Elvis Costello: Classic or Dud

Me? I liked him for a very long time. But I'm not sure how much I do now. I'll have a think and get back to you.

1. Encountering him in 80s childhood: the almost capuccino-pop textures (I may be off the mark there) and heavy wordy satire of Punch The Clock seeped into me and made it my favourite EC LP for ever amen.

2. His eternal 'returns' and reinventions... come the end of the 80s I get mildly more clued up and start to work out how EC's career fits together, what he's been up to, what are the highs and lows... I decide, roughly, that he is pretty much a genius. People have said before that 'genius' is an unhelpful term, and I agree that it tells you little save that I admire EC. But what I mean is, a) I think he is the most accomplished lyricist in the history of pop over the last 40 or so years - at least amongst what I have heard. b) he is able to be comic and serious, elaborately tongue-in-cheek or straight-out sincere (but maybe I shouldn't exaggerate the range here - I'm not sure, I think there is an 'EC mode' somewhere). c) he is able to dip in and out of genres with rare distinction and understanding; he always shows huge (even excessive?) respect for the genres he uses. (This makes for a slight difference with Merritt, who clearly loves lots of the genres he essays but is still less 'respectful' towards them.) d) He has a rare melodic gift which gets rather eclipsed by his even rarer lyrical gift; he reminds me of McCartney, really. So, classic, classic, classic.

3. But hang on. I don't actually *listen* to EC that much. I have to admit that for all his brilliance, he's not always what I want to hear. Possibly there's a certain lack of... 'lightness' in his work - he's so 'full-on' about everything that I can't quite see him pulling off the nonchalant grace of, say, 'Ask', 'Here's Where The Story Ends' or 'The Saddest Story Ever Told'.

4. Then again - his 1998 collaboration with Bacharach, Painted From Memory, seems to me magnificent. Lyrical simplicity yet point; fabulous melodic dynamism; lush arrangements. From my particular POV, one of the most vital records of the last 10 years, and a great highlight of EC's entire career. In the end, I can only admire this fellow.

I'll have to combine this with the 'records never played' answer. Somehow I have a near complete EC collection and I've never listened to any of it!

My favorite quote about him came from Bernard Sumner, god among men:

Interviewer: "What do you think of wordsmiths like Elvis Costello?"

Sumner: *deep breath* "Don't talk to me about that overrated fucking jerk."

Genius.

Heh.

Ned - it must be really cool to have a complete collection of records by people you dislike.

I wouldn't mind looking like Beck, or even Elvis Costello, but I guess that just proves David Lee Roth's point - but I'm not a critic, so maybe it's OK.

I find Sumner's voice far more compelling than EC's; like Ned, lyrics to me are not the be-all-end-all qualification for "good vocals." (Even though I'd take Sumner's lyrics over EC's...) But I can see why people like EC; he does have a knack for a hook (but so does Sumner--no pun intended ;-)--but I must say, I have two of his records, and I hardly listen to them, ever.

Dylan I like, though. He sounds quite fragile ("Har-har-har, that's 'cause he can't sing in tune!" NOT FUNNY, CLICHE-WIELDING ASSHOLES!), as opposed to EC, who comes across to me as pretty smug a lot of the time. Of course, Bright Eyes sounds fragile, and I don't know if I could name one vocalist whose teeth I'd rather kick in...

My Aim Is True is a great record that took me a long time to get into. In fact, it's one of my favourites, despite the pub-rock backing group. I always thought they were the perfect band for the 50s Punk Buddy Holly thing he was being marketed as at the time. The lyrics are great, too: "now that your picture's in the paper / being rhythmically admired"? Brilliance. I haven't listened to any of his other stuff except "Pump It Up" and "I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea" and "Veronica" and they're all good too. Hey Ned, how much for the collection?

that said, he's not luther vandross and when he sings out of his range, it's at best endearing, at worst really, really, really bad.

i like e.c. because he's got a lot of pop smarts, see for example his nicks of everyone from abba to stax. i can listen to him rather than, say, dylan because not only does he have fine lyrics but he takes an active interest in the recording process and is an underrated melodist.

Well, Slick Rick was cool...and I think I would like to see a Morrissey rap record.

I think if Morrissey created a rap album I'd have to kill myself. I'd listen to an Oasis rap album because it'd be hella funny.

Oasis definitely should make a rap album -- couldn't be much worse than their last album. I could see Liam rapping a la Lil Kim about his designer clothes. Noel could learn how to mix or be a backup dancer, because he would be boring on the mike.

And going back to Pinefox -- it's obvious to me, but that doesn't mean it has to be obvious or even slightly accurate to anyone else. My own biases are just that, and I don't seem to have implied anything more than that throughout the thread. If anything, you're the one who expressed bewilderment that someone could rank Sumner higher than EC in one's affections -- may I humbly point out that not everyone would see your view as obvious either?

I appreciate passion and opinion. I detest dogma. It's as simple as that.

Lest you find this too contrary to believe, I have no problem per se with this 'thoughtful craftsman' ideal per se. There's plenty of music I love that was created by people who put effort into it from start to finish, who have high standards of personal perfection. All very well, but my problem is when this is wrongfully prioritized, automatically granting whatever is produced by such a figure some critical cachet over something else done quickly and cheaply from a company out to score. That I refuse to accept -- it ranks the motivations of creation as more artistically important than the creation itself.

If somebody comes up with something random one night and has a full song the next day that turns into something rushed to market, while someone else spends ten years' creating something, and both get heard by me and I think the first thing is great and the second is boring crap, then that's just the way of things. The reverse reaction can easily happen, of course -- but it doesn't *always* happen.

It's just that I'm ridiculously intellectually precious about people who have, what seems to me, an outmoded view of the place in which I live, and it only takes one brief comment to provoke me. That's all.

>>> I appreciate passion and opinion. I detest dogma. It's as simple as that.

It sure sounds simple and appealing when you put it that way. Everyone likes to think they detest that awful thing 'dogma', which is always conveniently something that somebody else has. "He is a redneck; you are rigidly ideological; I, on the other hand, hold views with delicious suppleness".

This is all fair enough but seems to me like a very weak critique of EC's records, which have been consistently interesting and experimental (albeit not consistently excellent). I think it's possible to get hung up on his words and miss the fact that he has a knack of writing fantastic tunes from time to time.

Of course, I'm one of those people who likes the sound of his voice, so that makes things easier.

Your point is taken, Tim, that I've not yet heard everything he's done, and I allow for those records that EC himself has problems with, notably _Goodbye Cruel World_. I actually think Andy's point comparing him to Van Morrison is worthy -- what you see as experimenting I see as generally dry genre exercise, such as the Brodsky Quartet album. I'm vaguely impressed with the attempt but not keen on the results. As for 'consistently interesting,' can we take it as read at this point that this is NOT universal opinion?

As for my being an Oasis enthusiast, what of it? EC and Noel Gallagher may both be stodges of Irish descent at heart, but at least I don't feel like I'm at a damn lecture about How To Be An Important and Innovative Musical Figure when I listen to a song like "Slide Away." If EC inevitably projects that aura to me, that's life.

As for Oasis, there are no bigger slaves to craft and classicism in rock at the moment, and that's the comparison I was making. If you're saying *now* that EC's records sound like dry lectures in classicism that's very interesting and I'd like you to give some examples (particularly regarding his stuff pre-1985). However, that's not the argument I thought you were making above, which seemed to rely more on what EC *had to say* about music in interviews. Forgive me if I misinterpreted.

The problem with hardcore/jungle/garage mc-ing is that it hasn't yet (at least to my knowledge) evolved beyond formularised lyrical content that works as a support to a track rather than something that can inspire in its own right.

But the UK pop market would appear to me to be wide open to a charismatic garage mc with inventive lyrics.

I'm uncomfortable with the implication that people should make the noises their backgrounds suggest they should. This is way off topic, though.

But yeah, I'd say he's mostly a classic.

If you want some pre-1985 examples, sure -- _Almost Blue_ and _Imperial Bedroom_. The former admittedly seems, from what I can tell, to be seen as a misfire or at least a lesser album among many fans, and certainly I think Billy Sherrill is a horrible producer, as I muttered in another thread elsewhere. I note, though, that even Sherrill said to Costello that he didn't quite understand why EC was wanting to do something over again that had already done, and frankly I sympathize with him. _Imperial Bedroom_, meanwhile, from what I can remember of it sounded partially like an attempt to create a late Beatles album over again, correct me if I'm wrong or that sounds utterly misapplied. As such it didn't impress me much.

*shrug* I read once that Woody Allen was the eternal film school undergrad, perhaps prolific but never or rarely truly inspired. I don't know enough about Allen's work to agree with that particular judgment, but I almost feel it could be applied to EC and rock and roll.

And Elvis Costello, for that matter. I know it sounds funny, but I certainly hope I am more talented than EC, though I'm not sure that you could really be persuaded of that based solely on Melody Maker articles I wrote years ago. The point is, it's not very hard to write songs like Elvis Costello, the reason so few people do is that so few people want to. Torture a pun; look out of your window and watch some sexy girls walk past, contemplate how you're never going to screw them, get bitter then quickly write a bit more; doff your cap to dead guys who wrote better songs than you. I estimate it'd take you 40 minutes, an hour if you stop for two bottles of whisky.

That thing I wrote about EC - which Allan Jones ordered I rewrite and still never quite forgave me for - attributed that quote to Dave Lee Roth. I used it to make a further point: most music journalists like Elvis Costello because most music journalists think like Elvis Costello. I'm not sure that's true anymore, by the way. Increasingly, they all want to be bloody Lee & Herring, which is worse. No, worse still. Adam & Joe.

PS I once met Joe Strummer - during the summer of 1995, which I think he spent perpetually on E, and not long after that review was published. I was amazed when he recognized my name and told me he'd read the EC thing: "I tell you," he said, "I've been waiting 20 fucking years for someone to say that about that cunt..." I was never a punk or anything, but I felt quite proud.

I much prefer "Costello: he's so brilliant he's bad": the lookylikey idea is just clever-clever RoMo body-fascism (he said, crossly tugging his goatee and polishing his glasses), and will only fly if we get to apply it to everyone else as well.

Please tell me that isn't the "After Dark" in Laygate, South Shields???

