#punch the clock

[lascitasdelashoras]

Elvis Costello and Chet Baker, recording session for Shipbuilding (Punch The Clock album), 1983, London. Photo by © Keith Morris

[chaptertwo-thepacnw]

[archivist-crow]

Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Punch the Clock (1983)

On this day—August 5, 1983—Punch the Clock, the eighth studio album by Elvis Costello was released. Following the completion of his third studio album, 1979’s Armed Forces, Costello spent the entirety of the 80s (and indeed the decades since) restlessly experimenting with different musical genres. After tackling soul, country, and baroque pop, he next turned his attention to a more commercial crooning style of refined pop reminiscent of the songs of his youth. The result was 1983’s Punch the Clock. Enhancing the Attractions with backing vocalists and a horn section, the album yielded Costello’s first US Top 40 hit, “Everyday I Write the Book”.

[gregorygalloway]

Elvis Costello's 8th studio album (and his 7th with the Attractions) was released on 5 August 1983.

After 1982's critically-acclaimed (but poorly selling) Imperial Bedroom, Costello was determined to release a more popular album and brought on producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (who'd had success with Madness and Dexy's Midnight Runners). Costello wrote much of the material while on tour, "road-testing" the songs as the band performed them ("Mouth Almighty", "Everyday I Write the Book", "The Comedians", "Pills and Soap", and "The World and His Wife" all debuted during live shows in December 1982).

The recording sessions included backing singers, horns and strings, including Chet Baker on "Shipbuilding" (which Costello had written with Langer and had been a hit for Robert Wyatt in 1982).

While Costello's calculation to make a hit record paid off (Punch the Clock peaked at #3 in the UK and #24 in the US and included his first US Top 40 single, "Everyday I Write the Book"), it was poorly reviewed and Costello himself later expressed regret for chasing musical "fads."

[wearevillaneve]

The face you make when you're stuck in a really boring-ass Zoom meeting and you're so over it.

[muffinlevelchicanery]

[so-this-is-my-blog-i-guess]

Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Everyday I Write the Book (1983 - Punch the Clock)

[groundrunner100]

Roadbuster: the Autobot Wrecker where war is just another day at the office.