I wonder if at some point an artist can release too many albums, too many songs.
I don’t mean that in the sense of running out of steam, though that is certainly the case for some long tenured musicians (The Rolling Stones, for example, who continue to record despite their best work being 40 years behind them).
No, I mean just the opposite. What if an artist releases strong, resonant material year after year, until he has 32 studio albums and countless compilations of B-sides and live tracks. What’s a fan to do?
I’m referring, of course, to Elvis Costello, the writer and performer of today’s SOTD. ‘My Three Sons’ is a lovely track from 2008’s Momofuku, and it’s probably about the 200th song I’d name if asked to write down every Costello track I could think of.
The man has churned out so many songs over the years that it’s hard to wrap my brain around, let alone my ears. Where do you start when you want to listen to Elvis Costello? Do you fall back on the old favorites (in my case, King of America, Imperial Bedroom and Get Happy!!)? Pull out the most recent release (Wise Up Ghost)? Or give a spin to a solid B+ of an album (too many to list, from Brutal Youth and All This Useless Beauty to Armed Forces and, yes, Momofuku)?
I almost dread a new Elvis Costello album because I know it will have to compete with everything else he’s ever recorded, and I know that means less time for all of them. Good problem to have, I guess.
Almost sounded like a warning
Wind was rushing through the trees almost roaring
I never thought that I’d become
The proud father of
My three sons
Here’s a fragment
Between the shame and the sentiment
For all the years that I might have been absent
I can’t do what can’t be undone
Oh no, my three sons
I love you more than I can say
What I give to one
The other cannot take away
I bless the day you came to be
With everything that is left to me
Here’s your pillow
Go to sleep and I will follow
May you never have any more sorrows
That’s not something you can count upon
Still I want it for my three sons
My my
My three sons
Deep in the night I turn cold and sick
But I only curse arithmetic
I bless the day that you came to be
With everything that is left to me
Day is closing
Old men and infants are dozing
That’s the kind of life I’ve chosen
Just see what I’ve become
The humble father of my three sons
The humbled father of my three sons
Meet Me In Montauk 
I empathize with your dilemma, as I often feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of good music with which I know I have not even a passing familiarity. Initially, I was going to say that it’s simplest to just gravitate to the favorites (I’d add Spike to Imperial Bedroom and King of America), but I’m so enjoying today’s SOTD that I realize that much wonderful music would be missed if one were to take that approach. Ultimately, I guess you just listen to what you can listen to, enjoy it and try not to think about all that you’re missing.
Meanwhile… really loving this song, baby cries and all. 🙂
Not sure if Amy realizes that the baby cries are just in the video, not the song.😄
Anyway, as to your dilemma of too much music, either generally or from one prolific artist like Costello, I too empathize. Perhaps ironically given that this song and discussion comes to us from the random iTunes fairy, one way I try to solve the problem is to just listen to my entire collection on shuffle, generously skipping over tracks I don’t feel like hearing. That method, over rime, allows me to discover, or rediscover, tracks from all sorts of artists and albums.
Having said that, however, I will make an exception for a new album, playing it straight through, usually more than once, before it gets put into the massive general rotation of my collection.