Elvis Costello: Classic or Dud

Some details on the Imperial Bedroom album, as Costello is gonna play it on some tour gigs with the Imposters

My freshman year roommate wants to go to one of those shows so maybe I will report back.

Via Wiki:

Elvis Costello has written 17 songs for A Face In The Crowd, a planned stage musical based on Budd Schulberg's story originally published as Your Arkansas Traveler and adapted into the 1957 film A Face In The Crowd written by Schulberg, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Andy Griffith.

The musical's book is written by Sarah Ruhl, who had previously collaborated with Elvis on an unfinished musical about WHER, the all-female Memphis radio station.

An invitation-only reading of A Face In The Crowd was held in New York on June 10. The New York Post reported that Elvis and his backers want Hugh Jackman to star. The Swiss newspaper Zürich Tages Anzeiger reported the musical was expected to premiere in 2017.

Elvis premiered nine of the songs in concert in the spring of 2016 and an additional song in the Fall of that year.

A detailed article about this project can be found at the ecsongbysong blog.

Went last night. He opened with "Night Rally."

Followed by "Lipstick Vogue." Which I feel like in the old days was near the end of the set.

Everyone gets armbands and 3D glasses.

Ha. Really? He did all of Imperial Bedroom, plus more, right? DC show sold out at high ticket prices before I decided I really wanted to go no matter the price. Oh well. Freelancer for the Washington Post loved the gig.

Night Rally is a great song

It was pretty good. Similar to when I, and no doubt you, saw him back in the day. Think he skipped maybe one from Imperial Bedroom, "You Little Fool." He also did three from his upcoming musical project, A Face in the Crowd.

Night Rally is a great song

He played a deep cut that I wasn't familiar with, "Seconds of Pleasure."

No he did do "You Little Fool." Must have erased it from my memory.

Saw the summer outdoor tour version of the Imperial Bedroom tour, from the lawn. He did most of the album, but not in order. Only did 1 new songs "A Face in the Crowd" from that upcoming project. Did a song or 2 I wasn't familiar with. Had 2 backing soul-gospel women singers with him (spaced out on their names. One of em keeps liking photos on Instagram that show her singing with Elvis). The 3 of them doing "Alison" was nice. Some songs sounded rushed and cluttered near the beginning of the set, but then it all seemed to come together better. Too many loud talking folks near me on the lawn who didn't know Imperial Bedroom songs.

Ha, curm, I had exactly the same experience, maybe you were sitting near me.

I thought the ...and in every home/lucy in the sky mashup was funny; loved the spare Alison. Beyond Belief and Man Out of Time were strong encores.

Shabby Doll came out rockin' as well, but I still think my favorite version is one he did on tv with Fioner Rapple.

I've decided to give this guy another chance, even though his music historically has done very little for me...

Just this year I noticed how Bruce Thomas's Shabby Doll bass soloing is a nod to Stevie's "I Wish" (I assume).

The minimal version of Alison was impressive. Beyond Belief and Almost Blue also worked well too.

also liked green shirt

Wld pay money at this stage of my life for this.

I've decided to give this guy another chance, even though his music historically has done very little for me...

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Friday, June 23, 2017 1:56 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So, after sitting through every album from My Aim is True up to Spike over the last few days, my opinion hasn't really changed all that much. Costello comes across to me as being the type of dull classicist that people accuse Paul Weller of being, but even Weller went on to make a house album and occasionally experimented. He's also nowhere near as good a songwriter as Weller either, as evidenced by the fact that I'm fresh off listening to 11 or 12 of his albums, and the songs that I remember were the ones I knew anyway - I literally can't recall one single deep cut that made me go "wow, it was totally worth listening to the album for this"

One thing that I did take away from the experience is how much Costello sounds like Bryan Adams when he starts bellowing.

File under "new wave artists that you only really need a singles compilation by" alongside The Police.

Costello fairly drastically changes elements of his sound from album to album and Paul Weller probably wrote like 5 good songs in his life

We'll call you when he makes a house album tho

He slightly changes elements of his sound from album to album, not drastically. I would have personally loved it if there had been a drastic change in sound, but there wasn't. A bit more variety in the composition of his toplines would have been nice, too.

As for Paul Weller, there was no indication at the start of his career with The Jam that he would have had a Confessions of a Pop Group or a Modernism: A New Decade in him, let alone a 22 Dreams, Sonik Kicks or a Saturn's Pattern. When I got to King of America in Costello's discography, it wasn't a surprise at all.

Costello's 4th album was a Stax-esque soul record, his fifth was a foundational new wave record, his sixth was a straight up country album, and his seventh was orchestral, Beatles-esque music hall

I can understand why someone wouldn't like Elvis Costello, but criticizing him for "not experimenting" is silly

The differences were minimal. Like I say, if they'd been as drastic as you say, maybe I would have changed my mind.

North (pianoey lounge jazz), Juliet Letters (scrapey scratchy string quartet song settings), and When I was Cruel (spooky rock with drum machines) sound more than minimally different to me, and certainly don't resemble Almost Blue. His voice is unavoidably on all of them, I will grant.

