Elvis Costello Fan Forum

"Puppet" is stellar - another extension of EC in that semi-new and dazzling mode of empathetic sadness. "Haunt" hasn't yet moved me, but it's all early going. Otis, I didn't mean to say the extra songs are "crap" - it was more the booklets, etc., which typically we pay ...

I'm sort of amused by all the problems people are having acquiring their preferred packaging format. In fact I'm a bit disappointed that there seems to be less discussion of the album's splendid contents than of people's aggravation with delivery systems. My own "solution" was to go to the...

With regard to Poor Deportee's observation about the noticeable increase in EC's use of religious (Catholic) imagery, possibly the result Ross passing away, EC was quoted in the Quietus interview recently about Thatcher's dementia: "So, on a human level I'm enough of a good Catholic, residuall...

Well, the Holy Ghost is of course one part of the trinity; one aspect of God on any Catholic or Christian account. And while I haven't parsed the lyrics with care - I'm enjoying the music too much to sit down and pore over the lyrics sheet in these early days - I'm pretty sure one intended implicati...

I can't be the only one whose notices a profusion of religious imagery and references in the new lyrics? I haven't tracked them all, but it seems to me that, while this tendency was always present, it's really integral to the material on this go-round (including on the title track). "If I Could...

Oh, my goodness. I've listened to this thing twice now. Loved it from start to finish, right from the get-go. I actually found myself choking up slightly at one point, because of the bizarre and completely unexpected feeling that THIS is the Elvis whose music I first loved. As counter-intuitive as i...

Moreover, 1980’s Motown- and Stax-obsessed album Get Lucky!! is a career highlight. Quick! Everyone dig out their copies of GET LUCKY!! :lol: Now that WOULD be a brilliant album title for some Costello-savvy ironist. I plan to buy mine at the local suburban HMV...ever the optimist. :roll: They prob...

A lot of talk, in this context, about EC's understandable frustration with the commerical evaporation of this great record. And that's fair. But it's also worth noting that he is hardly the first musician to release terrific work and have it ignored by the broader public; and there might be just a s...

NR represents the culmination of that historical-narrative voice hinted at on TDM and further developed on SP & S - but also an unexpected rediscovery of that spirit of overflowingly joyous creative energy (inspiration!) that we hadn't really seen from EC, at least on record, for the preceding 1...

This is a rare instance of Jack and I completely disagreeing. Well, not completely ; I'll meet him halfway and concede that the first half of the album is mostly pointless, reaching a plodding nadir with the dire "She Handed Me a Mirror." Once the tumbling beauty of "I Dreamed of My O...

Man,these rave reviews - which surpass the respectful critical indifference that greeted most of his recent studio outings - really have my blood pumping for this record!!

Another excellent entry, Connor - capturing both EC's bizarrely tempermental career management (at least in this phase) and the spirit of Momofuku as an off-the-cuff and "old fashioned" Elvis Costello record, in the sense of being nothing more than a collection of pop/rock and roll songs. ...

"The Sharpest Thorn" and "International Echo" always seemed the most memorable of the new numbers to me. I know that I'm in a minority, but as admirable as the intentions behind this record were, I was never 100% comfortable with the spectacle of an Englishman getting up there an...

Thanks as always, Connor! While I don't rate it as a classic, this is unquestionably a strong album. As Connor notes, the "concept" is relatively unobtrusive and therefore avoids the sense of rigour (and confinement) that marked North and PFM. I regard this as a virtue. The muscular chaos ...

North is an impeccable collection of subtly-wrought and in certain cases superb songs (notably "Fallen," which is just magnificent). Equally important is that the singing is finally showing some restraint - he has discovered what he used to know, namely that he needn't bellow like a bad o...

I'd say that, in the case of "45", it's a little more than that. Not to just re-hash my original post, but that first performance on The Tonight Show has some real feeling to it-- he's writing about his parents, his birth, buying that first record, a 7" of "Please Please Me"...

"45"...being as much an exercise as an inspiration I wonder, why such a high price on this "inspiration?" Much great songwriting is "exercise"--execution, consideration, the muscle the individual songwriter brings to the table, and the care he takes in harnessing his c...

Jack has articulated my own position pretty well, so I'll just chime in to echo him. I can understand "blaming the sound" as an explanation for why some of us dislike this record - and it's true that the sound isn't very likeable as a rule, though I have no problem in principle with EC usi...

Haven't listened to this enough to form a cogent judgement - but kudos to Connor for another lively and insightful write-up!

3. Relatedly - and clearly this is a matter of personal preference - I'm seldom a great enthusiast of narrow writing boxes (i.e., de facto or de jure "concept" albums). PFM and North both restrict themselves to a very narrow range of subject matter - in effect, romantic songs - and I find...

It's a strong record, certainly. As with North , I tend to "respect" it more than I really enjoy it (although I prefer this to North ). The reasons for my own inability to love the album are threefold: 1. It's another entry, it seems to me, into EC's canon of "1990s oversinging."...

Connor has clearly given us all a gift with this thread. I'm now coming on here daily, with interest to see the latest developments in the conversation, whereas before I merely dipped in and out. He's really upped the forum's game, so to speak. On this issue of personal preference, etc....my own vie...

Now does begin some fun times- I still can remember passing by the door of J&R Music and seeing on a plaquard outside that a new exclusive box set was for sale upstairs for $7.99 for EC. Was not even aware at the time of its issuance. Went upstairs and purchased it and have never regretted it t...

On the other thing: I don't have the stamina to get back into an argument that I've engaged several times over the years - I find, ultimately, that there is no point in arguing with people who po-facedly insist that there is no meaningful aesthetic distinction to be made between Mozart and a musical...

Poor Deportee wrote: There seems to be something too forgiving in the listener who can't hear that "This is Hell" drags or that "Sci Fi Twin" bogs down in its melodically incoherent pre-chorus/chorus, for instance. Again, different strokes-- I'm never fully comfortable phrasing ...