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

i got bored a long time ago, but actually i think he's done some good stuff since that point--brutal youth, and the bacharach collab.

i actually am open-minded about his newer stuff. i can imagine it being ok. i just don't have the time or money to buy it and find out.

The Ray Charles thing is a red herring, and way too early. "The Only Flame in Town," with Daryl Hall, was a sort of precursor to shark-jumpage, but he did make some extremely good records after that. The Bachrach stuff approaches criminality, but that could be indulgently seen as a side trip on what is still a fundamentally rock and roll journey.

I would probably plump for North as his shark-jump moment, the marrying Krall, or maybe the breaking up with Cait. But I realize that I have a higher tolerance for him than most non-fans would have.

Nah, fuck it. I've got nothing.

Anyway, new possible nominee for the exact moment: the hyperchipper McCartney-McManus mistake "My Brave Face."

(x-post)

x-post

you can jump the shark and still make the occasional decent song and listenable album, though.

This Years Model = "oh, man he's found a great band! he's totally captured the whole frustrated young guy thing."

Armed Forces = "oh, ok he has nothing to say other than Don't Be A Nazi To Me, Just Give Sex When Needed but he's gonna keep getting more pretentious and self-congratulatory with every album"

It's harsh (I like Brutal Youth actually), but if there was a moment where in hindsight he revealed what his bag was, it was then.

:-O

details plz! (I'm a big fan of EC's cameo in Spice World and on Third Rock from the Sun)

Miccio's point well taken. Armed Forces was when it first became clear that something might be wrong. I hated it when I bought it- the day it came out!, corny old fux0r that I am, because of the too-lush production, but it grew on me, at least the songs still sounded like somebody cared about writing them and playing them.

Goodbye Cruel World was the last one I bought more or less when it came out, but he had probably jumped the shark long
before that, that's just when the water-skis gave out on him.
Get Happy!! had enough good songs on it that it doesn't constitute shark-jumping ("King Horse" being one standout), but with each album the ornate curlicues of cleverness covering up the lack of thought, feeling, funk, energy, take your pick became worse and worse. I guess I'll pick Punch The Clock as the point of no return, if only because of the hit single.

that said miccio has a point i think about the "heaviness" of armed forces being the first obvious (well, in retrospect) harbinger of a certain formalist stiffness that has predominated in his recent work.

i think "everyday i write the book" is pretty good. i don't quite get the praise for "pills and soap"--it's interesting for being an "experiment," but i think as an experiment it's largely a failure. "shipbuilding" is pretty awesome.

"only flame" isn't a disaster, but it's not great. there are some interesting things on "goodbye cruel world," but no unmitigated successes, and a few disasters.

"taking liberties" is a collection of odds and ends from his first--what--5 or 6 years of recording, i think.

Still, "Beyond Belief"! what a great song. And "the high heel he used to be has been ground down/he listens to the footsteps that would follow him around" in "Man Out of Time" = perfect-o.

yeah, but is this relevant? one can have such ambitions and make great music, or one can have such ambitions and make dull music. costello has done both. it's not the aspirations themselves that suggest the problem or where the problem began, it's the music.

yeah "imperial bedroom" is a stunner. it drags in spots, i guess, but no more than any other pop record i can think of.

he does often seem sort of detached from everything, but that's different from misanthropy.

xxxxxpost:
One problem with the ambition was that there was always the suspicion that it was suffocating the band and keeping them from doing what they did best. But maybe hindsight says that isn't the case.

And I did like *Taking Liberties* okay
Of course you did. There's a lot of great stuff on it. And it was not a real album, but an odds and sods collection of earlier stuff so it wasn't representative of where he was heading at the time.

I didn't like Imperial Bedroom that much except for the two songs Shakey mentions.

Re: Goodbye Cruel World- I believe that came out after EC had been doing some solo touring and the word at the time was, at least according to Greil Marcus, that the Attractions had no idea what to do with EC's songs anymore. I just posted this on the record store thread about those days.

HS

I am but in a general vague way at present since I'm relaxing after a content dinner. I finally sold back the last CDs of his I had sitting around. Haven't missed *any* of them, and I had most.

Mr. Miccio's take on the first three albums plus the Oberst ref = best summation of the guy I've read in a while.

No mention of Mighty Like A Rose yet on this thread? An awful record.. excepting "Couldn't Call It Unexpected" which is one of the best vocal performances/melodies Elvis ever committed to tape.

we got this far and no-one mentioned that it was the Brodskey Quartet, not the Julliard String Quartet?

Spike as a fair amount of stuff I have to skip these days although I loved it at the time. Combine the best of that album with the best of Mighty Like a Rose and you have a real classic, but they're mixed bags as they are. I think Kojack Variety is where I stopped really caring.

Also, "Il Sogno" does not mean "The Shark" in Italian, either.

Seriously, my bad -- I was at work and confusing "The Juliet Letters" with "The Julliard Quartet". The latter would never--ever--record with this clown. Anyway, Micco might be on to something with AF revealing himself (though there's a good argument to be made that it's his best) -- it's already the first place where he starts to retread on his INCISIVE POISON PEN schtick lyrically. Still, not bad, though.

