For fans of Elvis Costello, the past few years have been some of the most rewarding and the most trying of his career. He embarked on a lengthy world tour with keyboard comrade Steve Nieve in 1999, which included a jaw-dropping set in St. Louis. With few exceptions, all in attendance were transformed by his mastery, humor and humility as he ran through 40 of his finest songs in the unadorned American Theater.
But while Costello’s live efforts were worth the wait, his album output has tapered off from his usual efficiency (he has released nearly 20 studio albums since 1977). 1998’s Painted from Memory collaboration with Burt Bacharach was well-received and a healthy about-face from his usual output, but it left fans hungry for pure Elvis.
This year Costello acted as producer, songwriter and occasional performer for many of the tracks on For the Stars by Swedish opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter. He has promised a true rock album sometime soon, but his many followers will not be sated.
Enter Rhino Records. The reissue magnate has begun reissuing 17 Elvis Costello albums, covering the years 1977-1996.
Along with remastered sound and attractive packaging, each album is coupled with a full disc of B-sides, demos and rare recordings. Add newly-discovered photographs and extensive liner notes by the man himself, and you’ve got a reissue package worthy of the snootiest music snobs.
The reissue series begins, suitably, with Costello’s 1977 debut My Aim Is True. Still regarded as one of the finest debut albums in music history, the album Aim remains one of Costello’s strongest and most revered records. It includes his signature song “Alison” and arguably his finest song “The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes.” Aim’s success and longevity comes from Costello’s ability to take the fervor and immediacy of punk and place it into artfully crafted songs.
The bonus disc contains such nuggets as newly-uncovered demo versions of “Living in Paradise” and “No Action” as well as a live version of the Bacharach/David weeper “I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself.”
The rest of the tracks, like the peerless “Radio Sweetheart,” were released with Rykodisc’s reissue of MAIT in 1993, so the only criticism of this collection is that there may not be enough new goodies. Regardless, Rhino’s beefed-up My Aim Is True deserves a place of honor in any respectable record collection.
The next album to be reissued treatment is 1989’s Spike. This was Costello’s first record without The Attractions, his band since 1978. The result is a brilliantly disjointed collection, featuring such guest stars as Paul McCartney, Roger McGuinn and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Spike features “Veronica,” Costello’s biggest single, and equally deserving tracks like “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror” and “Baby Plays Around.” He deftly covers styles from `60s rock to traditional Celtic to New Orleans boogie, making Spike his most diverse record to date.
Of the 17 tracks on Spike’s adjoining disc, 12 of them are demos from the album proper. Whereas Spike can get cluttered amidst all the orchestration, these recordings allow for a simpler listen. Also included are a tripped-out version of Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good” and the Goffin/King great “Point of No Return.”
The final album in this set of reissues is 1996’s All This Useless Beauty, which was Costello’s last album with the Warner Brothers label and last with the reformed Attractions. Overlooked in it’s time, ATUB deserves to be placed along side some of his best work.
It begins with one of Costello’s best heartbreaks, “The Other End of the Telescope,” which contains the seering couplets, “And it’s so hard to pick the receiver up when I call/ I never noticed you could be so small/ The answer was under your nose/ but the question never arose.”
Costello remains a jack of all trades on Beauty, as the Byrdsian jangle of “You Bowed Down” moves into the trip-hop of “It’s Time” and settles on the string-laden sorrow of “I Want to Vanish,” effortlessly and seamlessly.
While not as accessible and catchy as some of Costello’s earlier work, All This Useless Beauty finds Elvis as a self-assured artist, invincible to public opinion without being ignorant to new musical trends.
Beauty’s bonus disc is the best of the three, collecting such stray tunes as “My Dark Life” with Brian Eno and “The Bridge I Burned,” Elvis’ tribute to Prince’s “Pop Life.” Also included is a demo version of “The World’s Great Optimist,” an early version of a song that co-author Aimee Mann included on her 1999 opus Bachelor No. 2.
Rhino’s reissues of these three excellent albums reaffirms his depth and ability as rock’s transcendent troubadour. Pick up one of Elvis’ masterpieces and start your obsession today.