That's abt 1/2 mile from where I sit now, typing thiz cobblerz, instead ov working. Christ....

x0x0

the virus circulates by dodgy mixtapes, calling on EVIL ITSELF:

DUF DUF DUF DUF 'witha cocaine,ectasy,marjuana,lsd - BRING THA NOIZE WHISTLE POSSE'

didnt elvis costello punch some full of it feminist and/or pop singer in the face one time?

he got in an argument with members of the stephen stills band which quickly escalated into a shouting match. apparently, he and bruce thomas were utterly shitfaced and wanted to say 'the worst thing they could possibly say', so ec said that ray charles was a 'blind, ignorant n*****' and proceeded to trash james brown and the whole of america in a similar manner. then bonnie bramlett decked him, and it erupted into a bar fight. ec is horribly contrite about it, says it was a huge mistake etc (see In The Fascist Bathroom, G Marcus)

-- David (huntsma...), May 25th, 2001.

David wins!

http://launch.yahoo.com/read/album.asp?contentID=7205

I still adore This Years Model (and My Aim Is True for the most part) and various songs from later periods (mainly for the melody - I dig a good part of Brutal Youth actually)...

I guess he qualifies as a dud Classic, meaning somebody who you can't truly hate on but doesn't offer much joy. A classic Dud is someone you love to hate, a band that's recorded career is basically worthless but you wouldn't want to live in a world without them (Kiss is a big one for me).

wow there are no less than THREE c/d threads for elvis.

anyway, November 8th, San Francisco, Great American Music Hall: Elvis Costello and Clover perform "my aim is true". sold out though and just found out about it so phooey.

EC: My new record is too expensive. Please don't buy it.

ha! i wouldn't mind hearing the show...but who pays for these kinds of things? the 1%?

This implies somebody would *want* to wash EC's guitar. I'm content to let it rot away.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, May 22, 2001

I find Costello to be mostly workmanlike and boring, although his has hit on a very small handful of classics in his career. I honestly can't stand his voice either. So aside from that very small handful of classics... Dud!

If on the other hand you should still want to hear and view the component parts of the above mentioned elaborate hoax, then those items will be available separately at a more affordable price in the New Year, assuming that you have not already obtained them by more unconventional means.

^^ Costello revealing the "inspiration" behind the 'Trust' album, there.

in case you were wondering it's $268

...for one CD, one DVD, and a 10" vinyl EP. His 5-disc live box with Steve Nieve costs less than half that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxardpBReQc

BTW, sort of like Prince, it's not really fair to count EC's prolific nature against him. He had a run of six or so classics in a row before he came anywhere close to dud. After that, sure, it's been hit or miss, but a couple in there have been classics, too.

well, Prince can sing though.

Man, that's a really scathing parody of Elvis that Nick Lowe's doing in that vid.

I mean, that is Nick, right?

xpost That's for sure! But EC's non-singing is no worse than one RZ's.

I mean, I love Prince, more than EC at his best, but even Prince's totally unimpeachable winning streak was almost exactly as long as EC's before things started going off the rails.

Is Nick Lowe the fuzzy red one or the puppet?

The grey haired guy hamming it up behind Elvis glasses (but seriously, I didn't realize Elvis had decided to give up on dye.

All the viral Sesame Street viral vids baffle me, because like, they NEVER ACTUALLY COUNT in this clip! The ratio of parent-baiting in-jokery to educational content is pretty overwhelming. Stop shouting "red 2" and do some basic addition already!

you gotta cool out a bit croup

please don't mistake my use of the exclamation point and all caps for anything more than bafflement.

How is he supposed to count if a monster ate his red 2?

maybe a verse about basic subtraction, unless "3 - 1 = 2" is a bit advanced for educational television these days

But there's no 2! It'd have to be a song about variables, but then they'd have to introduce letters into the mix.

maybe the point of the bit wasn't to be educational, how about that

No, it's Sesame Street! It's about learning!

don't get me wrong, i know kids need to learn about elvis costello sooner or later, I just think there was room for an additional lesson here.

xpost frogbs stop being a capt save-a-muppet

gottta hand it to him for that blog entry about the box set.

weirdly i feel like old-school E.C. fans are more likely to be grandparents than parents of children still learning to count to ten.

in other words, he looks old.

so do i.

look croup i understand it re: katy perry but i feel like the young'uns should know about elvis costello

When EC reunited the Attractions for that '94 tour, they called it the "Lock Up Your Mothers" tour.

Not classic or dud. Bunch of catchy songs whose clever lyrics don't really age as well as he may have thought they would when he wrote them. I'd happily sit through a bunch of his records if someone else played them, but would never put them on myself. I like "Beyond Belief" because of the weird structure. He's like the perfection of a musical dead end, in some ways.

I love a few early Costello songs and quite a few late ones but if the next generation treated him as, I dunno, punk's Arnold Bennett I wouldn't lose any sleep.

All y'all pretending those first few albums are nothing but a few good scattered songs are crazy. Those albums are so solid, so musically inventive, and even if EC is, ironically, often the weakest point, so what? Again, like Prince, he hasn't done himself any favors over the years, and his propensity toward dilettante detours and distraction annoying, but downgrading the dude as a musical dead end is as bonkers as the nuts who dismiss the Clash.

agree. i'd go as far to say his first decade is a pretty astounding body of work.

I love TYM and Trust especially, and considerable portions of AF, GH, and B&C, but his weaknesses even then are so much more obvious than Prince's.

What miccio said upthread about how easily he reduces his own songs to bitchslaps is otm, and while Prince has his nasty moments at least he's flexible enough as a singer to consider generosity as a virtue.

the idea that the answer here is anything but "classic" is laughable. I think if he were less respected there could be a critical reappraisal but he's in that uncomfortable middle ground where he's canonical enough that the knee-jerk canon haters dismiss him and he's not obscure enough to get that sort of reappraisal. someday maybe.

yeah, totally. also the fact that he undeniably peaked early means it's hard for people to champion different eras of his work -- there's never going to be some revival of appreciation for Brutal Youth or something

For context's sake, the uncertain place in which you condemned him is exactly where Bill Wyman condemned him in the Big Orange SPIN Book.

To me of course he's classic, but if you don't listen to an EC album when you're under 21 you're never going to understand him; his weaknesses curdle into the most uninteresting kind of Grand Guignol the older I get. A few months ago I eliminated most of my EC collection -- I was one of those fans who owned The Juliet Letters, Brutal Youth, All This Useless Beauty -- and don't miss a thing.

if you don't listen to an EC album when you're under 21 you're never going to understand him

idgi, please explain. that seems to be a purely lyrical analysis, right?

Nah. Those early Nick Lowe productions sound claustrophobic now.

if ever there was an argument FOR claustrophobic production it's This Years Model

Which is why I don't listen to it often.

I don't even understand what you mean by claustrophobic or what that has to do with hearing him before you're 21

he's an indispensable gateway if you discover him young, although I doubt most fans take the trouble to find out who Billy Sherrill is and the artists he produced.

I don't even understand what you mean by claustrophobic or what that has to do with hearing him before you're 21

When I was twenty-one the dense arrangements for those mean songs fitted exactly how I thought a smart-ass should respond to objects of desire. As I got older it sounded less gripping -- a manner, if you will.

I still think you're just talking about lyrics

to me he ran out of ways of saying "I don't wanna kiss you," and as I've aged I don't think this is a particularly interesting sentiment either.

I am, in the main, I guess I'll admit. His voice suits those early songs.

seems kinda boringly reductive to say "he's not compelling once you're not an ANGRY YOUNG MAN anymore" tbh

It is, and it's fine with me.

yeah, it's interesting to me how basically 100% of the criticism against him focuses on the lyrics or his voice. which, you know, fair enough but I like his voice and don't care about lyrics. but it's also funny how some people who claim not to care about lyrics also hate him because of his supposedly clever lyrics.

The messiness of Trust is very attractive. It's old hat now to claim it's one of his best records but when I got the Ryko reissue in the early nineties it sounded bracing and slightly hysterical. I loved and still over the dub undertones of stuff like "New Lace Sleeves" -- what a good use of space. The narrative, such as it was, never resolved itself either; it was a mystery you couldn't penetrate. The tightly packed arrangement of things like "New Amsterdam" had the same effect.

Let's put it this way: I don't care for him as a singer enough to forgive some of those lyrics and arrangements. And quite a few of his vocals on Spike and Mighty Like a Rose make me hate him as a singer too.

The turning point for me was a 2002 concert in which every vocal intonation underlined every supposed mordant irony in "I Want You," for which he also rolled his eyes and mugged like a vaudevillian. I love the recorded version but this performance reminded me of what I despised about his voice.

plus, Elvis C doesn't need defending! Every new staff at the college radio station I advise mentions loving him. He's never going away.

yeah, it's interesting to me how basically 100% of the criticism against him focuses on the lyrics or his voice. which, you know, fair enough but I like his voice and don't care about lyrics. but it's also funny how some people who claim not to care about lyrics also hate him because of his supposedly clever lyrics.

― the wheelie king (wk), Friday, November 18, 2011 10:26 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah it's kind of a shame that the focus ALWAYS goes there and stays there, because the Attractions are one of my favorite bands of all time, there's just a ton of great playing and arranging on those records

I mean, I think Nick Lowe (for example) is a far superior lyricist, and really no less mean, but EC's lyrics, while bilious and self consciously clever (at times; other times they are lovely and perfect - see "Temptation"), are not so risible as to drag the dude down like an anchor. Especially with that band lifting him up at every occasion. \\

And anyone with a dedicated ILX thread titled "Elvis Costello, when did this fat balding fuck jump the shark" or whatever does need defending, to a degree. That's why I keep bringing up Prince. There's been enough bad (or insignificant) Prince now that that's all a generation or two knows; the rest is '80s-signifying nostalgia (unless, per Alfred, you actually grew up with it, ironically). Same with EC, though I'd argue that even at his most merely serviceable there are still, as above, the classic cut or two. He's just become such a formalist it's hard to hear his songs as much more than constructions. But I think his angry young man era has aged well, and the production in particular is part of it; it's a different sort of wall of sound, more like a wall of kinetic energy.

yeah he's never had a great rep on ILM relative to his general reputation, for whatever reason. like, i'd love to do an EC tracks poll but i feel like it'd have a low turnout and really cranky, unpleasant noms/results threads.

