a chance at aesthetic revolution, of finding meaning through art. When he finally sings “Wonderful radio / Marvelous radio,” you almost that he means it.  

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