Elvis Costello Fan Forum

I'm mildly alarmed that the 'pornographer' look is winning this thing :lol: But I just knew the 'North' look would get at leasy one vote. I agree that 'look' has become less important, in direct correlation to the decline of EC's commercial ambitions. Young, ambitious artists tend to be aware of the...

It's possible to read too much in, though. 'With the way you look,' might just refer to a contemptuous look , you know; 'it isn't mine' could refer to her lovin' , which is after all the main topic of the sentence...'I can't stand to see you this way,' etc., could just refer to the (supposedly) path...

Inspired by the 'Elvis's new look' thread Selected 'looks' mostly drawn from album covers and such...

I'm no expert, but the 'Motown Sound' thing applied to this record was a bad joke; EC sounds just like the newly post-New Wave skinny white boy he was (he's still white, natch, but skinny, wellll....) Not that I mind - the album is searingly brilliant pop music - but allusion does not a sound make. ...

Brilliant, speed-driven incisive songwriting - absolutely classic. But what's with the awful, tinny production???

1. I Want You
2. Suit of Lights
3. When I Was Cruel No. 2
4. This Sad Burlesque
5. Beyond Belief

Honourable mention: Big Sister's Clothes

On a less grave note...

Ah, for the days when a new EC record was an EVENT to be anxiously covered by the music press, and analyzed and probed by critics as something of major importance to pop. Somewhere around 'The Juliet Letters' EC lost that kind of currency. Oh, well.

See my sig.

A fine album indeed. It could have been a GREAT record except for the dismal opening track - a song that is guilty of everything for which the critics attacked the album - and a certain sameness to many of the songs (e.g., the nearly identical piano chords that gently open several of the tracks). It...

Is that BBC interview available online someplace? I remember seeing, like, an hour-long discussion with EC about Spike where he brought just his guitar along and sang some songs, slagged Thatcher, etc. I assume that's the same thing. I'm sentimental about it, because I had just discovered his music ...

'Spike' is close to being a brilliant record. Indeed, I rather wish he had continued on the path of making such eclectic records instead of pursuing each musical genre on its own, in self-contained 'concept' albums. For all that people criticise it, there's at least a half dozen truly spectacular tu...

I think Trust is a real tank of a record, but 'Get Happy!!' will stand as the ultimate testament to the brilliance and fecundity of Costello's speed-driven youth, so it gets my vote.

Man, I'm in CANADA and can't access this either. Free trade indeed.

But I certainly wouldn't want anyone to put up a link to a pirated version. Cough. That would be WRONG. And if you know of such a thing, please give us the link so that we can know to avoid it.

Cool. Now can an Elvis-Englebert Humnperdink collaboration be far behind?

Human Hands! Now there's an under-appreciated gem. That's one that's absolutely crying out for a cover (preferably one omitting the cheesy synthesizer flourish after the chorus). Good call.

Yeah, but any reviewer that gives Kojak Variety four stars has to be considered dubious...surely.

If any of the records listed has a crack at greatness, it's The Delivery Man, in my opinion. Unlike some hereabouts, I love its bass-heavy sound (and whaddaya mean, the new guy sucks? Dig the bass on 'Button My Lip'). EC is in great voice, the songwriting is very strong. But the album is flawed by t...

Hmmm. Well, I'm NOT American. I'm Canadian. And I think that when Americans do things in (or to) the rest of the world - e.g., invading Iraq in violation of international law - that is of course everyone's business and fair game for attack. After all, it affects us all. I just find it impertinent to...

I've been thinking about this for a while... The politics of 'River in Reverse' bother me. Now don't get me wrong, of course I agree that the US government behaved horrendously, as did the some of the media; I agree that the ineffectual response was the logical outcome of decades of gutting the Amer...

"Monkey to Man" was a truly infectious pop tune that should have been a hit. It had a hilarious video to boot. That it wasn't a hit proves to me that EC simply does not register on the consciousness of music programmers for radio or TV. And that's the real key, surely. As much as EC waxes ...

Great as in, one for the ages - as most people see his first three.

Help me out here, guys. I loved Ron's first three records, and enjoyed the Steve Earle one, but did NOT care for 'Cobblestone Runway' even after repeated listenings. Partly it was the intrusive (and in my view, frequently stupid) production ethic; but also the songs showed a marked turn towards lyri...

Well, I can see both sides on this one - mostly because only about half of the album is really grabbing me. 'Clubland' is execrable, maybe the worst thing EC has committed to disc in recent years: a great example of him actually being guilty of what hostile critics charge him with, namely losing the...

Well, it's not that I'm looking for EC to 'recapture the [perverse] magic' etc.. I think that persona is pretty much done - whenever he revisits it, as with, say, 'Alibi,' the attempt tends to fall short of the complexity of what he was doing back in the day and inches toward flat self-satire. More ...

How come there hasn't been any engagement with the SUBSTANCE of this book on this site (at least not as far as I can tell)? What Bruno's anaylsis crystallized for me was the degree to which the early, molten-hot phase of EC's career was dominated by a singular point of view - a combination of loathi...