Alison

Cloaked in the velvet chords of a late-night soul ballad, Elvis Costello's classic presents itself as a tender profession that my aim is true. Yet listening beneath the romantic veneer reveals a narrator brimming with bitter, possessive resentment. Sneering at Alison's party life and mocking her marriage, he sounds less like a compassionate confidant than a thwarted suitor nursing wounded pride.