I'm a huge fan of EC at least through Blood & Chocolate and would vote the hell out a poll.

I don't mind polling songs. That double disc Girls Girls Girls thing is worth a poll.

i think he's great as long as he's with the Attractions. i never liked King of America much, found it way too long and overindulgent for only a small amount of good material, then Blood & Chocolate comes along and suddenly everything I liked about him came back

The great KofA songs sound really great now.

Oh Girls Girls Girls is great! I would love an EC poll of that comp.

i dunno why but i just haven't been able to muster up enthusiasm for Blood & Chocolate for a long time except for a coupla songs. King of America has the opposite effect on me

Never warmed up to that either of those alleged classics- both were way after BFF sharp-jump.

BFF sharp-jump

I can't decipher this.

Sorry, FBF

(see title of another EC thread, recently mentioned in this one)

Actually it was BFF: Elvis Costello: The Exact Moment When This Balding Fat Fucker Jumped The Shark

ah, ok -- I don't think of that thread when I think of him

That's the only thread I think of when I think of him

i find B&C to be really good at least for the first half. second half is decent but I still dig "Uncomplicated" and "Tokyo Storm Warning" quite a bit

I can totally see someone calling "King of America" a dud, but "Blood & Chocolate" has way too much going for it. I want to say his first real dud, excluding "Goodbye Cruel World" (liners of the Ryko reissue begin something like "Congratulations, you've just bought my worst album!"), was "Mighty Like a Rose," and it's been erratic if not outright weird ever since.

Holy shit, this live German TV performance from 1978 is smoking hot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQbQ2InHp44&feature=player_embedded

If nothing else, do yourself a favor and watch the performance of Lipstick Vogue @ 28:27.

So, I was listening to "Almost Blue" this morning, and as much fun as it is to give this guy shit these days, that album's really ahead of its time, isn't it? I mean, it was received as a lark, but really: a 1981 album by a Brit punk doing hardcore country - George Jones, Merle Haggard, even Gram Parsons - with a straight face, before a lot of that stuff became a hip signifier? This is pre-Mekons, pre-alt country, pre pop rediscovery of Parsons, etc. Not bad, Costello.

I never really got into that one. But Imperial Bedroom and Blood & Chocolate have impressed me a lot lately. I figure it's time to jump into his 90's work, for better or worse.

http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4dfbaefe49e2ae2b75000000-480/swimming-nose-holding-underwater.jpg

I don't really like "Almost Blue" much, but I do think it was as massively ahead of its time as any ahead of its time record.

'90s Elvis: hodgepodge. It's like one long compilation.

it's easy to make a good playlist/CD-R of his nineties stuff; it's taking the time to do it though.

I like "Kinder Murder" a lot. I am skeptical though - when I saw him at Summerfest, his set was like 75% from the albums up to Imperial Bedroom, which kinda said a lot (intentionally or no)

Sulky Girl is a great EC 90s song. Brutal Youth is where I stopped listening, though. I did order his latest through an amazon.com vendor but that was 3 weeks ago and they have yet to deliver it, which says something...

I got up to All This Useless Beauty, probably his best since Blood & Chocolate, but I could never get into anything he did after that. There's something about his singing starting in the 90s that really puts me off, like he found a slick comfort zone that he rarely steps out of. I can't imagine present-day Elvis doing a whispery menacing vocal like "Beyond Belief."

Ironically, I just got an email that my order of National Ransom has been cancelled.

Starting with Spike, the problem with most of his albums is that they tend to be least 10 minute too long.

...or about 20 in the case of 'When I Was Cruel'

There's something about his singing starting in the 90s

'Twas voice lessons that killed the beast. I blame "The Juliet Letters."

or turned him into a beast

When did Elvis stop drinking? Given This Year's Model and the El Mocambo live album are what I return to most, I got this hunch that I started losing interest in the guy's career when he got sober.

Pretty sure it was around Imperial Bedroom.

I think speed was the drug of choice of most of his generation. All those songs and albums is so short a span, and I mean, you can really hear it at work on the live stuff.

I actually liked Almost Blue a lot the year it came out -- put it in a year-end top 10 I did for my college paper in 1981, which seems doubly nuts since Trust also came out that year, but I was apparently just starting to explore country at the time. (Also listed albums by Joe Ely, Rosanne Cash, and Merle Haggard.) I haven't listened to it in decades, but it did introduce me to songs and country artists I was only vaguely aware of before. Thing is, it probably wasn't that unheard-of a move for Costello, given that he'd basically graduated out of the U.K.'s pub-rock scene, which in a lot of ways was the roots-rock/alt-country of its time, at least where bands like Brinsley Schwarz were concerned. The Fabulous Poodles had already covered "Third Rate Romance" by Amazing Rhythm Aces, for instance, and Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers did "Six Days On The Road" by Dave Dudley. (I only know because they're both on a CD compilation of '70s pub-rock I have.)

Otherwise, I pretty much stopped paying attention to Costello after Goodbye Cruel World -- so I didn't even make it through his first decade. Basically still love the first 3 albums; like a few of the other early albums okay, especially Trust and the B-sides compilation Taking Liberties, and can live without the rest. (Never liked Imperial Boredom much, even when it was new.)

Also worth remembering that he had already done a couple original straight country songs before Almost Blue -- "Stranger In The House" (duet on a George Jones album in 1979) and "Radio Sweetheart" (on Taking Liberties, so maybe a B-side in England? Something like that.)

I talked with Steve Earle once, and he said Elvis Costello was massively important to him and his friends in 1970's Texas.

'Twas voice lessons that killed the beast.

extremely otm. before he began to reinvent himself as a capital-S singer, he was a pretty great singer. but the harder he tries to "sing," the less i like. his penchant for straying howlingly off-key doesn't help.

http://www3.pictures.fp.zimbio.com/Welcome+Voice+Opera+Paris+xPuK_UEI7Ycl.jpg

90s Costello: All This Useless Beauty is actually one of my favourite of his records. One of his strongest sets of songs (check out "Little Atoms," "You Bowed Down," "Just About Glad" or the title track) and unusually concise for any record he made during the 80s onward. The super limited edition live record he put out of his accompanying tour with Steve Nieve in '97 or so is one of the few live records I care about.

Brutal Youth has "13 Steps Lead Down," which was actually my introduction to Costello! Hard to believe now that the local "alternative" station actually played it in between Nirvana and the Pumpkins and all that at the time. "This is Hell" is another favourite--his effete vision of Hell, where "'My Favourite Things' is playing again and again / but its by Julie Andrews and not by John Coltrane" is still one of the funniest lyrics I've ever heard. But yeah, otherwise the album is subject to the same bloat that makes a lot of his albums a bit of a chore to take in all at once (PaulTMA is otm upthread).

What else was there in the 90s? File The Juliet Letters and Kojak Variety under genre detours that Costello has a lot more passion than talent for. The Bacharach collaboration bored me to tears; thank HMV for still doing returns on opened product in the late 90s.

*"thank YOU HMV..."

Brutal Youth has "13 Steps Lead Down," which was actually my introduction to Costello! Hard to believe now that the local "alternative" station actually played it in between Nirvana and the Pumpkins and all that at the time.

Mine did too. That spring I discovered the Ryko reissues and took the plunge.

Brutal Youth retains MItchell Froom completely ditches the kitchen sink production from Mighty Like A Rose, going for a fairly grunge-friendly sound instead. First time I heard 13 Steps on the radio, at the end of a Costello BBC Scotland interview, I assumed they were playing the demo version.

Brutal Youth has lots of plinky plonky wonky skronky Froomy drum sounds, though

xpost "All This Useless Beauty" follows in the one long compilation scheme of the '90s, since it's a selection of songs he wrote for or with other people for other projects.

Brutal Youth is messy but man the good stuff on it is great, maybe the last one I can say that for (the only 2000s one that had any decent songs was Momofuku iirc? I don't think I've ever heard When I Was Cruel though)

The drum sound on BY is the #1 reason why I've never warmed to it. It's like Froom gated a pair of aluminum garbage cans.

When I Was Cruel is pretty good! I saw him play a club date around that album and he was awesome.

Nick Lowe plays bass on a hunk of "Brutal Youth." They should have had him produce.

I saw him on that tour for the first time. I still love the title track.

Telling quote from Pete Thomas:

How old were you when you started playing music? When did you get your first set of drums? What drew you to the instrument?

I was 9, my grandmother bought me a snare-drum and cymbal. I made the rest of the kit out of old oil drums and biscuit tins.

Thomas still calls it his trademark "biscuit tin snare" sound.

I've seen EC with the Attractions a couple of time, the Imposters a couple of times, Emmylou Harris once, and paired with Nieve maybe three times? They've all been pretty strong, though his catalog has become so deep and unwieldy choice paralysis leads him to play it safe. Then again, a few years back he started breaking out the spinning songbook again, so who knows?

http://spencerweddings.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/elvis-costello-1.jpg

Aside: Larry Sanders is the main reason I sifted through Costello's later stuff. I was beyond impressed with 13 Steps Lead Down and that acoustic version of Little Atoms.

While we're here, can we have yet another round of applause for the Attractions? What an amazing band. The playing, the arrangements, the cool ideas and personalities, paired with Costello's weird rock songs? Perfect.

Has this been posted anywhere yet? I haven't heard almost half of these but still found it quite an interesting order.

http://www.stereogum.com/1426582/elvis-costello-albums-from-worst-to-best/top-stories/lead-story/

Aside: Larry Sanders is the main reason I sifted through Costello's later stuff. I was beyond impressed with 13 Steps Lead Down and that acoustic version of Little Atoms.

It's funny to realize that there are more years beween Brutal Youth and now than Brutal Youth and My Aim Is true

the ATUB-era episode of Conan where EC was the only guest, with interview segments and multiple performances, was what really got me all set on picking up My Aim Is True and beginning to fall in love with his catalog.

EC with the Attractions might be one of my top 5 favorite rock quartets ever, just an incredible combination of personalities and instrumental styles.

love his cover of "Brilliant Disguise," recorded during this era.