I just wonder whether his parents were the types who told him he could be anything and young Declan just misinterpreted that to mean he could be everything.

i don't quite get the praise for "pills and soap"--it's interesting for being an "experiment," but i think as an experiment it's largely a failure.

wow. these are pretty much the only two EC songs i like!

Elvis Costello and the Attractions were playing Hammersmith Palais, supported by the Pogues. One of the best gigs I ever went to. Anyway...

Pogues on for an hour, EC for two and a half. During the evening, he played "Hope you're happy now" and announced it as the new single in two weeks.

So two weeks came and went. nothing.

Eventually, "Blood and Chocolate" came out, where all the tracks were written by "DPA McManus" apart from "HYHN" which was "Elvis Costello". So the moment when he JTS was when he decided "Elvis Costello" was one of his 'roles'. Blood and Chocolate was a great album, but that moment was where he was on skis, over the shark, and hadn't landed yet.

I thank you.

The CD booklet for the reissue of Goodbye Cruel World says "thank you for buying my worst album".

But I'd go for North.

And if we're going to pick on appearing in Spice World, I think his cameo in Austin Powers also deserves dishonorable mention, with extra credit for Bacharach content.

I didn't see Delovely, but his "Let's Misbehave" is the only thing on the soundtrack that rocks even the least little bit.

But as for "balding fat fucker," come on. How good is any of us going to look at his age?

And let me ask you: is he more embarrassing or less embarrassing than the Rolling Stones, the Who, C or S or N or Y, Fleetwood Mac, Mike frickin Love, or Sir Paul himself--all of whom mostly just run round shamelessly repeating their greatest hits of a quarter-century ago?

It's true that Elvis has never topped the intense burst of creativity from '77-'79, but that doesn't mean he hasn't produced great moments, and sometiems even great albums (it's like arguing that Dylan's career ended after 1966 or Lou Reed's after 1970). I've always loved "Trust," then and now an underrated album because it had no real singles and no "thematic unity" or something.

"Imperial Bedroom" is overrated, "Everyday I Write The Book" a marvelous single, Elvis' one successful attempt at writing mainstream pop, and "King of America" features some of his best singing.

I'll even defend "When I Was Cruel." Far from being tuneless trip-hop, it's a hit-and-miss attempt by an old guy who still buys modern music (how many old timers can you say that about?) to fuse what he likes about it with what he's learned about his own craft.

As I was thinking about it this morning, I realized I should've added or replaced those with "gap-toothed." Again: my bad.

I hate Costello-haters.

Have any of the rest of you seen a show of his lately? He has become the hardest working man in show biz—generous, funny, and furious, all with a hot band behind him playing nearly 30 years worth of brilliant songs. If "The Delivery Man' came out in 1986 it would've been celebrated. It would have landed in the Pazz & Jop top twenty, I swear.

Yeah, I gave up on him too, after Mighty Like a Rose. But with the Bacharach collaboration, he was back strong (and singing great), and both When I Was Cruel and Delivery Man are fine records.

"I Want You" a one-joke song? Yeesh.

chuck OTM many posts upthread about the greatness of trust, which is the key transition point between good elvis and bad elvis.

i liked king of america and blood and chocolate when they came out. i detest the former nowadays, blood and chocolate is 1/2 brilliance and 1/2 crap. IMHO that these were considered "returns to form" speaks more about the mid-80s and critical obsessions and less about the quality of those particular rekkids.

spike is also 1/2 really good and 1/2 wank. mighty like a rose is total crap, and i honestly lost interest after that. i did like the bacharach thing that he did. so luvas can hate on my 90s costello hata ass if you want to, i suppose.

his schtick these days is only a bit more tolerable than billy joel's, and is only tolerable in that he has a better back catalogue.

Nonsensical.

North is brilliant.

Trust is brilliant. (High- "whisper to a scream")

Mighty like a Rose, brilliant.

Blood & Chocolate is Brilliant. (I want you)

What about All this Useless Beauty? Oh? It's too good to mention on this thread? He never jumped the shark? STill putting out brilliant albums?

C'mon, When I was Cruel was arguably the best of its year. Cutting edge, relevant, pleasurable, just damn good songwriting. Alibi? Please, Brilliant. Shit's Gold Mothafuckas.

"My Brave Face" and "Veronica" are the two best songs ever written by Costello. Working with the greatest musical genius of the 20th century brought out the best in both of them.

Diana and I will simply have to euthenise ourselves, so that we cease to offend the culvivated multitude.

What a useful corrective this board has been. If only the internet had been around in the seventies, I would have learned what a waste I am earier.

Cheers,

DM

I mean, I'm not even what you'd call a fan, per se, but I'm also not deaf.

If pressed for an earlier nominee I'd give Painted from Memory. It has to be at least that late because All This Useless Beauty is a fine, fine piece of work, an album I cannot imagine living without.

"Veronica" is not a bad song, but I'd prefer never to hear "My Brave Face" ever again. KthxBye.

Don't worry: I haven't heard "My Brave Face" on the radio since its release, which is a pity – it's the last great Macca single.

