Tag Archives: Elvis Costello

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Song of the Day #6,403: ‘Little Atoms’ – Elvis Costello

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1996…

#6 – All This Useless Beauty – Elvis Costello

It’s a testament to the genius of Elvis Costello that this album, one I’m probably rank in the bottom half of his discography, is easily one of the best releases of its year.

All This Useless Beauty started as a project compiling Costello’s recordings of songs he’d written for other artists. About half of its final tracklist fits that description, including songs written for the likes of ‘Til Tuesday, Johnny Cash, Roger McGuinn, and June Tabor.

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Song of the Day #6,303: ‘Poisoned Rose’ – Elvis Costello

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…

#3 – King of America – Elvis Costello

Last week I noted that Blood & Chocolate was one of two great albums Elvis Costello released in 1986. The other, King of America, might be the best thing he’s ever done.

Costello has had a prolific and wide-ranging career, dipping his toe in every conceivable genre and teaming up with a laundry list of unlikely collaborators. But I’ll be boring and say the early to mid-80s remains the high point of his impressive catalog. My three favorite Castello albums — Get Happy!!, Imperial Bedroom, and this one — all came out during that span.

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Song of the Day #6,298: ‘Crimes of Paris’ – Elvis Costello

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…

#6 – Blood & Chocolate – Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello had such a good 80s run that my #6 album of 1986 was just his second-best release that year. I’ll get to the other one next week.

After a series of genre exercises (country, baroque pop, 60s soul, New Wave, Americana), Blood & Chocolate was a muscular rock-n-roll album, Costello’s first since 19878’s This Year’s Model. When Costello snarls out the album’s title in the opening moments of first track ‘Uncomplicated’ to the strains of an aggressive electric guitar, you know you’re in for a wild ride.

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Song of the Day #6,000: ‘I Know (Live)’ – Elvis Costello

With apologies to Duran Duran, whose ‘The Wild Boys‘ would have been today’s Throwback Weekend selection, I’m suspending my usual programming to acknowledge another milestone for the blog.

Today is my 6,000th post, a number that frankly feels a little obscene. Have I really been doing this every day for 16 1/2 years? Apparently so.

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Song of the Day #5,280: ‘Hidden Shame (Demo)’ – Elvis Costello

‘Hidden Shame,’ heard here in demo form as included on Elvis Costello’s reissue of the 1996 album All This Useless Beauty, was originally written by Costello for Johnny Cash. Costello wrote a few songs for Cash, including ‘Complicated Shadows,’ one of Beauty‘s main tracks.

Cash never recorded ‘Complicated Shadows’ but he did record this one, on a 1990 album titled Boom Chicka Boom. That album — his 76th! — also included a cover of Harry Chapin’s ‘Cat’s in the Cradle.’

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