Mighty Like A Rose being routinely singled out as his worst album is just sheer insanity

yeah, and North over Useless Beauty? feels like they're really working overtime to peg the 90s as his nadir.

Painted From Memory over When I Was Cruel is a truth bomb, though.

There's a lot of imprecision and overwroughtness in MLAR that only becomes apparent after you listen to the rest of the catalog. As the second album of his I bought -- the first one bought at the time of release -- I thought the sixteen guitars per track and crazed harmonies and toy pianos sounded glorious.

Mighty Like A Rose was practically the last old album I checked out. from my vantage point it's middling but better than its rep.

I'd put it "Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4" on the all-time list.

^^^ this. Best song on the record by far, and probably his best post-Blood and Chocolate vocal.

that album with The Roots is only a month away now... i was really curious and optimistic about the project's potential initially, but that single kinda lowered my expectations. should at least sound nice if he doesn't bleat too much.

How To Be Dumb is Elvis at the most livid I've ever heard him. I wrongly thought The Other Side Of Summer was a Veronica-sized semi-hit due to seeing the video once or twice on the telly when I was 10 - guess it wasn't. Hurry Down Doomsday is great too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY_Lw53udq8

This is making the twitter rounds. I assume it's a comment on the Stereogum piece:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BR532RvCYAAaL0n.png

bzzzt

pas de poo!

For those who scour for such things, some guy recently compiled/collected each of EC's albums up until his most recent output, with the album bundled with a disc of bonus tracks, a disc of contemporaneous performances, a disc of sessions, and/or related releases. It's a pretty cool way to dive back in for the fan who has everything, not just because it previously seemed impossible to collect everything, but because each album/era provided its own little world worth immersing oneself in.

The whole album w/the Roots is streaming now:

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/08/219316721/first-listen-elvis-costello-the-roots-wise-up-ghost?sc=fb&cc=fmp&refresh=true#playlist

First couple of songs did not impress me. Some funny comments on the npr thread. Need to hear the whole thing. So no Black Thoughts from the Roots on this, and the NPR comments say Costello is reworking some previously released lyrics on 3 or 4 songs of this.

I never liked "Walk Us Uptown," but I really dig the album, it only gets better from there.

"Walk Us Uptown" was so tacky and schticky I thought this album was going to be a disaster, but Costello is on his A game here (or at least his late-period A game). Haven't enjoyed a Costello release this much in ages.

Haven't listened to him since the legendary shark-jumping but will give this a spin.

Eh its ok

His singing is still too facile for me. I kind of doubt I'll ever be able to get into any post-singing-lessons EC.

A dude at the Brooklyn Bowl concert last Monday posted the show on YouTube. For a Costello skeptic like me who hasn't paid attention since 2002, the chemistry between him and the Roots was fresh and surprising. It's making me consider the album.

before i heard this my friend said that elvis sounds like his (my friend's) pretty funny imitation of elvis singing and now i can't get that out of my head when i hear this new record

I've seen some live clips of Elvis Costello over the past few years that I liked. They showed that video of him and his newer band The Imposters recorded in Memphis a few years quite a bit on satellite TV and it's pretty spirited and a decent show. Every once in a while, I will hear a track here or there that I think is ok, but Costello tries everything and some of those odd matchups just sound weird.

I only have the 80s stuff, but that Live at Hollywood High that Rhino put out a couple of years ago is pretty ace. That band had a tons of energy at that point.

i made a mega mix of EC songs through the decades that really helped me appreciate a lot of the kind of conceptually iffy collaborations, which can often be better in small doses: http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2013/09/elvis-costello-deep-album-cuts-box-set.html

The Imposters is not so much a newer band as it is The Attractions with the one member Elvis didn't get along well with swapped out for a different bassist, so they still sound great ripping through all the old stuff live.

Really,this guy is so good, and the only thing he did wrong was release too much good stuff, so that people hear the OK stuff and think, bah, it's not as good as the (10 or so) albums of good stuff.

Those photos with questlove gave me quite a shock - dude looks like Ernie Coombs nowadays! Jeepers.

good lists, dude. No "Peace in Our Time"? otoh I'm still figuring out -- years later -- how I'm supposed to respond to "The Only Flame in Town."

Well, I wasn't including any singles. I came out of making that a pretty big fan of GCW though, I think the narrative around it has stifled appreciation of a perfectly decent EC album.

I don't think it's terrible either. It's for fans only, though, ie won't convert anybody.

yep

Accurate, methinks:

Goodbye Cruel World [Columbia, 1984]

In these changing times it's good to know there are things we can rely on, so here's another solid if unspectacular effort from this thoughtful, hard-hitting, surprisingly tender singer-songwriter. Highlights include the lilting country cover "I Wanna Be Loved," the straight-to-the-point "Inch by Inch," and--who says there are no great protest songs any more?--"Peace in Our Time," which almost got him booed off Carson. B+

He only has maybe 4 or 5 albums that are a good entry point for the unconverted, though. And there are at least a dozen it's better than, contrary to EC's "my worst album" patter. xp

I think it's because it was the first one to get lukewarm reviews.

Yeah I get that, but it's way better than Punch The Clock imo

Punch The Clock has those awful horn charts! Playing it now on Spotify, I realized I've heard this album several times in the last few years and still can't remember the album tracks. It might be the classic-period EC album with such disproportionate strengths. You'd think a record with "Everyday I Write The Book," "Pills and Soap," and "Shipbuilding" would be better.

It's funny that GCW gets tarred for 'trendy' synthesizer sounds, as if Steve Nieve was playing a grand piano on earlier albums

"Peace in Our Time," which almost got him booed off Carson.

In looking for that clip I found the whole segment (two songs and an interview!) which includes "I Hope You're Happy Now," two years before it was released:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dJH5IqUxrw

i used to have a boot of a show from the punch the clock era, took the best from the album ('tko', 'let them all talk', 'everyday i write the book')(i've somehow never really considered 'shipbuilding' or 'pills and soap' proper album tracks in my head for some weird reason but more just tracks that happened to end up on that album like 'fight the power' w/ fear of a black planet), did what it could bringing imperial bedroom to the stage, and really worked magic w/ get happy!! tracks - THE TKO HORNS. langer and winstanley and costello probably could've yielded a better album but costello was nearly burnt out, in this mode at least. goodbye cruel world was even more exhausted though it has it's odd charms, it may have been his worst album at the time but he's done worse in every manner since.

i think this may be that show -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTfurBqOlP4

He's since revised his estimate: now it's "worst album of good songs"

"Peace in Our Time," which almost got him booed off Carson.

doesn't sound like booing to me! sounds like a rather warm reception.

they should've booed him for dissing prince tho! (unless calling prince "an imposter" is a sneaky way of saying "i hope that he will be a member of the band i form a couple decades hence").

he adores Prince. He's covered "Pop Life" several times.

huh -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrVHssXodqI

man if i was on a music trivia game show i would totally want elvis costello on my team

xpost - yeah there's a clip of him doing (the end of) 'purple rain' at a show while the bangles go-go danced on stage

I could never figure out the "Peace in Our Time" brewhaha. Was it just because of the passing whack at Reagan? You'd think the studio audience wouldn't be attuned enough to what he was singing to boo. Anyway, I don't hear any booing, either. Maybe that is what Xgau meant by "almost."

He and Prince sort of feuded for a while. EC wanted to cover "Pop Life," but Prince kept saying no. "Elvis Costello once planned to do a cover version of the song, with altered lyrics, but Prince refused. Costello later recorded the song "The Bridge I Burned," which borrows the chord sequence from "Pop Life""

prince just said no cuz ec was on warners and prince had (hell probably still has) a fatwa.

Ha, no this was before that. I think it was because EC wanted to change the lyrics.

xpost What an insane music trivia line-up!

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/elvis-costello/2013/lisner-auditorium-washington-dc-1bc4d53c.html with video clips from his current US solo tour

Friday night I saw Elvis Costello live for the first time in quite awhile. 2 hours plus solo set in DC. There were both thrilling moments and disappointing ones. Plus a funny mention of "Paul McCartney in his bermuda shorts watching Costello rehearse at Lisner for the Gershwin Award event at the White House awhile back). Elvis was up there with his choice of 5 different guitars plus a keyboard and his (what I think were) high-tech music stands with lyrics and stuff. Some of it rocked (he also had foot pedals and such and had the guitar sounds looping and feeding back at times), although much of it was more quiet, occasionally too singer/songwriter/folkie. He did a long set and for a number of tunes could be clearly seen with his head and eyes down reading the lyrics as he sung them. But he looked at the audience a fair amount too and told some interesting stories. I am a fan of his first 5 albums or so and mostly lost interest after that. So I was glad when he opened with "Green Shirt," albeit rearranged, and later weaved in "High Fidelity" as part of a medley.

But he lost me when he raced through a number of later recorded songs. While singing solo can bring out the melodies, here it hid them and showed their weaknesses--including a certain sameyness. I wish the Attractions had been up there--though those tunes might still have not worked. There were more highlights to come though. A nice version of "Beyond Belief," a medley of "Radio Sweetheart," and Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said," and the encores that included "Shipbuilding," a gorgeous acapella from the front of the stage sans mic "Alison," and "Watching the Detectives." He also did his original version of "Radio Radio" (called "radio Soul" on the setlist) that was about the joy radio gave him (and his dad), and not the anger that corporate radio later inspired. 2 new ones from his latest effort with the Roots worked--"Tripwire," and a solo keyboard rendition of the sweet slow "The Puppet Has Cut His Strings" (which he has been doing elsewhere as a medley with the beautiful old number "Almost Blue").

Invasion Hit Parade
Ascension Day
She's Pulling Out the Pin
Come the Meantimes

He raced through these numbers

I was surprised to hear this was a full-on solo tour, wish i could've caught it -- closest to that i've seen/heard recordings of was when he toured with Nieve on piano in the '90s, i wonder how often he's played completely solo.

btw Nieve released a solo album recently with EC and tons of other famous guest vocalists all over it -- some nice sounds here and there but mostly pretty lame.

In his early pub rock days I wonder if he ever performed solo? Wiki says he was just in bands then, though.

He played some solo shows, at least informally, in the pub rock era. Generally lots of covers at open mic-type nights. Lots of covers.