Granted, I am staying the fuck away from the "Southern-rock concept album." And his upcoming Central Park thing with Emmylou Harris is probably going to be a little annoying.

p.s.: has anyone else noticed that EC looks like a member of run-dmc in that pic in the header?!?

"Monkey to Man" underwhelms me, I'm sorry to say. But I will without doubt drag my dutiful ass and my picnic basket out to Wolf Trap this summer; I'd like to see an Elvis/Emmylou duet of "Success" or perhaps "The Other End of the Telescope."

Now that I think about it, an Elvis/Emmylou duet of "How Much I Lied" would warm the cockles of my cynical heart, with the added poignance of the Gram Parsons Factor.

The Fonz to thread.

His wife looks beautiful in the picture at the top.

http://www.ithaca.edu/buzzsaw/0405devil.htm

thanks!

he still looks like he's trying to be the 4th member of run-dmc in that picture up top, though.

"An astonishing listening experience, Joe Jackson's 'Heaven and Hell' shatters the boundary between 'popular' and 'classical' music to bring us a unique composition. A series of trenchant interpretations of the Seven Deadly Sins, it draws together classical stars - soprano Dawn Upshaw, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg - and artists better known in the 'pop' world - Suzanne Vega, Joy Askew, Jane Siberry, and the Crash Test Dummies' Brad Roberts - and vibrantly showcases Jackson's composing, keyboard, and vocal skills."

i think that they were both before night and day. i likes 'em well enough. and i agree that i'm the man is great!

xpost: uuughh -- it looks like joe jackson has turned into some sorta awful mutant cross-breed of costello and frank zappa!!

if it hadn't already happened, then this is a contender:

" The singer/songwriter will join the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of pop songs, as well as his first full-length orchestral work, "Il Sogno," recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas last year. Costello and the band will perform at 8 p.m. on March 27." (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/23/DDGJOFS7JK1.DTL)

I'm still going to this though, but mainly because I have symphony gift certificates that I've had for over three years that I'm seriously never going to use if I don't use them for this.

This is correct. One great album - This Year's Model - and one great album only. I do enjoy scattered tracks thereafter, but he just tries so hard with the labored wordplay, the horrendous attempts to sing/croon that his limited voice is just not capable of, and the "look-at-me-I'm-such-a-musical-polymath-that-I-can-work-with-a-string-quartet/Emmylou Harris/Burt Bacharach/whoever."

Those are the exact reasons why "Imperial Bedroom" is his best album, while a lot of his 90s material is underrated. He was way too intelligent to just make ordinary rock music, and luckily he found out. Those reasons you list are the exact reasons why he is great!

But for the past two years I've totally devoured everything from Trust up to (but not including) Spike. Even as a staunch contrarian, I truly believe Imperial Bedroom to be the nearly flawless album I'm supposed to think it is.

I do hate his smugness, and every shmaltzy misstep since the early 90s, but as most of you know, it's rare to have one of those latter day 'duh, now I get it!' epiphanies after you feel like youve heard everything, and every new record in your collection is only there because it resembles some older, better-loved record already in your collection. (see my 'theory' thread for more on this).

So pardon my defense of the man, and GREAT albums like Punch The Clock, but I owe him that!

You have seen the light. Also seek out some of the live recordings from the '78 tour - they truly smoke and Steve N redefines all of the My Aim Is True songs. Better than the album versions on most of the shows I've heard (Live At The El Mocambo is the only non-boot).

I saw him in '99 and it was a great show. But I suspect the shark has been jumped in many ways.

(OK, it could have been a fakey, but it reads correctly)

amen to that -- punch the clock is a GRATE record.

(though i still think that he looks like he's auditioning to be the 4th member of run-dmc in that pic in this thread's header.)

I got the 2CD version, ah nostalg.

Are any of them indispensable? I don't feel inclined to buy these LPs yet again without very, very good reason.

What are the most recent reissues? Are we up to the Goodbye Cruel World stage?

They're 2CD jobs, original LP on CD1 and a huge pile of extras on CD2 ("Get Happy" for example has a mock-up of the '20 SONGS' sticker which originally came on the front of the LP. '50 SONGS', it says...). They're on Edsel over here, I have a feeling they might be on something else somewhere else.

GCW, oddly, was the one I was most tempted to buy, and not just for the released AND demo versions of "Turning the Town Red". I was struck by a sudden attack of good sense, though, and left the shop in a hurry.

Indespensible? It depends how big a fan you are - I'd say that Armed Forces is great for the live stuff on CD2, My Aim Is True for the solo demos, Trust for some great alternate takes and Goodbye Cruel World for what might have been(but GCW is still not half as bad as people say).

I am a big fan - I *was* a really big fan, but I'm finding the scale of these things off-putting. How am I supposed to deal with an "Almost Blue" which has a 29 song extra CD? I understand that this makes little or no sense - I deal with it by listening to it, right? - but am taking my fear as a sign that this is simply not the right time for me to be spending my cash on these.

Are any of the live tapes from that amazong old BBC in concert where Nieve had broken his hand and they drafted in Martin Wotsit from the Rumour for a bunch of absolutely BLAZING versions? (several of the facts here may be inaccurate, I'm going from a memory of a tape my brother had, donkey's years ago.)

