Reason #295: Punch The Clock
This is another one of those “forgotten” Costello releases that get lost between the power-pop brilliance of his first seven albums and his later-day genre exercises. It is a terific effort in my opinion, and the single Everyday I Write The Book is up there with his very best songs. It also may be the worst sounding of all his albums, production wise. Overproduced to within an inch of its life, Punch The Closk it is definitely his most “’80’s” sounding record and the great songs get lost in the gloss and sheen. The one exception is probably Shipbuilding, which needed that extra ‘oomph’ to make it’s point.
Give it another shot if you haven’t heard it in while, but make sure you get the latest remastered copy because it corrects some of the failings of the original ’80’s CD.
You want my Costello trivia? His mum lives in the road next to mine.
I do, and that is very cool!
EC lost a few fans with Imperial Bedroom and quite a few more with Punch the Clock. My love didn’t waver until a year later with Goodbye Cruel World. Punch the Clock was my first chance to buy one of his albums as a new release, and I grabbed it the day it came out. I loved the TKO Horns and Afrodiziak. I have a great bootleg of one of their London shows, and it remains one of my favorite performances. If any of you don’t believe any of these songs were worth anything, perhaps you might like this stripped-down version. Great post, Ian.
Thanks, Brian. Funny, you and I must be around the same age as this one was also my first purchase on release Costello album, and I also gave up shortly afterwards. Would love to hear that bootleg!