Thanks.

Freelancer reviewing the solo show from Friday for the Washington Post liked it all--songs from every era. I am still not so convinced (but I will see which albums the songs came from specifically to better understand what I like and don't)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/concert-review-elvis-costello-has-war-peace-on-his-mind-at-solo-lisner-auditorium-show/2013/11/24/545b23b8-552b-11e3-bdbf-097ab2a3dc2b_story.html

he's got a book coming out

here's a genuinely funny extract

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/12/elvis-costello-and-the-curse-of-top-of-the-pops

Yeah that extract is great. I wonder if he wrote it all by himself or whether he got some help from a ghost writer. If the former, he should probably think about jacking in the music lark and becoming a full-time writer.

i'm not sure why he'd need a ghost writer; he's written plenty of prose before, and it's always very witty.

Yeah, his liner notes show a basic understanding of subject-verb agreement and an ability to drop a bon mot.

even just putting together his liners for those early 2000s rhino reissues would make a pretty good book, i think.

yeah i wouldn't mind if he recycled those in this or another book, have em all in one place

recycle those in this book you say, surely he would never do such a thing oh wait

One of those weeks we were scheduled to appear on Tops Of The Pops to perform our new single, "I Wanna Be Loved". As the song ended, "a representative of the Elvis Costello Group" was testily summoned over a public address system.

Being the only barely responsible person on hand, I presented myself at the foot of the iron stairs to the production gantry above the studio floor. When the producer finally emerged, he attempted to give me a dressing down because Pete Thomas had ruined the illusion of live performance on an entirely mimed programme by playing the final drum fill of our song on his head, while in tight close-up. The fact that the drummer from the group Tight Fit had got up from his drums in the middle of "The Lion Sleep Tonight" and bent over so his bandmate could mime beat out a marimba solo on a keyboard design printed on the arse of his loincloth was completely lost on the apoplectic BBC stooge.

When taping ended, a stern voice came crackling over the public address system. “A representative of the Elvis Costello group” was summoned to the foot of the iron stairs leading to the production gallery. Being the only vaguely responsible person on hand, I presented myself at the headmaster’s office. The producer emerged, apoplectic with rage, and attempted to give me a dressing-down for Pete having ruined the illusion of a live performance. I shut him down immediately.

The drummer from Tight Fit had got up during the middle of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, walked forward and bent over – so his bandmate could beat out a marimba solo on a keyboard printed on the arse of his loincloth, while his drums magically continued to play. The shattering of illusions was the least of their problems.

book is 674 pp, so excerpts is about all i can handle

even just putting together his liners for those early 2000s rhino reissues would make a pretty good book, i think.

"Congratulations! You've just purchased our worst album." is up there with great opening lines in literary history imo.

All of his liner notes can be found here btw: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/My_Aim_Is_True_(1993)_liner_notes

haha yeah that was good

xp

It was dark when I awoke. I could hear the rats scuttling across the rehearsal room floor. It was just as I had been warned. If the lights went off, the rats came out. Feeling for my shoes, I edged to the light-switch and illuminated the drinking party passed out on another ragged sofa. I tried to get back to sleep with lights on. I was going to make a record the next day.

xp lol yeah, perfect. glad there's a little bite in that excerpt -- after that tv show he hosted, i thought EC was getting toothless.

The audiobook is now loaded on my phone, but I need to finish this Jim Henson bio I took out from the library first. Looking forward to digging into this ASAP.

"Congratulations! You've just purchased our worst album."

would have been a lot funnier if it opened the liner notes to every one of his albums!

Ha.

i just imagine some guy's sad face when he expectantly cracks open the liner notes to armed forces...

I dunno, if anything it would raise expectations!

all liner notes collected here FYI

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Goodbye_Cruel_World_%281995%29_liner_notes

Pretty sure you mean here

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Trust_(1994)_liner_notes

Really liked his book. In a lot of ways it reflects his all over the place career, but it makes a really strong case for Costello as some sort of genius shaped and directed by the company he kept. Almost an anti-Bowie, really, a strong traditionalist whose collaborators drew out various aspects of his personality and background: jazz, ABBA, soul, Beatles, country, etc. In fact, it's kind of interesting to hear how important country was to him from the very start, and how much of his musical tastes were codified collecting records while touring America nonstop, sort of his equivalent of the Beatles hanging in Hamburg. Also touched by his affection for his father and family, and respect the way he carefully illuminates his three very different marriages (on that point sot of makes me want to read a Diana Krall book!). In the end I left feeling sort of guilty for taking him for granted for so long, as a songwriter but specifically as a lyricist. And it's a ton of fun reading accounts of him almost accidentally rubbing shoulders with so many of his musical heroes, from Dylan and McCartney and Bacharach to Allen Toussaint and George Jones.

he is currently writing songs for a musical of the 1957 Elia Kazan film, “A Face in the Crowd.”

and lives in Vancouver now

from a fawning interview in the NY Times, mostly about Costello and his time in NYC

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/arts/music/elvis-costellos-new-york-soul.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-2&action=click&contentCollection=Music®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article

Are they permanently in Vancouver? I had some idea they might be coming back at some point.

To be pedantic, he lives in the British Properties of the Municipality of West Vancouver, which is a couple of cities distant from Vancouver in the Lower Mainland. It's known as the richest neighbourhood in one of the most exclusive cities in Canada.

Not much detail in the story on his current residence, its more about Costello and NYC, and the Brooklyn living author (who is the NY Times metro section editor) and his Costello fanaticism since he was a teen (he's now 50)

Some details on the Imperial Bedroom album, as Costello is gonna play it on some tour gigs with the Imposters

My freshman year roommate wants to go to one of those shows so maybe I will report back.

Via Wiki:

Elvis Costello has written 17 songs for A Face In The Crowd, a planned stage musical based on Budd Schulberg's story originally published as Your Arkansas Traveler and adapted into the 1957 film A Face In The Crowd written by Schulberg, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Andy Griffith.

The musical's book is written by Sarah Ruhl, who had previously collaborated with Elvis on an unfinished musical about WHER, the all-female Memphis radio station.

An invitation-only reading of A Face In The Crowd was held in New York on June 10. The New York Post reported that Elvis and his backers want Hugh Jackman to star. The Swiss newspaper Zürich Tages Anzeiger reported the musical was expected to premiere in 2017.

Elvis premiered nine of the songs in concert in the spring of 2016 and an additional song in the Fall of that year.

A detailed article about this project can be found at the ecsongbysong blog.

Went last night. He opened with "Night Rally."

Followed by "Lipstick Vogue." Which I feel like in the old days was near the end of the set.

Everyone gets armbands and 3D glasses.

Ha. Really? He did all of Imperial Bedroom, plus more, right? DC show sold out at high ticket prices before I decided I really wanted to go no matter the price. Oh well. Freelancer for the Washington Post loved the gig.

Night Rally is a great song

It was pretty good. Similar to when I, and no doubt you, saw him back in the day. Think he skipped maybe one from Imperial Bedroom, "You Little Fool." He also did three from his upcoming musical project, A Face in the Crowd.

Night Rally is a great song

He played a deep cut that I wasn't familiar with, "Seconds of Pleasure."

No he did do "You Little Fool." Must have erased it from my memory.

Saw the summer outdoor tour version of the Imperial Bedroom tour, from the lawn. He did most of the album, but not in order. Only did 1 new songs "A Face in the Crowd" from that upcoming project. Did a song or 2 I wasn't familiar with. Had 2 backing soul-gospel women singers with him (spaced out on their names. One of em keeps liking photos on Instagram that show her singing with Elvis). The 3 of them doing "Alison" was nice. Some songs sounded rushed and cluttered near the beginning of the set, but then it all seemed to come together better. Too many loud talking folks near me on the lawn who didn't know Imperial Bedroom songs.

Ha, curm, I had exactly the same experience, maybe you were sitting near me.

I thought the ...and in every home/lucy in the sky mashup was funny; loved the spare Alison. Beyond Belief and Man Out of Time were strong encores.

Shabby Doll came out rockin' as well, but I still think my favorite version is one he did on tv with Fioner Rapple.

I've decided to give this guy another chance, even though his music historically has done very little for me...

Just this year I noticed how Bruce Thomas's Shabby Doll bass soloing is a nod to Stevie's "I Wish" (I assume).

The minimal version of Alison was impressive. Beyond Belief and Almost Blue also worked well too.

also liked green shirt

Wld pay money at this stage of my life for this.

I've decided to give this guy another chance, even though his music historically has done very little for me...

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Friday, June 23, 2017 1:56 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So, after sitting through every album from My Aim is True up to Spike over the last few days, my opinion hasn't really changed all that much. Costello comes across to me as being the type of dull classicist that people accuse Paul Weller of being, but even Weller went on to make a house album and occasionally experimented. He's also nowhere near as good a songwriter as Weller either, as evidenced by the fact that I'm fresh off listening to 11 or 12 of his albums, and the songs that I remember were the ones I knew anyway - I literally can't recall one single deep cut that made me go "wow, it was totally worth listening to the album for this"

One thing that I did take away from the experience is how much Costello sounds like Bryan Adams when he starts bellowing.

File under "new wave artists that you only really need a singles compilation by" alongside The Police.

Costello fairly drastically changes elements of his sound from album to album and Paul Weller probably wrote like 5 good songs in his life

We'll call you when he makes a house album tho

He slightly changes elements of his sound from album to album, not drastically. I would have personally loved it if there had been a drastic change in sound, but there wasn't. A bit more variety in the composition of his toplines would have been nice, too.

As for Paul Weller, there was no indication at the start of his career with The Jam that he would have had a Confessions of a Pop Group or a Modernism: A New Decade in him, let alone a 22 Dreams, Sonik Kicks or a Saturn's Pattern. When I got to King of America in Costello's discography, it wasn't a surprise at all.

Costello's 4th album was a Stax-esque soul record, his fifth was a foundational new wave record, his sixth was a straight up country album, and his seventh was orchestral, Beatles-esque music hall

I can understand why someone wouldn't like Elvis Costello, but criticizing him for "not experimenting" is silly

The differences were minimal. Like I say, if they'd been as drastic as you say, maybe I would have changed my mind.

