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Elvis Costello - Original Album Series 1989-1996 [5CD BoxSet] (2012)
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© 2012 Warner Bros. / Rhino | 8122797343
Rock / Alternative Rock / Indie / Contemporary Pop
| EU-only five CD set containing a quintet of albums from the British singer/songwriter packaged in mini-LP sleeves and housed together in a slipcase. Includes the albums Spike, Mighty Like a Rose, Brutal Youth, Kojack Variety and All This Useless Beauty. Warner. 2012. This 5 album set covers the first half of the 90's. Includes: Spike, Mighty Like A Rose, Brutal Youth, Kojak Variety and All This Useless Beauty. |
CD1 - Spike (1989)
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Rock / Alternative Rock / Indie / Contemporary Pop
| Following a pair of near-masterpieces in 1986, Elvis Costello went into semi-seclusion, separating from the Attractions (once again) and Columbia Records, emerging three years later on Warner Brothers with Spike. Mockingly billing himself as "the Beloved Entertainer" on the album's front cover, there's nevertheless a real sense of showbiz pizzazz here, as he tries on a little bit of everything. You like Costello the soul singer? Try "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror," recorded with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Costello the pop sophisticate? How about the torch song "Baby Plays Around" or "God's Comic," a tune that mocks Andrew Lloyd Webber, while aching to eclipse him. The angry young man? There's "Tramp the Dirt Down," perhaps the nastiest anti-Thatcher song ever waxed. Costello the witty wordsmith? Well, there's "Pads, Paws and Claws," a rockabilly tune overflowing with labored puns. Costello the gifted pure pop tunesmith? There's plenty of that here, from "This Town" with Roger McGuinn and Paul McCartney and the lovely "Veronica," a tune co-written with McCartney that became one of his biggest hits. So, there's a lot here -- everything except focus, actually. And Costello certainly likes to indulge himself here, throwing in the awkward "Chewing Gum" and the instrumental "Stalin Malone" for good measure. There are some moments that work quite well, but there's nothing connecting them, and if anything, he's trying way too hard -- and, for all of the overarching ambition of his early-'80s recordings, that criticism never applied before. Certainly, there are cuts for cultists to enjoy, but Spike's sprawl works against it, resulting in a maddeningly diffuse listen. |
tracklist:
01 - ...This Town...
02 - Let Him Dangle
03 - Deep Dark Truthful Mirror
04 - Veronica
05 - God's Comic
06 - Chewing Gum
07 - Tramp the Dirt Down
08 - Stalin Malone
09 - Satellite
10 - Pads, Paws and Claws
11 - Baby Plays Around
12 - Miss Macbeth
13 - Any King's Shilling
14 - Coal-Train Robberies
15 - Last Boat Leaving
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CD2 - Mighty Like A Rose (1991)
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Rock / Alternative Rock / Indie / Contemporary Pop
| If Spike seemed frustratingly incoherent, it's nothing compared to Mighty Like a Rose, a deliberately dense, difficult record that is easily the most impenetrable that Elvis Costello ever cut. With producers Mitchell Froom and Kevin Killen, Costello made a record with no easy entrances, even if the sparkling Beach Boys-esque "The Other Side of Summer" and the lovely "So Like Candy" would have been accessible with different production. And, certainly, production is the most notable thing about this record. Filled with clattering production, spongy bass, cardboard guitars, studio white noise, and layers upon layers of tracks, there's so much going on that it's hard to get to the core of the songs. Not that Costello makes it any easier for the listener, either, since only a few songs (the aforementioned pair, plus "All Grown Up" and "Playboy to a Man") don't seem self-satisfied in their own construction. And his performances are nearly as affected as the songs, as he over-sings (albeit for effect) and contributes to the muddy wall of sound. Yes, this is "interesting," but it takes many plays before you realize all those "interesting" effects lead nowhere -- only to the strangest record Costello ever cut (and that's not a compliment, unfortunately). |
tracklist:
01 - The Other Side of Summer
02 - Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)
03 - How to Be Dumb
04 - All Grown Up
05 - Invasion Hit Parade
06 - Harpies Bizarre
07 - After the Fall
08 - Georgie and Her Rival
09 - So Like Candy
10 - Interlude- Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 2
11 - Playboy to a Man
12 - Sweet Pear
13 - Broken
14 - Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4
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CD3 - Brutal Youth (1994)
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Rock / Alternative Rock / Indie / Contemporary Pop
| Perhaps realizing that The Juliet Letters was one step too far, especially after the willfully eclectic pair of Spike and Mighty Like a Rose, Elvis Costello set out to make a straight-ahead rock & roll record with Brutal Youth, reuniting with the Attractions (though Bruce Thomas appears on only five tracks) and Nick Lowe (who plays bass on most of the rest). Unfortunately, all this nostalgia and good intentions are cancelled by the retention of producer Mitchell Froom, whose junkyard, hazily cerebral productions stand in direct contrast to the Attractions' best work. Likely, Froom's self-conscious production appealed to Costello, since it makes Brutal Youth look less like a retreat, but it severely undercuts the effectiveness of the music, since it lacks guts, no matter how smugly secure it is in its tempered "experimentation." Costello certainly had the raw elements for a dynamic little record here -- the band, when they can be heard, sound good, and many songs (highlighted by "Pony St.," "Kinder Murder," "13 Steps Lead Down," "You Tripped at Every Step," and "20% Amnesia") are fresh, effective evocations of his classic work -- but it needed to be punchier to succeed. He needed to be produced by Lowe, instead of just having him sit in on bass. |
tracklist:
01 - Pony St.