Darn, neither can I (find it)..

There were a few reasons in that particular message why I thought it might be genuine, one being how he signed himself "E.C" which was how he addressed us all (a crowd) when he did a midnight album release signing at Tower Records ("Hi, E.C. here, listen there's no need to push, I'll be here until everyone's been seen so don't worry!")

I was some way back in the queue, Elvis and Nick Lowe came across the road strumming a version of "Leave my Kitten Alone", so we followed them down right behind them. Lots of press in front, so this being my paparazzi experience. (When the photos got printed in the press, I'd been cropped out, but to be fair, so had Nick Lowe).

So, we ended up as a great mound of people in front of the doors along with the "I've queued for 4 houes hrmph" people. Although one bloke pushed through and pushed through going "I'm Press, I'm Press" until he got to the front door.
Security at door: "Wot?"
Bloke: "I'm Press"
Sec: "Fuck off!"
Crowd "Hray!!"

So, I got my album signed, suggested to himself that he should give Bucks Fizz' "Piece of the Action" a listen as it always struck me as a costello like lyric. (He seemed a little puzzled by that one)..

Did I say that all already on this thread?

My brother had an excellent habit of transferring old tapes to shiny new CDs when he got his CD recorder a few years back. I'll have to check whether he kept / got round to that one. I was hoping that some of those recordings might have been on one of the reissues, but it seems not.

I stopped listening after Blood & Chocolate and King of America. I like both albums quite a bit, but those are the last I can say that about.

I suspect he jumped the shark four years after Fonzie did.

"Brutal Youth" is the second best Elvis Costello album, only beaten by "Imperial Bedroom". Great songs, and fantastic production by Mitchell Froom. Easily his best produced album ever.

YOU'VE SAID THIS ALREADY

No mention of Mighty Like A Rose yet on this thread? An awful record.. excepting "Couldn't Call It Unexpected" which is one of the best vocal performances/melodies Elvis ever committed to tape.

"Mighty Like a Rose" is patchy, but it still contains some good tracks. "The Other Side Of Summer" is not at all bad, and "So Like Candy" is one of his best ever songs.

Only the first 2 or 3 albums are listenable. Everything after that is sheer crap.

Surprising that this thread contains no mention of the Lee Konitz birthday cake incident. But maybe not.

Crazy that people are mentioning Painted from Memory as shark-jump. I think it probably remains his best work since the 1980s. It is almost the only EC LP I would feel like listening to at the moment.

Tim's comments on the thread touch me.

"Painted From Memory" is his best work since "All This Useless Beauty", which was a great album.

If he ever jumped the shark, it must have been after "Painted From Memory" though.

"Painted From Memory" is his best work since "All This Useless Beauty", which was a great album.

I never know how to feel when I agree with Geir.

""Painted From Memory" is his best work since "All This Useless Beauty", which was a great album."

It's not true, because this year's "Momofuku" is a really great album.

that record bores me as much as 'delivery man' did.

RIP Bonnie Bramlett

Did anyone see his interview with Bill Clinton?

Oh, it was Delaney who passed. Bonnie is still with us.

Teh shark: I not acknollejez it.

[/lolspk] [apologies also]

Anyone want to rate his albums using xgau's old scale?

OK, I will, then. Gimme half an hour.

Using Xgau's easy-to-use and not-ungenerous-either-to-artist-or-listener scale.
Aside from that,
X means I've never heard it.

My Aim Is True A-
This Year's Model A+
Armed Forces A
Get Happy!! A-
Almost Blue C+
Trust B
Imperial Bedroom A
Punch the Clock B-
Goodbye Cruel World C-/D+ (Haven't been able to stick it out enough to decide)
Blood & Chocolate A
King of America B-
Spike B-
Mighty Like a Rose B
The Juliet Letters D+
G.B.H. X
Brutal Youth A
Kojak Variety D-
Deep Dead Blue, Live at Meltdown X
Jake's Progress X
All This Useless Beauty B
Terror & Magnificence X
Painted from Memory X
The Sweetest Punch: The Songs of Costello and Bacharach X
When I Was Cruel B+
North E
Il Sogno X
The Delivery Man B-
My Flame Burns Blue [live] X
The River in Reverse X
Momofuku B-/B (still digesting)

The number of Costello albums I haven't heard (some, in fact, until I pulled this list I had never heard of) is a bit frightening. And I thought I was a f-f-f-fanboy. Looks like I have some homework. Where should I start with the X's, anyone?

Imperial Bedroom better than Trust? You are, how you say, mad.

Yes. Trust should get a B+ and Imperial Bedroom a B.

I would get Painted From Memory first then River in Reverse both are pretty damn good.

river in reverse was better than i expected.

also enjoying his talk show, dadrockist tho it is.

I had a revelation the other day: Anita Baker should have sung most of Goodbye Cruel World.

At first I thought you meant Chet Baker.

xpost:
When and on what channel izzat show on?

it's on sundance. not sure when, i've seen a few on demand. he's a surprisingly self-effacing and earnest guy as an interviewer. and there's been some nice musical moments.