Not to mention his most recent album, Wise Up Ghost, which he did with The Roots

Not sure how anyone could hear the differences between EC albums as "minimal," unless you consider the differences between all rock albums to be minimal.

and the songs that I remember were the ones I knew anyway

Even if this was your standard, I would be shocked if you knew less than, I dunno, 15 or 20 EC songs, which is a pretty nuts high number, and definitely pushes him beyond the realm of "singles act." (Save that category for Squeeze.) And anyway, even if you didn't think EC's singles or albums or album tracks or dozens of b-sides and one-offs and other things were worthwhile, the Attractions are an absolutely incredible and endlessly inventive band that is worth listening to on its own merits.

I'm not sure how many artists there are out there who drastically experiment between every record and still sound like themselves, but whatever that's a stupid way to judge an artist's body of work. But it's very hard to deny that Costello approached each album with different musical and thematic ideas--and it's very hard to mistake a song from This Year's Model for a song from, say, Get Happy!! despite identical personnel.

xxxpost:

Well, I didn't get that far in the discography - kinda figuring that getting 11 or 12 albums in was more than enough, and at this stage I don't really feel the need to investigate further given that the albums I heard were pretty much all of his so-called "canonical" ones.

But yeah, I was expecting to find a lot to like in Costello's discography given that I love his contributions to McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt and thought that as a producer he brought a great deal to Squeeze's East Side Story - unfortunately, I don't.

I can see why the likes of Rolling Stone liked this guy so much - putting out King of America in 1986 must have been right up their street. The rest of us had the Pet Shop Boys.

The biggest difference between This Year's Model and Get Happy!! was in the production.

Well I was just about to listen to an Elvis Costello record, but I forgot that I can't enjoy both Elvis Costello and Pet Shop Boys or else I would... make the Rolling Stones angry, or something?

xp well they were both produced by Nick Lowe, so obviously something changed, bud

I remember reading a post by Josh in Chicago a few years back where he stated that Costello might be more highly regarded today if he hadn't put out "too much music", which I disagree with a great deal. Prince, for example, couldn't have been any more prolific, but he's more highly regarded than Costello is today because his music was more interesting.

So you're saying that Elvis Costello falls into the broad category of "not as good as Prince" along with everybody else in the history of music give or take 10 people or so?

Yeah, but two years ago...

Nick Lowe was probably an even bigger trad. rock bore, tbh.

xxpost:

No, I'm saying that being prolific is not the reason that Elvis Costello isn't more highly regarded today. Do pay attention.

did you only listen to each album once, though? After a hits collection, my recommendations would be to pick up This Year's Model and stay with that for a while

With Cstello, it's not so much a matter of getting off (or on) the bus, but how you approach whichever stream..

Like, if some review goes "Yeah! A Return to the Attractionisms of "Brutal Youth" and "Blood and Choc"" then you might go hmm, let's give it a look. Or you might go "oh noe, what no Brodskys?". But then you might see one on Deutsche Grammophon and say "ah, now that's gonna be more like it"

Or, it might make you ponder " Elvis Costello: The Exact Moment When This Balding Fat Fucker Jumped The Shark "

xxpost:

No, I'm saying that being prolific is not the reason that Elvis Costello isn't more highly regarded today. Do pay attention.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Wednesday, June 28, 2017 8:20 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm paying very close attention but also making fun of you for your stupid opinions

(Multi xp) Think one thing was that Roger Bechirian's engineering hand grew stronger beginning with Armed Forces.

now excuse me, i'm gonna go argue with a stick over there in that mud

xxxxxpost:

This isn't the first time I've given Costello a chance, last time was about five years ago or so. I reached pretty much the same conclusion then as I've done now, but I thought I'd try again just to be sure.

i'm paying very close attention but also making fun of you for your stupid opinions

― black covfefe in bed (voodoo chili), Wednesday, June 28, 2017 1:24 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Who knew that the Costello hardcore could get so butthurt?

it's fine with me if you don't like costello, but if it's because he didn't change or adapt enough between records, it means you weren't paying attention

the world wonders what a Nick Lowe-produced Pet Shop Boys would've sounded like

xpost Who knows what I was thinking, but I'm pretty sure I was talking about EC's career as a whole (perhaps in the "jump the shark" thread?). I'm a fan, and I only ("only") like 11 or 12 EC albums, most of which were released between 1977 and 1987. Coincidence, but that's pretty much all the Prince I regularly listen to as well - about 10 albums between 1978 and 1988. In both cases, that's plenty! And they both have tons of outtakes from those years to fill in the gaps.

Pick a parcel of Costello

A. This Years Model, Armed Forces,

B. Almost Blue, Spike, King of America

C. Blood and Chocolate, Brutal Youth, When I was cruel

D. The Juliet Letters, North

E. Painted from Memory, And so blummin on, etc.

I dunno, I'll stick with "10 bloody marys and 10 hows yr fathers" ...

I can hurl two or three reasons why EC might suck, but lackig tonal and structural variety aren't among them.