''When I Was Cruel'' is

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

's 19th album, recorded in 2001 and 2002 and released in the US by

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

on 23 April 2002. Although formally credited as solo Costello album, this was the first album to feature his new band, The Imposters. Their only difference from his previous band,

The Attractions The Attractions were an English backing band for the English new wave musician Elvis Costello between 1977 and 1986, and again from 1994 to 1996. They consisted of Steve Nieve (keyboards and ukulele), Bruce Thomas (bass guitar), and Pete Tho ...

(active 1977-87 and 1994–96), was the replacement of bassist

Bruce Thomas Bruce Thomas (born 14 August 1948 in Stockton-on-Tees, England) is an English rock bass guitarist, best known as bassist for the Attractions; the band formed in 1977 to back Elvis Costello in concert and on record. In addition to his work ...

, with whom Costello had feuded, with Davey Faragher (formerly of Cracker). The album was released with multiple track listings worldwide. Costello wrote two songs for the film ''Prison Song'' - "Soul for Hire", which was included with all versions of the album, and "Oh Well", which was included only in the track listing in Europe and Japan. Japan also featured as a bonus track a cover of Charlie Chaplin's song "

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses ...

", which was later released as a single.

Track listing

All songs written by

. # " 45" – 3:33 # "Spooky Girlfriend" – 4:22 # "Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution)" – 3:31 # "When I Was Cruel No. 2" – 7:06 (featuring a sample from Mina's "Un bacio è troppo poco") # "Soul for Hire" – 3:55 # "15 Petals" – 4:01 # "Tart" – 4:03 # "Dust 2..." – 3:21 # "Dissolve" – 2:22 # "Alibi" – 6:42 # "...Dust" – 3:03 # "Daddy Can I Turn This?" – 3:41 # "My Little Blue Window" – 3:10 #"Oh Well" – 2:51 (Europe and Japan only) # "Episode of Blonde" – 5:0 # "Radio Silence" – 4:58 # "Smile" – 3:05 (Japan only)

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s, horn arrangements on 6, 11, 15,

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

, bass,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

Steve Nieve Steve Nieve ( "naïve"; born Stephen John Nason, 21 February 1958) is an English musician and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Nieve has been a member of Elvis Costello's backing bands the Attractions, the Imposters and Madnes ...

– organ,

pianet The Hohner Pianet is a type of electro-mechanical piano built by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany and designed by Ernst Zacharias. The Pianet was a variant of his earlier reed-based Hohner electric piano, the Cembalet, which, like ...

, piano,

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

, melodica, filters *

Davey Faragher David Allen "Davey" Faragher (born August 18, 1957) is an American bass guitarist from Redlands, California. Faragher's career took off and received critical notice as a founding member of the nineties band Cracker, and his subsequent work with ...

– bass, handclaps * Pete Thomas –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, handclaps, percussion, shaker,

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

Additional personnel

*Steven Kennedy –

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

on 1, 12, 13 *Leo Pearson – electric

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

on 3, rhythm processor on 5, 8, tambourine, mixing *

Bill Ware Bill Ware III born William Anthony Ware III (b. January 28, 1959, East Orange, New Jersey) is an American jazz vibraphonist. Musical career Ware played bass and piano early in his career, playing at the Harlem Jazzmobile. After spending several ...

– vibraphone on 4 * Ku-umba Frank Lacy –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

on 6,

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

on 11, 15 *

Curtis Fowlkes Curtis Fowlkes (born March 19, 1950) is an American jazz trombonist and singer. He is a founding member of The Jazz Passengers. Career In 1987, Fowlkes started The Jazz Passengers with saxophonist Roy Nathanson. He has also been a member of ...

–

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

on 6, 11, 15 *

Jay Rodriguez Jay Enrique Rodriguez (born 29 July 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Burnley. Rodriguez began his career with his hometown club Burnley, for whom he scored 41 goals in 128 appearances across all com ...

–

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

on 6, 11, 15 *

Roy Nathanson Roy Jay Nathanson (born May 17, 1951) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader, actor and teacher. He became the leader and principal composer of the Jazz Passengers, a six piece group that he founded with Curtis Fowlkes in 1987. They have ...

–

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

on 6, 11, 15

Trivia

*The song "45" is about being 45 years old, Costello's age when he wrote it. (The song also features Costello's penchant for multiple meanings, referencing the year 1945, .45 caliber pistols, and 45 rpm records.) *The idea and title of "Tear Off Your Own Head (It's A Doll Revolution)" came from a set of

Engrish ''Engrish'' is a slang term for the inaccurate, nonsensical or ungrammatical use of the English language by native speakers of Japanese, as well as Chinese and other Asian languages. The word itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to s ...

-laden dolls in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It appears in the 2003 film ''

The Shape of Things ''The Shape of Things'' is a 2003 romantic drama film written and directed by Neil LaBute, based on his eponymous play. It stars Paul Rudd, Rachel Weisz, Gretchen Mol and Fred Weller. The story is set in a small university town in the American ...

''.

The Bangles The Bangles are an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1981. The band recorded several singles that reached the U.S. top 10 during the 1980s, including "Manic Monday" (1986), "Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), " Hazy Shade ...

covered it as the title track on their 2003 album, ''

Doll Revolution ''Doll Revolution'' is the fourth studio album by American pop rock band The Bangles. It was released in March 2003 in Europe and Japan, and in September of that year in the United States. It is the first album by the group since their 1998 reunio ...

''. *When the album was released, promotional materials billed it as Costello's "FIRST LOUD ALBUM SINCE 199?".

Charts

Album

Year-end charts

References

External links

*
Review by Connor Ratliff (5/5)
{{Authority control Elvis Costello albums 2002 albums Albums produced by Elvis Costello Island Records albums Mercury Records albums