Elvis Costello called Goodbye Cruel World his “worst album” in one reissue, but in a future release he amended that sentiment to call it “the worst record that I could have made of a decent bunch of songs.”

The argument for that perspective is made by the inclusion of demo and alternate versions of almost all of the Goodbye Cruel World tracks in vastly different arrangements, and indeed the album that could have been is far better than the album that eventually was.

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