Having reinstated his rock & roll credentials last year with When I Was Cruel — not to mention getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — Elvis Costello characteristically makes a dramatic stylistic turn on North. The album is filled with haunted, piano-centered ballads and elegant string and horn arrangements that tease out subtleties in the songs' already understated melodies. Costello's singing is quiet and controlled, an intimate voice describing an emotional journey from abandonment ("You Left Me in the Dark") to a renewed commitment to love ("Let Me Tell You About Her"). North exudes a consistent, subdued beauty that, at times, is almost too delicate to make a true impression. Despite its intelligence and musical sophistication, the album floats by on a breeze so light that it risks escaping notice; the songs disappear into the air before the listener can discover a way to inhabit them. There's an undeniable pleasure in that effort to grasp this music and its meanings before they fade, but at times you can't help wishing they were less evanescent, more substantial.

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.