Best Elvis Costello Album

Taking Liberties  	0

Get Happy! is the best Elvis Costello album. Imperial Bedroom and Armed Forces deserve and honourable mention - they take the other podium spots. i am cool with folks liking This Year's Model but its landslide in this poll seems kinda nutty.

The Juliet Letters 1

WAHT

RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG RONG

i am cool with folks liking This Year's Model but its landslide in this poll seems kinda nutty.

Agreed. Although the correct answer is "Imperial Bedroom".
Also, "Brutal Youth" gets way too little love.

this years model - 35 years old. wow.

If you ignore Spike and put Imperial Bedroom below Blood & Chocolate these results are how I would rate his seven classic albums. Punch The Clock and Brutal Youth are the only albums of his I like, but they're quite patchy.

Man, EC made some good, really original music, and I think the only reason he's not rated higher these days is that he made too much music.

Turning 30 is hard on an EC fan. I have no interest in him now. Maybe after 40...?

Revenge and guilt!.

Armed Forces too low

Brutal Youth should have had more than 0 votes

I'd have thought "Get Happy" would have walked this.

Alfred. Alfred. Goodbye Cruel World shouldn't even be on there - are you challopsing?

My list would probably be

1. My Aim Is True
2. Punch the Clock
3. Almost Blue
4. All This Useless Beauty
5. King of America

6-142. Everything else in no particular order

A "Consumer Guide" style assessment:

My Aim Is True - A+
This Year's Model - A+
Live at the El Mocambo - A
Live at Hollywood High - A
Armed Forces - A+
Get Happy! - A
Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How's Your Fathers - A
Trust - A
Almost Blue - Neither
Imperial Bedroom - A
Punch the Clock - ("Pills and Soap," "Shipbuilding," "Everyday I Write the Book") **
Goodbye Cruel World - dud (though Rhino's bonus disc is an A-)
King of America - A (get a version with bonus tracks like "King of Confidence")
Blood and Chocolate - A
Out of Our Idiot - A-
Spike - ("Tramp the Dirt Down") * (Rhino's bonus disc gets a B+)
Mighty Like a Rose - choice cuts: "The Other Side of Summer," "So Like Candy"
The Juliet Letters - Dud
Brutal Youth - ("Sulky Girl") ***
Kojak Variety - Neither
All This Useless Beauty - B+
Painted from Memory - B+
When I Was Cruel - A-
North - Dud
Il Sogno - Neither (I never saw the ballet it was meant to accompany)
The Delivery Man - ("Country Darkness," "There's a Story in Your Voice," "Monkey to Man") ***
The River in Reverse - ("The River in Reverse," "Ascension Day," "International Echo") *
Momofuku - ("Stella Hurt") *
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane - ("Sulphur to Sugarcane") *
National Ransom - ("Jimmie Standing in the Rain," "Church Underground") **
Wise Up Ghost - B+
Look Now - ("Unwanted Number," "The Final Mrs. Curtain") *

Forgot one:
Costello & Nieve - A (my favorite WB and Universal-era release)

KOA has waaaay too much filler to get A treatment. It's more like one of the most stunning of B+ albums.

I wouldn't fight those grades. KOA has a couple of A+ songs, but sure, it's not one of his absolute best albums. Still, it's remarkable how many great records he has made to still have so many people take him for granted, or worse, dismiss him. There are a handful of acts (weirdly, often in the same orbit) that never really got bad, per se, they just got set aside almost (literally?) carelessly. Costello, Los Lobos, Robert Cray, I dunno, John Hiatt? People obviously still care, but it's not like they released a string of stinkers or something.

I almost gave KOA an A- because of that filler. I went with an A because I never had a version without the outtake "King of Confidence," and I never listened to this on vinyl, so it was very easy to skip over "Glitter Gulch," "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," and "Eisenhower Blues" with little effort. That leaves 12 tracks from the original 15, more than enough for an LP, and slotting in "King of Confidence" would make that baker's dozen an A+ in my book (and possibly my favorite EC album). So an A seemed like a good compromise.

I would say Los Lobos, Robert Cray and John Hiatt were in EC and Nick Lowe's mid-to-late '80s orbit while Graham Parker, Joe Jackson and Marshall Crenshaw felt more like their orbit before then. They're all generally good though Joe Jackson and Robert Cray are a bit iffy - I kind of go back and forth on Cray, but I was stunned to find out that Robert Christgau gave "Strong Persuader" an A+. Greil Marcus's takedown was generally too harsh, but I can't say his criticism's were wrong either. I've warmed to him over time, but he seems like a central part of a "movement" that never actually went anywhere (specifically the back-to-roots scene of the late '80s). Los Lobos made at least one great record in that mold, then they went on to do more interesting work. I think Hiatt's a fine songwriter, and his earlier albums have some good songs on them, but he didn't really make a great record until "Bring the Family."