Search - Elvis Costello :: Rock & Roll Music

Same Old Music in Yet Another New Sleeve

Thomas D. Ryan | New York | 05/15/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Now that thirty years has passed since his debut, it is apparent to me that Elvis Costello has a lot more in common with his namesake than a singing career. Case in point - Almost immediately upon his arrival at RCA, Elvis Presley's recordings were packaged with little regard to the consumer, and then re-packaged so relentlessly that nobody except the most dedicated, wealthy, and mentally unbalanced collector could possibly hope to amass all of Presley's catalog. With blithe regularity, RCA executives would abuse their position as the historic caretakers of a rock and roll legend by digging deeper and deeper into obscurities, then packaging them with recycled classic recordings. Very, very little was genuinely `new' except the package itself. These collections are innumerable, and I pity the poor soul who suffers the disease of being a completist collector, because it can cost you your bank account, your house, and maybe even your marriage, all in the pursuit of owning all that is Elvis.

It now appears as though the same type of abuse has befallen the recorded works of Elvis Costello. I should know. I was one of those `mentally unbalanced' individuals who felt the need to own every Elvis Costello item released on the marketplace. In the beginning, it was kind of fun. Costello had numerous singles with non-LP b-sides, and plenty of `alternate' versions to keep fans quite busy. I was a part of that vinyl junkie set, a cult of obsessed lunatics who lived to find the rarest single, or an alternate package. After three years and hundreds of dollars spent, I remember feeling betrayed when Columbia issued "Taking Liberties," a collection of Elvis' rare b-sides. In an instant, one five-dollar album made twenty rarities commonplace. Nevertheless, I soldiered on; buying 10" collector's singles, alternate mixes, and all sorts of oddities. Then, the CD era began, and it started to happen all over again. Elvis changed labels (from Columbia to Warner Brothers), and his catalog albums were subjected to not one, not two, but three separate repackagings, each of them containing unique `rarities' that could be obtained nowhere else. A dedicated collector would require four versions of each Elvis Costello album. At this point, I finally surrendered, but I already spent enough to finance a Hawaiian vacation for some record executive and his family of four. Nowadays I simply stand by, amazed as the repackaging craze continues unabated. By my count, the above named collections represent the 10th and 11th re-compilation of Elvis Costello's `hits'. I'm not saying they are bad collections. The booklets contain song lyrics, which is a nice touch, especially for the older material. Naturally, the songs are great and I should know, because I bought each of these tracks at least a half-dozen times already. If you still don't own them, then go ahead and buy them. You will enjoy them. I, however, will stare at my room full of Elvis-related plastic and acknowledge the reason that I never made that trip to Hawaii myself.

B+ Tom Ryan"

Slice of Costello's first decade

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 05/09/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The distribution rights to Costello's first eleven albums, everything from 1977's "My Aim is True" through 1986's "Blood & Chocolate," have recently moved to the Universal empire for a fresh round of reissues. Previous programs from Ryko and Rhino resulted in ever lengthening CDs of the decade's worth of material, along with a variety of best-ofs. Universal kicks off their own reissue program (which will include this material's first-ever licensed digital downloads) with a pair of 22-track anthologies: the broader "Best of the First 10 Years" and this thematic volume surveying Costello's rock material. Only a few tracks, "(I Don't Wanna Go to) Chelsea," "Pump It Up," and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," overlap between the two discs, making them excellent companions.



The focus here narrows to six of Costello's albums of the era, "My Aim is True," "This Year's Model," "Armed Forces," "Get Happy," "Trust," and "Blood & Chocolate," deepening the selections from the first and last, and adding five singles and a track ("Girls Talk") previously only available as a CD bonus. The sole previously unreleased item here is a guitar-and-voice demo of "Welcome to the Working Week," and a pair of previously released live tracks ("Mystery Dance" and "You Belong to Me") substitute for the studio versions. Boiling down Costello's first decade to 22 rock nuggets really shows how tough the Attractions (who back Costello on nearly everything here) were as a combo. The tracks from "My Aim is True" highlight Costello's lyrical and vocal acidity, but the backing band (Clover, from Marin County, California) simply didn't provide the instrumental bite the Attractions would introduce on 1979's "This Year's Model."



Like any single disc Costello anthology, this skims the surface of a deep catalog, but not necessarily with the track selection any particular fan would make. For those new to Costello's seminal work this provides a good partner to the broader overview of "Best of the First 10 Years," and the inclusion of singles stretches this out beyond the original albums. But for those who've already bought (or anticipate buying) the original albums, you can make a more personally satisfying Elvis rock anthology for yourselves. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]"

For the casual listener

T. Davis | Seattle, WA | 05/19/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album, paired with the "The Best of the First Ten Years," makes a good, low-cost introduction to the sonic boom that Costello left in his wake. On the other hand, anyone other than the neophyte should go with his original albums, reissued with many supplementary tracks, as they are far more satisfying."