The rolling "Elvis Costello's new album is fucking awful." thread

In the end, does Joe Jackson win? I say yes; he's disgraced himself far less than this.

< / nitpick >

depends on how his relationship goes, i guess. Do canadian pop chicks get into the freaky-freaky?

WTF? Did she feed Drano to your dog or something?

I haven't loved any of Elvis's work for some time--although I quite liked the Bacharach collab--but I think it will be a while before his taste goes completely out the window. I'll bet this isn't as bad as some of you think; "sincere love songs with lite jazz backing" actually sounds a bit intriguing to me (have I gone off the deep end?).

I don't know. I'm rather fond of Brutal Youth and parts of Useless Beauty and When I Was Cruel.

When I Was Cruel is costello-by-numbers, i.e. it's crapola.
Useless Beauty is 50% okay, 50% shit.
Brutal Youth has 50% prime choice, 50% avg.
Juliet Letters -- two or three worthwhile songs, best melodies mostly written by one of the Brodskys. The concept (and most of the album) is dire.
Mighty Like a Rose -- please god no.
Spike -- the songs I liked at the time have aged badly, and the songs I overlooked at the time appear pretty nice by comparison. Strangely enough, I think the best song on the record is probably "Coal Train Robberies."

In short, Tad is utterly OTM. Apart from Brutal Youth and Painted From Memory, Costello hasn't made a truly worthwhile album since the early eighties, and from all description this new one sounds appalling.

anyway, i'm sure that he can still put on a great show. but that doesn't mean that this new album is going to be worth a damn!

Not saying I'll necessarily like the record, but I'm not ready to write it off on principle.

Up where the polar bears and moose and geese will play
Some of them address you en francais
Give me the ice and snow
Let me go north"

Well, this could be an example of Costello's deranged wit. I mean, maybe he's making fun of the Canada that we think we have, the Canada that we market to the rest of the world. Right? RIGHT?

(clutches for another straw)

Let's leave the sledgehammer-metaphor lyrics aside for a moment -- exactly when did Elvis start thinking, "Hey, I have a pretty fantastic voice"? Could it have been around the time he did that absolutely HIDEOUS "classical" version of "God Only Knows"? Or perhaps when he decided to add a Rio Grande-sized vibrato to his singing. Or maybe it was when he showed up on TONY FUCKING BENNETT'S Unplugged album. His singing atrocities alone should require that he be tried for crimes against humanity.

I am so fucking over Elvis Costello. Memo to EC: you aren't all things to all people -- not me, anyway.

What will happen to me if I say I like Brutal Youth and When I Was Cruel better than King Of America?

Acknowledged, the first 5 records are nonpariel; at that point his career becomes uneven, with great and poor records to this day.

[Naive Teen, I don't mind his voice lately, but I understand how annoyed you are - he sure loves the sound of it]

And don't get me wong: I'm all for ambition and stretching out artistically. But the singing lessons and the cut-rate Tin Pan Alley routine seem to indicate that EC has a profound misunderstanding of his own (considerable) talents. It just seems all so misplaced, making his "return to rock" records sound that much more pat and staid.

you get out much, dude?

Just another example of Elvis's fat fucking head thinking he could pull off something he totally could not.

that said, I never want to hear this record.

Hahahaha!

Elvis Costello's first album for Lost Highway finds the musician deftly exploring American roots music, from rock 'n' roll to country to soul, with assistance from the Imposters

I had to laugh.

'Cause of the "south" joke. But fuck it. ELVIS WINS AGAIN.

http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/eplayer/?ID=costello-ilsogno

and I'm going to see it performed at this:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/23/DDGJOFS7JK1.DTL

and it might be awful, I don't know. I don't expect much honestly

It seems Elvis is keen to get him connected to an Anglophone.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4470190.stm

Opinions, anyone?

anyway here's what amazon sez:

Elvis Costello's My Flame Burns Blue is a live album with the legendary Metropole Orkest, a 52-piece jazz orchestra from the Netherlands, recorded in concert at The Hague. A bonus disc offers a 45-minute suite from Il Sogno, Costello's first full-length orchestral work. The album alternates between imaginatively reinvented Costello favorites like "Almost Blue," "Clubland," and "Watching the Detectives" (arranged "in the style of a 1950s television theme"), Costello compositions seeing release for the first time on a Costello album, and unexpected collaborations. "This recording captures a very joyful evening at the North Sea Jazz Festival and collects together songs and arrangements that have been developed over the last decade," writes Costello in his detailed liner notes.

For the opening track, "Hora Decubitus," Costello was invited by Charles Mingus's widow, Sue, to contribute lyrics to the jazzman's compositions. This song was completed in the immediate aftermath of September 11. "I could offer nothing more than a simple affirmation of life and rejection of vengeance," writes Costello. For the title track, Costello also wrote lyrics for Billy Strayhorn's final composition, "Blood Count."

Other highlights seeing release on a Costello album for the first time include "Speak Darkly, My Angel" and "Upon a Veil of Midnight Blue," which was written for and recorded by West Coast bluesman Charles Brown as "I Wonder How She Knows."

Il Sogno was originally commissioned by the Italian Dance Company, Aterbaletto, for their adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Following its premiere in Bologna with the Orchestra del Teatro Communale, the ballet was staged throughout Italy, Germany, France and Russia. Il Sogno was subsequently recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. The recording was released in September 2004 by Deutsche Grammophon and stayed at the top of Billboard's Contemporary Classical Charts for fourteen weeks.

Il Sogno received rave reviews upon its release. Mark Swed at The Los Angeles Times declared "Costello's sound is surprisingly fresh. His melodies are memorable. The sudden swings into jazz prove pure delight... [The performance is] bursting with life." The Boston Globe's Richard Dyer proclaimed "You'd have to go back to George Gershwin to find a composer-performer undertaking a project as ambitious as Il Sogno... It is full of character and storytelling, and the orchestration is skillful, unusual, and colorful."

i mean i could just add little "(!)" throughout and skip the commentary.

I'm not totally down on Elvis as a matter of course - I really loved The Delivery Man - but I've yet to be convinced of his crooner inclinations.

x 10,000

Do you think that on his deathbead Elvis is going to sit bolt upright and cry "My God! I never made an album of tangos!" and instantly die of regret?

Hell no. I think he is going make an album of tangos. Thanks for the warning!

i'm waiting for his dubstep album.

Yeah, but he won't make the dubstep album until about three decades after everyone everywhere stops caring about dubstep, so I think we're safe.

i was feeling charitable up there. there is no way I'll be seeing this man in 2 years, let alone 20.

ha, and yet you know...

I'm in the provinces and he meant so much to me (ach, still does, I mean, just not the genre-checklist experiment albums) I'll still go see him anytime. I just won't have my hopes up it'll be the El Mocambo all over again.

Yeah, but he won't make the dubstep album until about three decades after everyone everywhere stops caring about dubstep, so I think we're safe.

Nice to see you admit that people will eventually tire of dubstep.
I don't care particularly about tango, yet tango >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> dubstep.

So, when will "Three decades after everyone stops caring" occur then?

Why, Geir

Geironimo