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.
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.
Meet Me In Montauk 