North (pianoey lounge jazz), Juliet Letters (scrapey scratchy string quartet song settings), and When I was Cruel (spooky rock with drum machines) sound more than minimally different to me, and certainly don't resemble Almost Blue. His voice is unavoidably on all of them, I will grant.

Not to mention his most recent album, Wise Up Ghost, which he did with The Roots

Not sure how anyone could hear the differences between EC albums as "minimal," unless you consider the differences between all rock albums to be minimal.

and the songs that I remember were the ones I knew anyway

Even if this was your standard, I would be shocked if you knew less than, I dunno, 15 or 20 EC songs, which is a pretty nuts high number, and definitely pushes him beyond the realm of "singles act." (Save that category for Squeeze.) And anyway, even if you didn't think EC's singles or albums or album tracks or dozens of b-sides and one-offs and other things were worthwhile, the Attractions are an absolutely incredible and endlessly inventive band that is worth listening to on its own merits.

I'm not sure how many artists there are out there who drastically experiment between every record and still sound like themselves, but whatever that's a stupid way to judge an artist's body of work. But it's very hard to deny that Costello approached each album with different musical and thematic ideas--and it's very hard to mistake a song from This Year's Model for a song from, say, Get Happy!! despite identical personnel.

xxxpost:

Well, I didn't get that far in the discography - kinda figuring that getting 11 or 12 albums in was more than enough, and at this stage I don't really feel the need to investigate further given that the albums I heard were pretty much all of his so-called "canonical" ones.

But yeah, I was expecting to find a lot to like in Costello's discography given that I love his contributions to McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt and thought that as a producer he brought a great deal to Squeeze's East Side Story - unfortunately, I don't.

I can see why the likes of Rolling Stone liked this guy so much - putting out King of America in 1986 must have been right up their street. The rest of us had the Pet Shop Boys.

The biggest difference between This Year's Model and Get Happy!! was in the production.

Well I was just about to listen to an Elvis Costello record, but I forgot that I can't enjoy both Elvis Costello and Pet Shop Boys or else I would... make the Rolling Stones angry, or something?

xp well they were both produced by Nick Lowe, so obviously something changed, bud

I remember reading a post by Josh in Chicago a few years back where he stated that Costello might be more highly regarded today if he hadn't put out "too much music", which I disagree with a great deal. Prince, for example, couldn't have been any more prolific, but he's more highly regarded than Costello is today because his music was more interesting.

So you're saying that Elvis Costello falls into the broad category of "not as good as Prince" along with everybody else in the history of music give or take 10 people or so?

Yeah, but two years ago...

Nick Lowe was probably an even bigger trad. rock bore, tbh.

xxpost:

No, I'm saying that being prolific is not the reason that Elvis Costello isn't more highly regarded today. Do pay attention.

did you only listen to each album once, though? After a hits collection, my recommendations would be to pick up This Year's Model and stay with that for a while

With Cstello, it's not so much a matter of getting off (or on) the bus, but how you approach whichever stream..

Like, if some review goes "Yeah! A Return to the Attractionisms of "Brutal Youth" and "Blood and Choc"" then you might go hmm, let's give it a look. Or you might go "oh noe, what no Brodskys?". But then you might see one on Deutsche Grammophon and say "ah, now that's gonna be more like it"

Or, it might make you ponder " Elvis Costello: The Exact Moment When This Balding Fat Fucker Jumped The Shark "

xxpost:

No, I'm saying that being prolific is not the reason that Elvis Costello isn't more highly regarded today. Do pay attention.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Wednesday, June 28, 2017 8:20 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm paying very close attention but also making fun of you for your stupid opinions

(Multi xp) Think one thing was that Roger Bechirian's engineering hand grew stronger beginning with Armed Forces.

now excuse me, i'm gonna go argue with a stick over there in that mud

xxxxxpost:

This isn't the first time I've given Costello a chance, last time was about five years ago or so. I reached pretty much the same conclusion then as I've done now, but I thought I'd try again just to be sure.

i'm paying very close attention but also making fun of you for your stupid opinions

― black covfefe in bed (voodoo chili), Wednesday, June 28, 2017 1:24 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Who knew that the Costello hardcore could get so butthurt?

it's fine with me if you don't like costello, but if it's because he didn't change or adapt enough between records, it means you weren't paying attention

the world wonders what a Nick Lowe-produced Pet Shop Boys would've sounded like

xpost Who knows what I was thinking, but I'm pretty sure I was talking about EC's career as a whole (perhaps in the "jump the shark" thread?). I'm a fan, and I only ("only") like 11 or 12 EC albums, most of which were released between 1977 and 1987. Coincidence, but that's pretty much all the Prince I regularly listen to as well - about 10 albums between 1978 and 1988. In both cases, that's plenty! And they both have tons of outtakes from those years to fill in the gaps.

Pick a parcel of Costello

A. This Years Model, Armed Forces,

B. Almost Blue, Spike, King of America

C. Blood and Chocolate, Brutal Youth, When I was cruel

D. The Juliet Letters, North

E. Painted from Memory, And so blummin on, etc.

I dunno, I'll stick with "10 bloody marys and 10 hows yr fathers" ...

I can hurl two or three reasons why EC might suck, but lackig tonal and structural variety aren't among them.

he world wonders what a Nick Lowe-produced Pet Shop Boys would've sounded like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlvcqJpJquA

(The story goes that he wrote "The Bay City Rollers We Love You" to get dropped by his label, but it became an accidental hit in Japan, so he wrote "Let's Go to the Disco" as a follow-up and it did the trick.)

xxxxxpost:

Well, you kinda have to pay a lot of attention to realise how minimal the differences are between the records, so...

Terry Modern! (Xpost)

(The story goes that he wrote "The Bay City Rollers We Love You" to get dropped by his label, but it became an accidental hit in Japan, so he wrote "Let's Go to the Disco" as a follow-up and it did the trick.)

xxp maybe YOU do

I can hurl two or three reasons why EC might suck, but lackig tonal and structural variety aren't among them.

I thought his book was really good, but mostly I left with a real respect for his musical knowledge, not just showoff muso stuff but a deep understanding of and curiosity about pop, soul, jazz, etc., how and what makes it work (and how to rip it off).

Unfortunately, that's what makes pretty much all of his music so backward-looking. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with that, but if your music is going to be so backward-looking, at least write songs that stand a chance of competing with what you're ripping off.

You mean like Shipbuilding or Beyond Belief or ... ?

that retro rockabilly raver "Green Shirt."

Clive Langer wrote the music for 'Shipbuilding' ... anyhow, I was familiar with that one long before I tried to get into Costello's work first time around and I still like it - one of the very few that I do. Wyatt's version being the ultimate, although I like Suede's version more than Costello's.

Wyatt's version being the ultimate, although I like Suede's version more than Costello's.

Yeah, Chet Baker notwithstanding..

(I Don't Want to Go to) Challops

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-en-mn-elvis-costello-20171207-htmlstory.html

In the movie “High Fidelity,” John Cusack’s record store owner loves to makes music lists. For “Top Five Angry Songs About Women,” he says, “You kind of have to start with Elvis Costello, but where?” Did you appreciate that line?

I don’t get that myself. I think it’s in the eye of the beholder. “Alison” … It’s “I know the world is killing you,” not “I am killing you.” I’m not being pedantic here. It says, “my aim is true.” I am responsible. It’s not like I want to kill you, but this love that we’re in isn’t going to work out.

There’s a lot of songs that are like that. People want to hear them as angry. I’ve even seen the “m-word” attached to my name lots of times. Misogynist.

I think the songs are more about being a young man trying to work out what those feelings are supposed to be about. I’m not always writing the idyllic love song because maybe somebody does that better than me. Some of it’s from real life. I’ve lived parts of those songs. But I don’t think they’re misogynistic. I wonder if the people who think that are the ones with the problem.

“Top Five Angry Songs About Women,”

"I don’t get that myself."

In which Elvis forgets all about Lipstick Vogue

is it misogynistic? i don't think so but it's such a great track

i don't think it's misogynistic, i don't think songs where a man is angry at a woman is necessarily misogynistic.

but it is extremely angry

true

EC was mad at everyone.

guys i finally cracked elvis costello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "new amsterdam"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! great song

I had to look up the lyrics to “Black and White World” this morning and was musing about Costello’s hubris leading to Get Happy! I used to DJ in college for KTRU in Houston, and we had this DJ named Justin who I knew who was very geeky about alternative rock (from what I remember his favorite band was Television). At one point I listened to a brief interview he did with Costello backstage in Houston (which would have been before my time, because our policy when I was there was very crust punk no major label ever goes on our playlist, although we still had a library of older more mainstream stuff). Justin starts breathlessly gushing about The Bevis Frond to Costello, and Costello says something like “Oh, I haven’t heard of them, they must be new.” Justin replies, “No, its an English guy who’s about your age.” Costello’s reply: “He must not be very good then if I haven’t heard of him.” I get that the kid was annoying you, but really, Declan?

(Speaking of KTRU, I once had the privilege of having the entire membership of Spoon apologize to me for putting on what they thought was a bad show, I guess because they thought I was the station manager. No, they put on a great set that opened with a cover of “I Can’t Stand It” by the Velvets, which six people saw in a muddy field in Houston in 1997 because our station manager, who shall remain nameless, didn’t promote the gig at all. It was an all-day festival we were putting on, and he also forgot to get lights for the stage. There was a big to do about procuring them the day of because the headliners of the show would be playing at night, which would be why he wasn’t there to be wrongly apologized to instead.)

Black & White World is my favorite tune on the whole album. Always thought it was some "real life is never as good as the fantasy" trip.

I recently watched the Live Stiffs tour documentary and he's very nearly absent from it. He's there, and he performs, but he's clearly out of place.

New wife and child? Unease (at that point) with road debauchery? Maybe the filmmakers wanted him to look like the mysterious proto-grownup. Someone makes a joke about Joe Loss and gets quickly shut down.

Is that where Ian Dury and Costello are competing to be the stars of the tour and Larry Wallis et al are competing to see who can get most pissed?

Man, the songs, arrangements and performances of those first six or 7 albums - in five years! - are just so creative and incredible.

