Anything that captures even the smallest something of Elvis Costello while still plowing its own creative furrow through the sonic landscape is fine with me. And that is the sonic juggling act that Rusty Reid performs here with “Attitude Change.” It might head in a more rock and roll direction, with something of the old school rather than the new wave about it, but there is also something of the same energy and attitude, the same infectiousness and use of dynamic drive found at its heart.
But that just means that Rusty Reid knows how to put a great song together, and if you are going to draw comparisons, you could do a lot worse. Sure, “Attitude Change” is more jangly and jaunty, less angular and running less on the nervous energy that drove young Declan’s early music, but there is a lot of creative common ground.
And if the song is excellent, the backstory is equally as enjoyable. The song was recorded some forty years ago, as part of the double album The Unreasonables, which never saw the light of day and has only now been made available. And as a creative time capsule, it is revealing. This is Rusty Reid before the political stance and the more worldly, mature ideology; the younger man, yet to concern himself with the bigger issues, less involved in the world at large.
And it proves one thing. Even without the more poignant messages and the urge to enlighten the listener, when he was just happy to write about what most younger artists are concerned with —life, love, romantic loss, and longing, as well as everyday life and their own personal concerns —his songs are equally as compelling and infectious. I guess it is a talent that has always been there, he just uses it for a greater good now.
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