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.
Some had been recorded by other artists, some had been turned down, some were written new for the album… the whole concept was kind of half-baked from the start. The important thing was that Costello was back with a new batch of original material, keeping up the enviable pace of one release per year that he’d maintained since his debut.
I’m taking another break between Elvis Costello weeks, but he’s managed to sneak in anyway. Today’s song, a snappy number from Jenny Lewis’ latest album 
A year after The Juliet Letters, Costello’s most adventurous album to date, he reunited with The Attractions and put out what critics hailed as a return to old-school form.
OK, when an artist’s new release is a concept album about written correspondence performed entirely with a string quartet, he’s admittedly opening himself up to charges of pretentiousness. So yes, The Juliet Letters is sort of by definition a pretentious album.
Probably the most notable thing about Costello’s next album, Mighty Like a Rose, is the monstrous beard he grew to accompany its release. Costello says he grew the beard to get through an Irish winter and kept it around because it irritated people so much.
Meet Me In Montauk 