The title, When I Was Cruel, is sort of tongue-in-cheek—no doubt a reference to his younger, angrier self—and Costello is less self-righteous but perhaps even more eloquent when it comes to life’s bitter disappointments and central emotional conflicts. He’s still able to pen lines like “I love you just as much as I hate your guts” (“Alibi”), and for such pithy, emblematic expressions of your essence, Elvis, we thank you.

Overall, though, When I Was Cruel is not a continuous blast of bristling, unabashed punk rock energy, and even when Costello does revisit this familiar territory, it’s never a rehash and never stale, probably because he didn’t spend the last 25 years making the same record. Time and experience have served him well: see the quasi autobiographical riffing in the radio-ready “45,” which references the age (he’s now 47), the year (post-war Britian, 1945), and the vinyl singles formerly known as a 45. And when his comfortable use of satire, metaphor, and self-deprecation set in, as in the seven-minute title track “When I Was Cruel No. 2,” it’s cryptic, careful, and eerie. This rambling story, told over James Bond guitar riffs, contemplative piano, and a mysterious looped lyric by Italian singer Mina, slowly reveals itself with repeated listens and manages to throw together aging stars, writers, and -- of all things -- a line from ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”

Costello’s at his best when he insidiously eviscerates someone or something through catchy songs replete with slightly confounding metaphors. Who else could write the ironic cheerleader chant, “Tear off your own head/Tear off your own head/It’s a doll revolution,” and make you think twice, three times, about what he’s getting at? With its cranky guitars and peppy tempo, it could be read as a neo-feminist clarion call for air-headed girly pop stars to kick some ass and double-cross the industry that takes advantage of them. Or not. Same for the furious pace and blaring, snarling horns of “15 Petals.” Is it a metaphor for a disintegrating relationship? Or not? You can think what you want—that’s the beauty of an Elvis Costello song.