The Top 20 Elvis Costello Songs of All Time

16. “So Like Candy”

The songs on Mighty Like A Rose, Elvis Costello’s 1991 album, are filled with downcast ruminations on weighty topics, so much so that you might think that a song about the end of a relationship might not be hefty enough. Yet “So Like Candy” takes that topic on and and ends up being the most powerful song on the album.

Much of that power is derived from the musical tension that is achieved by Costello’s ingenious arrangement. (Co-producers Mitchell Froom and Kevin Killen also deserve credit in this department.) The hushed verses are models of restraint, which makes the musical surge that kicks in when Elvis sings, “What did I do to make her go” pack all the more punch.

This is one of the songs that Costello wrote with Paul McCartney, and, although I can only speculate about who wrote what, I feel like that vibrant portion of the song came from Macca, since it reminds me of testifying ballads like “Oh Darling” and “Maybe I’m Amazed.” Whoever conceived it, there is certainly a directness to that part of the song that brings the connects the listener to the narrator’s pain and frustration. The Beatles connection is also played out in Froom’s mellotron fills and the eerily psychedelic cods, which both feel like the Fab 4 circa 1967.

“So Like Candy” tells the story of a break-up in a novel way, as the narrator looks through his abode to see the many ways in which the titular girl left her indelible imprint before making her getaway. Clothes, lipstick, perfume: All evidence of her former presence but now just painful reminders of what the guy has lost.

Ever the free spirit, Candy doesn’t have the stomach to make this break in person: “She just can’t face the day/So she turns and melts away.” The only closure she offers is the note she leaves on a scratched record: “My Darling Dear, it’s such a waste”/She couldn’t say “goodbye”, but “I admire your taste.”

Maybe she’s referring to his taste in records, but, considering the high opinion that she clearly has of herself, she probably means his taste in women. Costello names this fictional girl well, because, like candy, she’s irresistibly sweet but ultimately no good for you. The songs surrounding it on Mighty Like A Rose may touch on many of the problems in the world all around you; “So Like Candy” shows that a bad breakup can supersede all of that, since it can make it feel like your insular world is ending.