Costello put all of his recent vocal training to good use on his next release, a collection of crooner ballads written with Burt Bacharach. This is far and away the squarest release of his career — even The Juliet Letters feels like punk next to this one.
But it’s definitely a solid song collection. Songs such as ‘Toledo,’ ‘This House is Empty Now,’ ‘In the Darkest Place’ and today’s Song of the Day are right up there with Costello’s best solo work. My biggest fault with Painted From Memory is the production, which is much heavier on the Bacharach than the Costello. The backing vocals alone make this a rather labored listen.
Costello followed Brutal Youth with Kojak Variety, a forgettable covers collection that felt more like a contractual obligation than a new Elvis Costello album. But a year later he was back with the strong All This Useless Beauty, an elegant collection of songs he’d mostly written for other people.
It’s always strange to watch a film set in a place or milieu with which you have intimate familiarity. I remember seeing the Kevin Costner thriller No Way Out when I lived outside of Washington D.C. and the whole crowd murmuring when he hopped on a non-existent Georgetown Metro stop.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but there are few albums that throw me back in time as effectively as Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely. That baby is a time machine… I pop it in and crank the dial back to 1982 where a 10-year-old boy sits in a North Miami house thick with the delicious aroma of wine and London broil. 
Witness UK’s album Under a Sun was a serendipitous find. Years ago, it was playing while I browsed a used CD shop and after hearing three songs I walked up to the counter and told the guy I wanted to buy it. If that guy hadn’t opted to play that CD at that moment, I’m sure I never would have heard of this band in my life.
