Conquered by ‘King of America’

When I was a teen in Spokane in the 1980s, there weren’t many chances to hear Elvis Costello. My only exposure to his music was through MTV, which finally arrived in my North Side neighborhood in 1984.

And while I enjoyed the videos for “(What’s so Funny Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding,” “Watching the Detectives” and “Everyday I Write the Book,” the singles themselves never sent me to the C section of my favorite record stores.

One day in 1986, while at the old Mirage records downtown, I saw Elvis Costello look down at me from a poster on the wall. In the black and white image, Costello sported a trim beard. He’d traded his trademark Buddy Holly specs for round wire-framed glasses. Atop his head? A crown. He stared right at me.

I was captivated by the cover art for “King of America” for weeks. Then the video for Costello’s cover “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” turned up on MTV, and on my next trip to Mirage, I bought the record.

It was unlike the Top 40 rock and Brit-pop I was listening to at the time. This country-inflected record, his first without the Attractions since his 1977 debut, “My Aim is True,” is introspective and bitingly funny. In the opening track, “Brilliant Mistake,” he takes aim at himself, consumerism, media culture (“She said that she was working for the ABC News / it was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use”) and the “boulevard of broken dreams” that is America. The record really hits its stride with “Indoor Fireworks,” which may be the most biting and beautiful song Costello has ever written.

Featuring only guitar and Costello’s voice, the song is gorgeously simple. It’s a love song, but as only Costello could write it: “Don’t think for a moment, dear / That we’ll ever be through / I’ll build a bonfire of my dreams / And burn a broken effigy of me and you.”

Upon its release, “The King of America” was mostly ignored by record buyers, and critics were none too kind. As Rolling Stone opined, “In the end this album just exudes righteous suffering from every pore.” In the years since, it’s risen in esteem. The music website Pitchfork reviewed a 2007 re-release, giving it a high score of 8.7 (out of 10), noting it was created after Costello’s marriage failed and as his band was falling apart. “The result of all this angst is a complex and conflicted album that, despite all the spit and polish, sounds lively and raucous.”

All I know is that it captured something in me, and it opened the doors to Costello’s greatest works, “My Aim is True,” “Armed Forces,” “This Year’s Model” and “Imperial Bedroom.” Some may say that “King of America” is Costello’s last great album. They may not be wrong. Even so, what an ending.