Has Lee Konitz come on to get his birthday cake?

haha, no.

but e.c. showed andy summers an autograph of his that he'd gotten when andy was in some bar band and elvis was a kid.

When Andy was with Zoot Money?

yeah, i think so. e.c.'s dad ran a club they played at.

Ha, I didn't really expect a response, I just wanted to drop the name of Zoot Money because he is one of those British music figures that never made it to the US who always show up in stories about other people but you can never quite figure out exactly what they did.

Imperial Bedroom better than Trust? You are, how you say, mad.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn

Yes. Trust should get a B+ and Imperial Bedroom a B.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs)

No other quibbles from the assembled throngs, then? :D

While I admit I might have a blind spot for IB (I'm a sucker for Elvis' breakup albums), I just can't see Trust as anything but a pretty good album. It sounds transitional to me, while IB sounds fully realized (if perhaps overambitious). As supporting anecdotal evidence I'll offer forth that IB is loved immoderately by a few folks I know who aren't otherwise necessarily huge EC fans, while I don't know anyone who idn't an EC fanboy who'll front for Trust. Finally, I posit that IB contains a handful of his very, very best songs ("Man Out of Time", "Shabby Doll", "The Long Honeymoon", ach, pretty much all of side A plus "Pidgin English" and "You Little Fool" actually) that I'd have a hard time keeping off any Best-of-EC mixtape, while Trust has... waitaminnit... a handful of EC's very, very best songs which I'd have a hard time keeping off any...

bugger. There goes my career as an armchair expert.

for comparison, here are Xgau's ratings (his ABC system breaks down after 1991):

* My Aim Is True [Columbia, 1977] B+
* This Year's Model [Columbia, 1978] A
* Armed Forces [Columbia, 1979] A-
* Taking Liberties [Columbia, 1980] B (I'd give this a B or B-)
* Get Happy! [Columbia, 1980] B
* Trust [Columbia, 1981] A
* Almost Blue [Columbia, 1981] B-
* Imperial Bedroom [Columbia, 1982] B+
* Punch the Clock [Columbia, 1983] B+
* Goodbye Cruel World [Columbia, 1984] B+
* The Best of Elvis Costello and the Attractions [Columbia, 1985] A-
* Blood and Chocolate [Columbia, 1986] A-
* Spike [Warner Bros., 1989] B
* Mighty Like a Rose [Warner Bros., 1991] C+
* Brutal Youth [Warner Bros., 1994] *
* Kojak Variety [Warner Bros., 1995] Choice Cuts
* Extreme Honey: The Very Best of the Warner Bros. Years [Warner Bros., 1997] Choice Cuts
* All This Useless Beauty [Warner Bros., 1996] Dud
* The Delivery Man [Lost Highway, 2004] ***

IB is produced into some kind of mush, whereas on Trust some of the tough idiosyncrasies of the band are still allowed to break through.

the assembled throngs
Assembled thongs? At this hour if you're looking for Tuomas he's probably sleeping off the ill-effects of some mid-winter Finnish hoedown.

i've always heard imperial bedroom as "beyond belief" with a very long b-side.

Ha.

It should have been called Imperial Margarine.

I saw the show with Clinton... Elvis played "Mystery Train" with James Burton which was ok.. interview with Clinton was kind of ridiculous and awkward with Clinton making vague connections between jazz and politics with Elvis awkwardly shifting his seating position several times... performance at the end by Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny but was a pretty schmaltzy tune..

When he has George Clinton, then I'll tune in.

Costello's dad didn't have a club, he was a radio singer.

My Aim Is True B+
This Year's Model A-
Armed Forces A-
Get Happy!! B
Almost Blue C
Trust C
Imperial Bedroom A
Punch the Clock C+
Goodbye Cruel World D
Blood & Chocolate D+
King of America C+
Spike B
Mighty Like a Rose B-
The Juliet Letters D
Brutal Youth A
Kojak Variety C-
All This Useless Beauty B-
Painted from Memory C+
When I Was Cruel C-
North C

Costello's dad didn't have a club, he was a radio singer.

i guess he said he hung out at the clubs his dad played at? something like that.

Hm. My general take isn't far off from staggerlee's. Methinks Geir needs to listen to King of America again if he thinks it rates below Spike, Mighty, and Brutal.

My Aim Is True A+ (I'll concede that it probably has some flaws but I can't see them because I am too close to it)
This Year's Model A-
Armed Forces A
Get Happy!! A-
Almost Blue A (I love it inordinately)
Trust B-
Imperial Bedroom B (Yeah I recognize its ambition but don't find it rewarding to listen to very often)
Punch the Clock A (This is among my favoritest and I contend it is underrated)
Goodbye Cruel World D+ (Generally dire but I need it for "Peace in Our Time," which appears nowhere else)
Blood & Chocolate B-
King of America A (Plenty of fine fine songs but a few mis-hits like the interminable "Glitter Gulch." Compare the way "Lily, Rosemary" etc. squats anomalously across Blood on the Tracks.)
Spike B (some fun moments but meh)
Mighty Like a Rose C
The Juliet Letters C- (Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
Brutal Youth B+
Kojak Variety A- (! I love it as inordinately as I love Almost Blue)
All This Useless Beauty A (Too baroque in places but has several indispensable songs)
When I Was Cruel B (It's not a fixture on my turntable but "Spooky Girlfriend" is teh awesum)
North E--- (OMG THIS IS THE BORINGEST RECORD EVAH)
The Delivery Man B-

The rest I haven't heard or just don't have the patience for.