02 - Kinder Murder
03 - 13 Steps Lead Down
04 - This Is Hell
05 - Clown Strike
06 - You Tripped at Every Step
07 - Still Too Soon to Know
08 - 20, Amnesia
09 - Sulky Girl
10 - London's Brilliant Parade
11 - My Science Fiction Twin
12 - Rocking Horse Road
13 - Just About Glad
14 - All the Rage
15 - Favourite Hour
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CD4 - Kojak Variety (1995)
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Rock / Alternative Rock / Indie / Contemporary Pop
| With Almost Blue, Elvis Costello wanted to be a honky tonker. With Kojak Variety, he's a crooner, picking forgotten tunes by both minor and major artists (anyone from Screamin' Jay Hawkins to Bob Dylan). From his song selections to the pseudo-avant-rock/R&B band, Costello doesn't make any obvious moves. Yet that doesn't mean that the record is difficult -- it just shows the depths of Costello's affection for music and record collecting (which is also clear from his loving, detailed liner notes). Costello and his band (featuring guitarists James Burton and Marc Ribot, drummer Jim Keltner and Attraction Pete Thomas) play with gusto, tearing through the songs with the vigor of a bar band on a Friday night. Some of the rockers sound slightly forced, although there's no denying the power of Costello's passionate vocals, even if he stretches his range a little too much (Little Richard's "Bama Lama Bama Loo"). What matters here are the performances, and the majority of Kojak Variety is filled with fine interpretations. Kojak Variety does what any good covers album should do -- it makes you want to seek out the originals. |
tracklist:
01 - Strange
02 - Hidden Charms
03 - Remove This Doubt
04 - I Threw It All Away
05 - Leave My Kitten Alone
06 - Everybody's Crying Mercy
07 - I've Been Wrong Before
08 - Bama Lama Bama Loo
09 - Must You Throw Dirt In My Face
10 - Pouring Water On A Drowning Man
11 - The Very Thought Of You
12 - Payday
13 - Please Stay
14 - Running Out Of Fools
15 - Days
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CD5 - All This Useless Beauty (1996)
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Rock / Alternative Rock / Indie / Contemporary Pop
| Following his second covers album, Kojak Variety, Elvis Costello set out to assemble a collection of songs he had written for other artists but never recorded himself -- sort of a reverse covers album. As it turned out, that idea was only used as a launching pad -- the resulting album, All This Useless Beauty, is a mixture of nine old and three new songs. Given its origins, it's surprising that the record holds together as well as it does. The main strength of All This Useless Beauty is the quality of the individual songs -- each song can stand on its own as an individual entity, as the music is as sharp as the lyrics. Although the music is certainly eclectic, it's accessible, which wasn't the case with Mighty Like a Rose. Furthermore, the production is more textured and punchier than Mitchell Froom's botched job on Brutal Youth. All This Useless Beauty doesn't quite add up to a major statement, but the simple pleasures it offers makes it one of the more rewarding records of the latter part of Costello's career. |
tracklist:
01 - The Other End Of The Telescope
02 - Little Atoms
03 - All This Useless Beauty
04 - Complicated Shadows
05 - Why Can't A Man Stand Alone
06 - Distorted Angel
07 - Shallow Grave
08 - Poor Fractured Atlas
09 - Starting To Come To Me
10 - You Bowed Down
11 - It's Time
12 - I Want To Vanish
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