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.
The songs, for the most part, aren’t as memorable as Costello’s facial hair. About half of the 14 tracks are forgettable and the rest are just a little bit above average. But there is one major exception. The album’s final track, a circus hymn with the oddball title ‘Couldn’t Call It Unexpected No. 4,’ could well be my favorite Elvis Costello song of all time.
Following the double dip in 1986, Costello waited three years to put out his next album. During that time he signed with Warner Brothers and, as he tells it in the liner notes of Spike, was given a boatload of cash to make his next album. As a result, Costello writes, he took the five potential albums swimming around in his head and put them all out as one.
In a move that’s pretty much unheard of these days, Costello followed up King of America the same year with another stellar album, Blood & Chocolate.
If Punch the Clock and Goodbye Cruel World were steps back, the album that followed them, King of America is a huge leap forward. And that’s an understatement.
In the liner notes of a reissued CD of Goodbye Cruel World, Elvis Costello starts off with this encouraging sentiment: “Congratulations! You just bought the worst album of my career.”
Meet Me In Montauk 