Tag Archives: Little Atoms

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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 #1,017: ‘Little Atoms’ – Elvis Costello

I’ve been lucky enough to see Elvis Costello in concert four times. Every one of the shows was simply amazing.

The first was on Halloween night, 1999, in Sunrise, Florida, and like the SOTD’s from yesterday and today, it featured just Costello on guitar and Steve Nieve on piano. The 39-song (!) set list is posted here and I believe it might have been submitted to that site by my cousin (though certainly there were other “Heathers” who attended the show).

Song #39 on that list, ‘Couldn’t Call it Unexpected No. 4,’ was delivered “off mic” by Costello in one of the most intimate moments I’ve ever witnessed at a live concert. He was about ten feet away, belting out the song with no accompaniment.

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