That is a fair assessment. My basic path is as follows:

My Aim Is True - classic
This Year's Model - very good
Armed Forces - great but uneven
Get Happy - great but uneven
Trust - great but uneven
Almost Blue - classic
Imperial Bedroom - classic but overreaches in a few places
Punch the Clock - classic

(We don't discuss Goodbye Cruel World)

King of America - classic
Blood & Chocolate - very good
Spike - great but uneven

(Then I snooze for a while)

All This Useless Beauty - classic
Kojak Variety - very good

(Then I just can't anymore. River of Dud. North is the dullest record I ever bought on purpose.)

Hmm, I'd say:

My Aim is True: Classic but uneven
This Year's Model: Classic
Armed Forces: Mostly classic
Trust: Mostly classic
Get Happy: Not uneven but just short of classic
Almost Blue: outlier
Imperial Bedroom: Uneven but classic
Trust: Classic but uneven
Punch the Clock: Pretty consistent but not classic
King of America: Classic but uneven
Blood and Chocolate: Mostly classic
Spike: solid/uneven
various b-sides collections: by definition uneven, but pretty great
most everything else: mostly uneven but sometimes pretty good
North and beyond: good if you only listen to music promoted by NPR

Im verrry close to josh on the shape of the curve, but my drop off starts after punch the clock- i always wonder if i just ran out of fucks to give, so...good enuf. I mean i’ve had several others since ptc but so uneven for me and just not special as collections or works.

Id bump up imperial bedroom, to me it is a stone cold classick

KOA has garbage: Eisenhower Blues, The Poisoned Rose, Glitter Gulch, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood.

The way I think of it is, those first albums are sooooo good, the playing and arrangements and most of the songs and all, that ... what more do I want? Just an incredible run with the Attractions. I can't imagine anyone staying that good for much longer.

I don't like Glitter Gulch (It's EC's Lily Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts, which I also don't like), but I like Poisoned Rose and Don't Let Me...

I generally agree about the drop-off in quality and consistency but I love ATUB.

Side 1 of Trust remains his high point for me.

Side 2 of This Year's Model, man

"Black and White World" from Get Happy

Even when the songs aren't at their absolute best the performances are never less than a total joy. I could listen to the Attractions tune.

I had a weird experience with Elvis because I listened to Spike and the Brodsky Quartet records first - I used to love "Let Him Dangle", of all songs - before I moved to the earlier, better stuff.

I like every record up to and including "Useless Beauty", with the exception of Kojak Variety, which, in retrospect, is the real preview of Elvis's terrible 2000s - not the Brodsky record, which I don't mind at all. Kojak has all the bad qualities - weird song choice, charmlessness, oversinging and boring guitar playing - of his late 90s/2000s work. And then "When I was Cruel" is the first back-to-basics Elvis record that's a complete failure. (It's so hard to listen to! And boring!)

Imperial Bedroom remains the classic for me - the only one I still want to listen to beginning to end without cherry-picking. And King of America sounds really drab to me these days.

Of the late stuff I seem to remember thinking Momofuku was the least terrible.

And, I would say, his autobigoraphy is fun and he seems like a mensch these days.

When I Was Cruel is really good

I had a weird experience with Elvis because I listened to Spike and the Brodsky Quartet records first - I used to love "Let Him Dangle", of all songs - before I moved to the earlier, better stuff.

Yep. And I loved MLAR in '91.

Some of my favourite Elvis songs on those records - God's Comic, Couldn't Call it Unexpected, Taking My Life in Your Hands...

Brodsky is great singing record - it's the last one before the raspy vibrato nonsense take over

He makes too many long records the last 30 years. When I Was Cruel would have been great with about 20 minutes cut off. Momofuku was a lean 12 songs and excellent. Having said that, all of Brutal Youth justifies the length, but it's (most likely) a one-off of his 50+ minute albums.

I like assorted bits of late (?) Elvis. Some of the Toussaint stuff, Spooky Girlfriend. His book was pretty solid; so was his show. I don't mind him; I just won't follow his every move like I did in 1986.

spike was also my first; i recall rolling stone heralding it as 'his best since . . .' which was weird because while i like it, blood & chocolate and king of america are both better

macca tho

In looking backward I think I have said most of what I want to say already in

Should I decide that I just can't keep up with Mr MacManus?

and the rather more bluntly titled

Elvis Costello: The Exact Moment When This Balding Fat Fucker Jumped The Shark

i've been listening to these a lot lately too for some reason after several years of actively avoiding them. to me the drop off started in earnest at Brutal Youth which is still his last great album to me; and then it's varying degrees of 'ok' to 'no' from there. Punch the Clock used to be one of my least favorites from this period but now I'd think it's about on par with Trust. I mean it has Shipbuilding on it for fucks sake.

Lots of those songs for me blur in a whiz of horn blasts.

I didn't to anything of his for a long time until recently, funny how fascism makes certain things more resonant

listen to

punch the clock has shipbuilding AND pills and soap, hard to beat that

But This Year's Model/Get Happy/Blood and Chocolate will always be my favorites.

also, I think the first costello album I owned (after Spike) was that Girls Girls Girls comp which is a great comp. It flows like an actual album and the variety of records those tracks came from is pretty huge.

PT has "Everyday I Write the Book," "Pills and Soap," "Shipbuilding," and nothing else tbh

Girls Girls Girls comp which is a great comp. It flows like an actual album and the variety of records those tracks came from is pretty huge.

otm -- I love comps that play as a miscellany (album tracks, singles).

let them talk is a good song.

also goodbye cruel world isn't great but it's certainly not terrible. Peace In Our Time, Love Field...those are good songs. I'd take that over National Ransom or Delivery Man or that Roots record any day.

yeah that comp is really good (as are the liner notes iirc)

and yes I like Juliet Letters. I saw him do this live with the Brodsky Quartet and it was one of the better things I've ever seen in 30 years of seeing shows.

also "Couldn't Call it Unexpected" is one of his greatest songs. Ok I'm done

really like his cover of 'days' on the until the end of the world soundtrack too -- seems like the best use of the ribot weird sounds era

I hate the production on Brutal Youth, but it's got some great songs on it. What I really got from the book is that the dude is no mere dilettante, he truly is a wealth of enthusiasm for and knowledge of music that (for better or worse) informs all his records. Also, yeah, one of the few acts whose compilations (hits and b-sides and the like) stand up as albums. Plus, Ryko liner notes are A+. That might be my favorite reissue program of all time. Sound, packaging, bonus tracks, liners, all top notch.

also "Couldn't Call it Unexpected" is one of his greatest songs. Ok I'm done

― akm,

otm

Juliet Letters is really better than it could/should have been, for such an odd idea.

I love his title track here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKXH8CD08yw

Stripped down with Frisell here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_xMZ-_XTJ4

Oh, and really doesn't get enough credit for Almost Blue. The idea of this guy of all people paying tribute to George Jones, Merle Haggard, or Gram Parsons in 1981 (!) was insanely progressive, imo.

those frisell things were good, forgot about those. used to have to pay through the nose for that CD.

All This Useless Beauty - classic

yeah i'm not a costello fan but this is great, esp "the other end of the telescope" and "distorted angel"

I loved that when it came out but it hasn't held my attention in the past 10 years. I should revisit it.

he certainly toured a shitload behind it and did a bunch of duo shows with Steve Nieve (which he bundled up and sold in an overpriced box set)

Walked into an Italian restaurant on Sunday and was surprised to hear This Is Hell playing. Admittedly Elvis was playing in the Playhouse across the road and it was probably just Spotify on random, but still a nice surprise.

After years of never being able to pick a favourite EC album, I think I may have to choose Brutal Youth after all. But like Bowie, no one album comes close in defining him, so there is that.

I personally like the production, clearly a backtracking from the kitchen sink sound of Mighty and Spike and most likely a welcome product of the post-grunge stripped down "BACK TO BASICS" ethos, although I do not believe her ever pushed it as such (thankfully)

This last week I've finally heard this and surprisingly like a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsh61d6qBzE

it's funny that both MIghty Like a Rose and Brutal Youth are produced by Mitchell Froom. He uses similar reverbs and studio effects on both frankly, but the band makes the difference.

xpost I like the Back to Basics approach, I just don't like how BY literally sounds. Unlike This Years Model and Armed Forces, or Trust and Blood n Chocolate, impeccable Nick Lowe productions that are powerful and passionate but also very precise, the Lowe/Froom hybrid of Brutal Youth is just a mess to my ears.

I saw one of those Elvis/Steve duo dates, was great.

Saw him on Useless Beauty tour, too, which was the last with Bruce, and you could sort of tell.

For some reason I thought Froom only produced part of that record and three or four songs were handled by Lowe. Maybe I'm just thinking of him playing bass.

I can appreciate that the saucepan-like snare drum on BY may not be pleasant to everyone's ears, but I like it

maybe that's right (xpost)

I hate the drums recorded for BY.

and I like them!

Just decided to listen to My Aim Is True on a whim for the first time in 10-odd years and it's not as awful as I remembered; helps that I forgot those 'authoritative' reviews I so readily trusted back in the day.

Get Happy is the peak for me. Hook after hook after hook, and the wordplay is out of control.

yeah it's a great album, and long, and full of songs! so many songs crammed onto one LP. keeping everything short, like 2.5 minutes, was a great idea.

I love how Xgau, in his review of Get Happy!, backhandedly praises the wordplay:

why deny lines like "You lack lust you're so lackluster" or "I speak double dutch to a real double duchess"? On the other hand, why bother digging them out?

(The album gets a B)

And then in his Trust review makes fun of it:

Who ever said he wasn't much of a singer? Was that me? No, I said he wasn't much of a poet--all wordplay as swordplay and puns for punters (one of which means something, one of which doesn't, and both of which took me ten seconds).

(The album gets an A)

The bootlegs from the Get Happy era - really any from that early era - are so propelled by amphetamines they're hilariously exhausting. As if the thing the band needed was the play more, and faster! I love it, though.

christgau's whole schtick is always backhandedly praising something while low key being a dick about it i dunno, i feel like i don't even know or care wtf he's even talking about like 75% of the time

Xgau taught me what it means to hate music.

Same! God bless him.