Dudes, Trust came out before Almost Blue.

And the former is twenty times better than the latter, fyi.

My Aim Is True / good songs, generic sound
This Year's Model / classic EC, ultimate New Wave / Attractions sound
Armed Forces / has at least 2-3 greats
Get Happy!! / haven't really listened for many years
Almost Blue / surprisingly unadventurous in retrospect
Trust / don't know it well
Imperial Bedroom / after Beyond Belief, hard to get into
Punch the Clock / my all-time favourite
Goodbye Cruel World / haven't heard in many years
Blood & Chocolate / strong and raw
King of America / very good, one of his best I'd think
Spike / always fond of this
Mighty Like a Rose / hard to stick with really
The Juliet Letters / can't remember what it's really like
G.B.H. / never heard
Brutal Youth / liked it a lot
Kojak Variety / fond of this
All This Useless Beauty / couple of very good tracks like his own 'you bowed down'
Terror & Magnificence / ? never heard of it
Painted from Memory / fab - one of my all-time EC greats
The Sweetest Punch: The Songs of Costello and Bacharach / never heard
When I Was Cruel / not great
North / never heard
Il Sogno / never heard
The Delivery Man / maybe quite good
My Flame Burns Blue / never heard
The River in Reverse / I have heard that this is strong
Momofuku B-/B (still digesting) / never heard

PAINTED FROM MEMORY - you have to hear it - that's the one key point

Momofuku B-/B (still digesting)

Methinks Geir needs to listen to King of America again if he thinks it rates below Spike, Mighty, and Brutal

"King Of America" is not at all bad, but it lacks something in the production and the musical variation that the other albums have. Also, note that Mitchell Froom is one of my all time favourite producers, and I have loved most of what he has produced.

"King Of America" is not at all bad, but it lacks something in the production and the musical variation that the other albums have. Also, note that Mitchell Froom is one of my all time favourite producers, and I have loved most of what he has produced.

i can understand where you're coming from here -- though i wouldn't put king of america behind either mighty or brutal -- but isn't EC's real problem from spike onwards is that there's too MUCH pointless variation on his records? i mean, one thing that king has going for it is that costello has tried to maintain a pretty consistent musical and lyrical focus on the record while too many of his later records he's trying too much and often misfires (in my opinion, anyway).

but isn't EC's real problem from spike onwards is that there's too MUCH pointless variation on his records?

I love that. Some people think you can be too "clever". I don't think that.

So did this BFF redeem himself in his Smokey Robinson interview?

I love that. Some people think you can be too "clever". I don't think that.

http://www.spinaltapfan.com/atozed/images/davesed.jpg

2 things:

Anyone else get the impression watching his shows with Herbie and Smokey that they remember (or, more likely, were reminded before going on by their respective people) EC's (alleged?) racist remarks about Ray Charles back in the day? I got that distinct impression at times when both would look at him a certain way while talking about how stupid racism is (well, duh; of course, the crowd applauds this all seal-like, along with EVERYTHING else uttered on that show, not that they shouldn't, it just gets ridiculous after a while. "The carpet of the Apollo theatre, ladies and gentlemen!" "Whoo-whoo!")...

And: am I the only one who cannot help but think of Bill Murray singing that "Star Wars" song as the lounge singer character from old SNL whenever EC sings just about anything for the last 20 or so years?

That being said, Beyond Belief is quite a jam.

not making excuses for EC's alleged racist remark, but it is pretty amazing that something the dude said while drunk in 1978 is still a hot button issue apparently? is there more history of him being a racist other than that one incident?

No, quite the opposite actually.

For me, it was the "Clubland" single. Everything that came before had an incandescent perfection. But Clubland was laborious, too long, dull, and a crushing disappointment to me. I never much liked the "Trust' album and its ugly, coke-tinted cover. I could not agree more with Tipsy Mothra's description of Imperial Bedroom "as "beyond belief" with a very long b-side." I reunited with the abuser for "Every Day I Write The Book," which I loved, only to be fucked over by the atrocious "Punch The Clock." Things have never been the same between us since then, although I can rarely resist hearing his latest. I totally swore him off with 'North," who didn't? But I've shamefully heard all the ones since and I don't recall a single song!

Heh -- the coke and chemicals make Trust his most confused, confusing, best album.

Just learned from the intraweb that his wife did a duet with Ray Charles on what I think was his last album. What the significance of this is I don't know.

has anyone out there put together a good 80-minute comp of EC's stuff from this decade? i don't have everything, otherwise I'd do it. But I'm sure there are a handful of good to great songs from each album ...

that's a good idea, I might try and do that sometime (although it would be mainly Imposters stuff, haven't heard North or most of the various collaboration albums).

I couldn't even listen to the last album all the way through, and this is coming from someone who was once an obsessive huge fan (and still really likes things like "mighty like a rose")

Count me in as another irritated fan. Anyone with a POX list?

