Category Archives: costello weekends

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Song of the Day #932: ‘Clown Strike’ – Elvis Costello

In 1994, a year after The Juliet Letters, Elvis Costello released his most rocking album since 1986’s Blood & Chocolate. Not coincidentally, it was also his first album since Blood & Chocolate recorded with The Attractions.

That album, Brutal Youth, is the best thing Costello recorded in the 90s, a decade that saw him jumping all over the map artistically. I rank Brutal Youth in the second tier of great Costello albums, below my holy trinity but in the mix with great records such as Trust and This Year’s Model.

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Song of the Day #927: ‘I Almost Had a Weakness’ – Elvis Costello

Befitting its chamber music orchestration, The Juliet Letters contains quite a few sad songs. But Costello does find room for a couple of funny ones.

Among those is ‘I Almost Had a Weakness,’ a caustic letter from a dying aunt to the suddenly sycophantic relatives who would lay claim to her fortune.

I’ve often wondered what the songs from this album would sound like done in a more traditional fashion, with, say, The Attractions backing Costello instead of The Brodsky Quartet. I assume he’s played at least a few of these songs in concert over the years, but I don’t own any of those recordings.

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Song of the Day #926: ‘The First to Leave’ – Elvis Costello

Two years after Mighty Like a Rose, Elvis Costello took his biggest musical detour yet, releasing an album recorded with the backing of The Brodsky String Quartet.

1993’s The Juliet Letters wasn’t a pop album with strings, it was a suite composed for strings and vocals. And if Costello’s voice sometimes had to strain to hit the operatic notes he composed, so be it.

Costello got the idea to write an album of correspondence after hearing a story about a professor in Verona who took it upon himself to answer the many letters still addressed to Shakespeare’s Juliet that reach the Italian town. That story gave the album its title, though the Juliet connection shows up on just a couple of songs. The rest take the form of letters of one sort or another, including a piece of junk mail.

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Song of the Day #920: ‘So Like Candy’ – Elvis Costello

In the late 80s, Elvis Costello struck up a songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney that proved successful for both men.

Among their compositions were McCartney’s hit ‘My Brave Face,’ from his Flowers in the Dirt album and Costello’s hit ‘Veronica,’ which appeared on Spike.

Critics liked to draw a comparison between Costello and John Lennon, saying that McCartney was at his best when his saccharine tendencies (and unparalleled gift for melody) were paired with a more cynical and downbeat partner. And while Costello/McCartney never really approached the quality of Lennon/McCartney, it was by all accounts a successful pairing.

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Song of the Day #919: ‘The Other Side of Summer’ – Elvis Costello

It seems like I just started the Elvis Costello Weekends. I can’t believe I’ve already arrived at Mighty Like a Rose, his 1991 follow-up to Spike.

I consider this album the bridge between Costello’s classic years and the more wide-ranging experimental work he did later in his career. And I guess the real surprise is that this album is now nearly 20 years old, and he’s recorded more albums since its release than he did beforehand.

It’s not the Elvis Costello Weekends that are moving quickly… it’s my whole life!

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