Do we not like the Dean? Inscrutable as his prose may sometimes be, he has turned me on to so much great music over the years I will forever be in his debt.

I do not like the Dean, can't speak for anyone else
Alfred has his poster above his bed iirc

I have found his reviews educational and his prose influential, but in general (and particularly from the 90s on) I find his approach and opinions as often vapid as they are on point.

The bootlegs from the Get Happy era - really any from that early era - are so propelled by amphetamines they're hilariously exhausting.

Indeed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P94pXANbucw

I do not like the Dean, can't speak for anyone else
Alfred has his poster above his bed iirc

― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, June 27, 2018

I'm glad I piss everyone off. His fans are skeptical of if not downright hostile toward me. We haven't agreed consistently in over thirty years.

and in person I've found him a creep.

i've heard that the dude's a bit of a creep too, but to be honest i get that from his writing too. i think some of his older essays, the one on al green and the one he wrote after lennon died, are thoughtful and better than his blurbs. "i feel like i don't even know or care wtf he's even talking about like 75% of the time" is otm for me.

UMS is speaking partly in jest, but the reality is we don't agree on sexuality, his fascination with certain so-called geniuses, and his increasingly cramped blurbing style.

His disdain for anything even remotely artsy or Romantic, especially in the more European sense, is why I've never managed to take him seriously, though our tastes overlap at least 20% of the time.

RC being a creep in person (as opposed to just in print) is the least surprisingly thing I've ever heard.

here's a question: I feel like I once heard, somewhere, a bouncy reggae cover version of "the beat" by someone. but I can't seem to locate that now. ring any bells?

it's by Elvis Costello on TYM iirc

man y'all are making me want to dive back into this catalogue again. I don't think I've heard much past Blood & Chocolate but I remember liking that one a lot.

tbh it's been really tough for me to listen to Elvis Costello these last few years. I had a friend who was really big into him - I brought My Aim is True to one of our poker nights and he absolutely loved it, we'd listen to that CD pretty much every time we got together. saw EC w/ him at Summerfest and it was awesome. he died of an overdose 4 years ago. I heard "Watching the Detectives" in a mall a few months after that and felt like I was getting PTSD. I had to run away. It was so weird. I've been kind of scared to hear his music again.

I do not like the Dean, can't speak for anyone else
Alfred has his poster above his bed iirc

― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, June 27, 2018

I'm glad I piss everyone off. His fans are skeptical of if not downright hostile toward me. We haven't agreed consistently in over thirty years.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, June 27, 2018 5:43 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

alfred it was just a light zing, i just recalled you seemed like a big fan, which i obviously exagerrated in my memory, apologies!

Get Happy is the peak for me. Hook after hook after hook, and the wordplay is out of control.

opportunity & secondary modern, both sooo great. watch yr step is like a chorus-less retread of secondary modern.

love opportunity, probably my favorite on get happy!!

i hear the similarity beween watch your step and secondary modern, but i disagree about watch your step being a retread, possibly my fav song on trust.

you lack lust, you're so lacklustre

I wish you luck with a capital F

His vocal on Watch Your Step is one of his best.

possibly nieve's most measured and beautiful piano/organ

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/06/elvis-costello-cancer-diagnosis-cancels-tour-dates :(

my 50yo Fall-mad housemate played me his 'my aim is true' LP the other night. it took a few goes round, but its such a fun album!

New album with the Imposters coming. I like the two songs he shared this week.

Under Lime being the better of the two.

yeah Under Lime is a great song; haven't liked his stuff for quite some time. However, the album cover is in the running for the worst cover of all fucking time.

Scroll past the bellend 2001 posts

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/ode-to-elvis-costellos-stellar-backing-bands-the-attractions-the-imposters-invisible-hits/

Thanks for this tylerw. Great to see Nieve and the Thomases get their due. That Rockpalast show is incredible.

the rockpalast show has probably the definitive version of "the beat"

Well it turns out that “Under Lime” might be the only song on the new album that I like.

sounded good, the album, but the tempos are too slow and the trademark ec melodies a little too fussy.

need to give the new one a little more time, but i like that it doesn't sound like EC is coasting — some interesting moves/arrangements.

Could be the best album since All This Useless Beauty. But then again When I Was Cruel with 20 minutes shaved off it would be really something

What would your 40 min ‘When I Was Cruel’ look like? Have to agree it drags on a bit.

Got ‘Look Now’, it’s good. No idea how it holds up to his recent material as the only other EC record I’ve bought since ‘When I Was Cruel’ was ‘Wise Up Ghost’, which I remember liking but haven’t gone back to much.

I think this is his best album in a while, but I don't love it.

Current tour setlists look awesome, I wished I caught him here last week.

"All this Useless Beauty" (listening this morning) is such a nice collection of songs, I wish less of it was so mannered. I remember the tour behind it (the last as the Attractions). It came to Chicago the same night as the big Sex Pistols reunion, but I was all, fuck that, I want to see the Attractions again. But even the show was kind of mannered, so I guess EC was just in a mannered mode.

A mannered out of time.

(Open gole, soz)

It came to Chicago the same night as the big Sex Pistols reunion

Weird, I don't remember those being on the same night. I'd seen Elvis with Steve Nieve a few months prior, which was pretty wonderful.

The Pistols played a fine show, but the Aragon was crazy oversold. They shoehorned what felt like an additional 500-1000 people in there, and it was really uncomfortable and annoying.

Yeah, EC played at the Rosemont Theatre. Maybe it was the night the Pistols came back? The second reunion show? I think I saw that EC& Nieve show, too, either at the Park West or the I think the Cadillac Palace Theatre (both of which were EC&Nieve nights).

has he ever played "Opportunity" live? did he not play a lot of Get Happy when it came out?

I think I saw that EC& Nieve show, too, either at the Park West or the I think the Cadillac Palace Theatre (both of which were EC&Nieve nights).

I saw the one at Park West, and it was a perfectly intimate atmosphere for that show.

I...don't know what the Cadillac Palace Theatre is...(looks it up)...oh shit! That was the Bismarck! I saw Frankie Goes To Hollywood there in '84.

XP

There is a live version from 1979 prior to the recording of Get Happy. The 1980 tour could be a weird one, lots of cover versions jostling with old favourites as well as songs from GH and AF.

He opened with Opportunity when I first saw him in 1996.

is that 1979 live version on youtube?

would love to see that, opportunity is my favorite get happy track

XP - Not quite what you're looking for but kinda interesting, a rough and ready version from '79, it's well known that EC had grown wary of stylistically repeating himself with the new songs he'd been writing and rolling out on the AF tour, so this version is before they changed the arrangements which made them more beholden to older soul music.

https://youtu.be/wuTcUvsdWiQ?t=24m28s

Oh and check out the version of High Fidelity too, it is kinda insane.

holy shit this heavy version of Opportunity is incredible, thank you!!!

So I just now see that Steve Nieve had been doing online Facebook shows at home with his son and wife. Today, they have Elvis Costello on zoom or something, and they just collaborated on "45" and on "13 Steps." Nieve is gonna take a break after today, and then resume it in 3 days or so.

Costello is proposing they do a longer set together next Saturday May 9 and include songs he hasn't sung before.

Now Steve Nieve is doing a Johnny Cash song "25 Minutes to go" by himself on piano. His son (?) sometimes joins on drums. Son also sang Green Day "21" with Steve N on piano, after Steve N did a music hall /broadway type take on Alice Cooper "18."

I've watched that before, after having been led there by EC's recommendation. I thought his French wife was playing the drums, at least when I was tuned in.

She was just working the camera today and emceeing. Or did Costello say Sunday for next week? Not sure . I guess details will be out by the end of the week on one of their Facebook pages.

googling tells me her name is Muriel Teodori, and her son does music under the name A.J.U Q. He was also sharing this on his Instagram live

I wish it was just Costello (singing from Vancouver) and Naive (in France?) on these Facebook lives from Naive's page . Son's voice is too bombastic, and Teoderi is just kinda annoying. Costello singing Roy Acuff, Psychedelic Furs, and Pogues "A Pair of Brown Eyes" was nice, as long as the son and Mom weren't involved

Costello doing “It’s All over now Baby blue” with just his acoustic guitar also was nice .

Nieve is proper spelling , oops

I once had a copy of one of Nieve's (very out of print) solo albums that had iirc a jazzy piano take on "Ghost Town." You can hear it and a lot of other stuff here:

https://soundcloud.com/steve-nieve-official/sets/keyboard-jungle-and-a

That was yesterday? The Color Tour or something, which they were going to try last weekend but had technical difficulties because of a storm or something?

I had heard a rumor over the summer they were coming back to NYC but then it didn't happen they stayed in Vancouver, yeah.

Yeah, I found one of his solely albums last year.

Oh, and he has spelled it "Naive" and "Nieve" over the years. Neither are his real surname..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7aQtVfB-88

I've been listening to IMPERIAL BEDROOM for a week and become temporarily obsessed with 'You Little Fool'.

Then I discovered that it had a proper early 1980s POP VIDEO.

https://youtu.be/RYmVfF3WX_Q

i've spent time obsessed with every song on the album, even 'boy with a problem'

That's good to hear !

Love that album to bits. But I stopped paying attention to EC a long time ago and don't have any interest in anymore. Is there a thread where we talk about albums in our personal pantheon by artists that we no longer care for?

With regard to this particular artist, you're in luck:

Elvis Costello: The Exact Moment When This Balding Fat Fucker Jumped The Shark

Oh crap, there's another one, and it looks like I created it. Sheesh.

Should I decide that I just can't keep up with Mr MacManus?

lol this is the point in the thread where I once again lament that there are only maybe 20 Elvis Costello albums (including three great b-sides and rarities collections) I would immediately put on with no reservations, plus a couple of live albums and other comps (like Girls, Girls Girls, which is its own thing), but maybe 6 or so albums that are only OK or a little boring. What a hack, right?

Everything you say is true, JiC, but I just want to put it out there that North is actually colossally boring.

(For me it may be more like 10 albums My Aim Is True, Punch the Clock, All This Useless Beauty, Almost Blue, King of America, Kojak Variety, Spike, Brutal Youth, When I Was Cruel, maybe?)

, Kojak Variety?! You brave!

That's got his "Brilliant Disguise" on it, right?