Elvis Costello goes unfiltered on Taylor Swift’s songwriting style

Elvis Costello holds deep admiration for Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Taylor Swift. The Alison singer, 70, made an appearance on the November 17 episode of a music podcast Rockonteurs with Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt where he shared his remarks on legendary songwriters.It began with the musician discussing his 1986 album King of America, which he recently rereleased in a deluxe CD set with previously unreleased demos.

The conversation then turned to mindsets as Costello said he felt “at some point” that he “wasn’t doing enough work” on conveying the message. “All I was doing was reciting things that were happening to me,” the singer-songwriter recalled to the podcast hosts. “And though that can be interesting to hear, it doesn’t necessarily engage the listener, ‘cause they don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He then emphasised the need for craftsmanship that he said “comes after the desire to express these rawer emotions,” referring to a Joni Mitchell record, Blue, as well as Dylan’s 1975 album Blood on the Tracks. “One minute, they seem to be very raw emotion, the next minute they’re clearly invention,” he said of Dylan’s tracks. “And that keeps you guessing and that keeps things interesting.”

With that said, Costello then recognised that “element of craft” in Taylor Swift’s music too. “And I’m not just trying to say this to be down with the kids, but it’s also what makes Taylor Swift speak to people.” “She understands the necessity of taking personal experience,” but also ensuring her songs are relatable to her listeners, Costello said of the Tortured Poets Department hitmaker. “There’s lots of other examples of that, she’s just the most successful one you can cite.”

He added, “But that’s why she’s able to sustain communication with her audience in quite that way,” Costello continued, adding that personally, he’s “always known I was not comfortable with just simply saying, like, ‘Here’s my diary. Let’s set that to music.’” He concluded his point, adding that heartbreaks can happen in “an instant” but “the repercussions can be very torturous and kind of boring, so if you just recite them in real time, they’re not necessarily fascinating to other people.”