I got a 'hitsvids' DVD from Fopp, purely for the 'early TV appearances' extras.

Not played it yet...

I couldn't even listen to the last album all the way through, and this is coming from someone who was once an obsessive huge fan (and still really likes things like "mighty like a rose")

― akm, Sunday, November 1, 2009 11:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Secret, Profane & Sugarcane ain't great but it's better than Momofuku imo

I take back Armed Forces being his "shark jump," as he was stilling yelling about how ex-girlfriends are like nazis. The answer seems obviously Almost Blue now.

His last album debuted at #13!

thank starbucks

does Starbucks really push his shit out there like they would with McCartney or whoever, though? i think anyone with a reliable cult is racking up exceptionally high Billboard peaks in the slumping marketplace these days (see also: Sonic Youth's first top 20 album ever this year).

I hang out at Starbucks most Sunday afternooons to read, write, and grade, and I've never seen anyone buy those albums. There's a pretty neat "post-punk" comp called Circa 1980 that's played in house, though.

I went in there last night- there's a certain hour when it's the only thing open- and I saw thay had some kind of post-punk comp called Up, Down, Turn Around.

I take back Armed Forces being his "shark jump"
Anthony, you broke my heart.

Oh, that must be it: I saw "Temptation" on the track list.

That's "Get Happy"

I believe a marching band of octopi on the Muppet Show did a good version under Animal broke it up.

Anthony, you broke my heart.

Armed is still the beginning of the end, it's just that shark-jumping requires losing the script entirely, like say when a punk ranter records an album of country covers

hey now don't hate the Mekons.

shark-jumping also requires that there be nothing worthwhile after that point, which i dunno, EC sure has been inconsistent since those first 3 but there's a few pretty great records in there (xpost)

i dunno, there might be a good simpsons episode or two in the decade plus since maude flanders died, but i'd still probably put the leap there.

does Starbucks really push his shit out there like they would with McCartney or whoever, though?

i dunno, and I know Carly Simon was bitching about the lack of promotion, but it's success compared to momofuku the year before probably can't entirely be chalked up to the times. guessing hear music put a little more into promotion than lost highway, at least for the first week.

and as alfred points out with the mekons, shark-jumping is pretty subjective: most (including me) would say the mekons FOUND the script when they got into country. so someone could say almost blue was elvis growing out of his juvenalia or something if they wanted.

Momofuku had a weird release schedule (CD release weeks after digital/vinyl) that all but guaranteed it would have a lower than averate chart debut, but yeah

I love most, if not all, of Costello's 80s records. Sometimes even more than the 70s stuff. And there are plenty of 90s records I'd happily listen to ...
Is there anyone who'll rep for the Allen Toussain collab? I haven't heard it.

Going country is almost a textbook false shark-jump move at this point - it seems at first glance like the end of the road but it hardly ever is. cf Mekons, Dylan, Byrds, Jonathan Richman, Ween, Kid Rock.

I wish a big rock band nowdays had the balls to pull off a non-ironic Nashville Skyline transformation. Too bad there's no more big rock bands.

There's always Bon Jovi. Um, never mind.

Is there anyone who'll rep for the Allen Toussain collab? I haven't heard it.

boring, like everything else since the Bacharach collab (which I do like half of).

I did see him with an orchestra a few years ago (doing the same stuff that is on "my flame burns blue") and it was excellent, but the album is boring to listen to. he can be a great performer to watch but these days listening to him is snoozeville. even when he does the rock thing again I'm bored. I think I've just had enough; he has way more worthy material than most, I'm happy with his catalogue, but I think I'm done. I can't imagine an album he could make now that would interest me.

Never heard the Bacharach album. A friend swears that "Toledo" is one of the four or five greatest things Elvis C ever recorded.

I guess going country can mean jumping the shark sometimes
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://thebeautystop.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/jessica-simpson-999-kiss-country-chili-cookoff.jpg&imgrefurl=http://thebeautystop.com/celebrity-hits-and-misses-jessica-simpson-2/&usg=__SIrTumiV1Wsv6q-BhZMVVzz8x7g=&h=501&w=400&sz=59&hl=en&start=5&um=1&tbnid=ttqiBqvhQuv81M:&tbnh=130&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djessica%2Bsimpson%2Bcountry%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

he can be a great performer to watch but these days listening to him is snoozeville
i've seen him twice this decade (both imposters shows). One was pretty awesome (the When I Was Cruel tour) and the other was a textbook example of seeing EC "punch the clock."

Painted From Memory and "Toledo" in particular are great, imo

I haven't spent much time with Painted From Memory, but I know plenty people who love it.

wikipedia picture cracks me up for some reason. looks like bono's granddad or something.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/ElvisCostello09TIFF.jpg/409px-ElvisCostello09TIFF.jpg

vaguely interested in elvis' costello show live series thing -- el mocambo is first ...

"El Mocambo" is awesome. Thanks, amphetamines! You'll never listed to "My Aim is True" again.

