Elvis Costello Between "Spike" and Bacharach

brutal youth is excellent; all this useless beauty is pretty good. kojak variety is boring; mightly like a rose has four exceptional songs and some stuff I don't like.

How's the Juliet Letters?

Of all listed, including Juliet Letters, the only good, consistent Costello record is Brutal Youth.

... ah but an exception ... the boots and subsequent mini-boxset of the Costello/Steve Nieve shows to highlight 'All This Useless Beauty' songs are pretty good and the delivery on these releases are about ten times better than what's on the actual record. Am I the only one that wishes there was a youtube video of Bruce and Declan in a punch-up? Oh - and that lame ass biography of EC that came out a few years ago (full of errors!) spends an inordinate amount of time in these years.

When I last heard it (late 90s?) I found the Juliet Letters to be really overwrought and awkward, but there were at least a couple of winners on it.

yeah it has like four classic songs. it is overwrought but I like it on the whole; I saw them do this live and it was wonderful.

Isn't there a thread on this already?

They all have good songs, but the single-disc Rhino comp of those years is all you need own. We all passed through a deluded phase, though, i.e. in high school I thought Mighty Like A Rose was totally awesome in its baroqueness.

mighty like a rose is worth buying (and you can buy it for like fifty cents) for Couldn't Call It Unexpected alone, which is one of my five favorite Costello songs ever.

but you can get it on the 1997 comp.

brutal youth is excellent; all this useless beauty is pretty good. kojak variety is boring; mightly like a rose has four exceptional songs and some stuff I don't like.

i was gonna write my own thoughts but i agree with this ^^^ like 99 percent

The production of BY is awful – that clattery midnineties Mitchell Froom sound.

x-post but...I imagine all these records are better than the #1 EC clunker known as "Goodbye Cruel World" from 1984. EC admits his unhappiness with the record in his liner notes from the 2004 Rhino re-issue.

He's been less-than-godly from at least Armed Forces onwards. Get Happy is a tuneful waste. After owning a dozen of his albums, I realized that the less you own, the more secure you are in his genius.

He's been less-than-godly from at least Armed Forces onwards. After owning a dozen of his albums, I realized that the less you own, the more secure you are in his genius.

The latter statement might be true. I'm fairly new to finally embracing Costello. I had a greatest hits comp for a long time but didn't start buying actual albums until a couple years ago. I'm still in his early period but am definitely in "he's a genius" territory, knowing that I've heard maybe 25% of the guy's output.

That said, Imperial Bedroom is brilliant - easily my favorite of all I've heard - so I can't abide your first statement.

BlackIronPrison, which biography are you referring to? I've read one lameass one and one good one.

- Mighty Like A Rose

Patchy, but with some great moments. And great production.

- Brutal Youth

Absolutely excellent. And again great production.

- Kojak Variety

Largely pointless like most covers albums.

- All This Useless Beauty

I don't know this as well as the first two, but have listened to it a few times, and it does actually sound quite good in spite of consisting of songs he had originally buried.

mighty like a rose is worth buying (and you can buy it for like fifty cents) for Couldn't Call It Unexpected alone, which is one of my five favorite Costello songs ever.

"So Like Candy" is absolutely ace!

The production of BY is awful – that clattery midnineties Mitchell Froom sound.

Not, it is brilliant. Like virtually everything Mitchell Froom did then. He is one of the greatest producers ever!

I had no internet all weekend--thanks for the responses.

Re: "the less you own, the more secure you are in his genius," I sort of agree and sort of don't. That was my approach for maybe the last decade, after selling stuff off. Since then, I've rebought the first three, Imperial Bedroom, King of America, and Blood and Chocolate. All sooooooooo good.

Six records from late 70s to late 80s is not bad. And that's not counting the decent records I miss but haven't rebought, like Almost Blue and Punch the Clock. Take a few of the above from the 90s, and the few good ones I've mentioned from the 00's, and I don't think the dude's had a bad run. I'm not about to penalize him for being prolific. There's enough good to justify the rest, in my book.

i thinkt he production on brutal youth is pretty good and froom largely toned down his normal intrusive techniques on this record; he doesn't play that much on it, most everything is played by the band. it's actually kind of a loose and ragged sounding record for a Froom production.