Clearly the jump the shark moment was "Juliet Letters," where he learned Italian, how to read sheet music, and took singing lessons. He's had some great stuff since then, but he's gone too far up the butt of formalism to really enjoy it. It's the Elvis does Burt album! It's the Elvis does country (again) album! It's the Elvis tries to sound like Elvis again album! It's the Elvis does jazz album! Etc.

I will admit to Juliet Letters being kinda lame, but I also kinda like it.

Josh OTM

Yup.

el mocambo is sweet -- there are a bunch of late 70s attractions shows that are so frenzied, like the band members are trying to strangle each other.

Nick Lowe said something like "there was no love lost in that band" so maybe they were.

I always enjoyed Elvis Costello even more than the first Elvis! My mom and I used to have arguments about the two Elvises and she'd tell me to shut up in the end, maybe because I won. I was still sad when Elvis died though!

One was pretty awesome (the When I Was Cruel tour) and the other was a textbook example of seeing EC "punch the clock."

yeah i saw him on the when i was cruel tour and it was amazing....billy bob thorton was the opener!

I saw him on that tour too, and agree. He dug into the chest: opened with "I Hope You're Happy Now," did "I Wanna Be Loved" and "Hoover Factory." The only false note was his mugging through "I Want You."

there are a bunch of late 70s attractions shows that are so frenzied, like the band members are trying to strangle each other.

I was obsessed with bootlegs from the '78 tour for quite a while, they are just so good. Essential companions to the LPs.

Clearly the jump the shark moment was "Juliet Letters,"

No; both All This Useless Beauty and When I Was Cruel postdate TJL, and each is well worth the time. I think marrying Diana Krall might have done it; North was his first album with no redeeming features whatsoever, and nothing since that point has been in the least memorable.

When I saw Elvis he committed the cardinal sin (to me) of either a) lagging behind the beat with his singing (a lot of older rockers do this) and/or b) changing the melody entirely for god knows why. Needless to say I was disappointed.

Cross-posting from the McCartney thread:

/ In 1988, Costello and McCartney returned to the studio. The idea is that Costello would co-produce the new record. As they worked, they realized they had different ideas. One day, they were talking about “That Day is Done,” a gospel-inspired ballad. Costello wanted to use New Orleans brass. McCartney referenced the Human League. Costello left the studio to calm himself down.

McCartney: This is one of the rules of my game. I will say stuff, any idea that comes into my head. And if you don’t like it, you just tell me and I’ll probably agree. But my method is to throw out a lot of stuff and whittle it down. [Pause.] Actually, he was really not a fan of the Human League. I like “Don’t You Want Me.” [Hums the chorus.] I think that’s, like, a classic pop record. . . . I can now see now that me even mentioning the words Human League would send him off in the wrong direction./

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/after-john-paul-mccartney-found-another-partner-to-get-the-most-out-of-him-the-proof-is-finally-emerging/2017/03/16/ae2fe91c-09a7-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html?utm_term=.3c1c977a15a8

only took us 12 years

A committed hater never rests

Elvis Costello gets on my nerves. i've no idea what people see in him. he's done some good songs, "Allison" would make a good soft rock ballad or adult contemporary, but he's kind of a poser. him not liking Human League confirms for me he has shit taste.

yea he was definitely one of those guys who was awesome as an outsider but could only hold onto that persona for so long.

'Painted from Memory' is a pretty good album that I listened to quite a bit when it came out. But it's p much unlistenable for me now because y'know, he's doing the singing. Can only stomach it for a limited amount of time.

his songs have too many chords.

was going to suggest Painted From Memory as a recent EC album that I love, then realised that it's nearly 20 years since it was released :(

ikr :(

You could never love or admire this guy as much as he loves and admires himself tbh.

best thing he's done in decades is release a really cool-looking signature fender jazzmaster

he should have retired after that tbh

When this fucker killed the shark.

Froom on paper seems like such a perfect fit, but this album is a mess and "Brutal Youth" (with better songs) sounds like shit.

Los Lobos is the only artist who seemed to benefit from Froom's production. With EC, Richard Thompson and others, I feel like another producer would've been much better.

EC became too erratic to have a "jump the shark" moment. Almost Blue was thoroughly mediocre, the production on Punch the Clock was fairly uneven, Goodbye Cruel World had quality songs produced and arranged in the worst possible way, and yet he made three great albums interspersed or following those three.

None of his WB studio albums (between 1989 to 1996) are on the same level as his earlier triumphs, so that's when he was no longer on the very forefront of rock music, but he was still capable of good, commendable work.

His last good album was When I Was Cruel in 2002, and it's better than any studio album he did at WB - it's still too long, but it would've been a rock solid single LP had he pruned it of a few lesser tracks. Every album he's done since then has a few keepers, which isn't great but isn't worthless either.

Also, re: the origins of the term...when was Happy Days ever good? Or did it just go from mediocre to absolute shit?

I remember one episode of HD where there was a definite undercurrent, everyone was pairing off while Potsie was singing "Will you still love me tomorrow". It was all implicit, but there was something happening. And later that same episode fonz got the shark challenge, it was tune in next episode for the conclusion (I never did, just happened to be out), the rest you know.

Oh, and "Look Now" sounded pretty good when I heard it in the shop, I nearly bought one..