LOOK NOW on 8 7" 45's box set coming 2/22

[Hawksmoor]

There is also nothing here to indicate that these new tracks won't also show up on all the usual streaming sites. American Tune/Lucky Dog was a pricey 10" vinyl collectible but also popped up on Spotify roughly the same time.

Fair point. If the additional tracks turn up on iTunes (or other sites from which you can legitimately purchase music), I'll be there like a shot. 99p a throw, no worries. You know what, if EC decided to put these four tracks online as a purchasable EP for £10, yeah, I'd probably do it. I'm a self-confessed Elvis Costello collector, so sure, paying a few quid over-the-going-rate, that's what I do.

But £90 for sixteen tracks I already own, four new tracks and some nicely-designed cardboard? Sorry mate, can't justify that to the family any more. That's a new winter coat and shoes for the wife.

[IbMePdErRoIoAmL]

There is also nothing here to indicate that these new tracks won't also show up on all the usual streaming sites. American Tune/Lucky Dog was a pricey 10" vinyl collectible but also popped up on Spotify roughly the same time.

True. But the "Bright Blue Times" 10" is considerably rarer &, as far as I know, has never legitimately shown up elsewhere. And the live 10" in the Super-Duper-Extra-Expensive Spectacular Singing Songbook has never been made otherwise available.

Elvis has been down this "exclusive/rare" release road throughout his career. He (& Jake, I assume) concocted all sorts of gimmicks to move singles & drum up hype for "rare" promos since the beginning of his career. Each of us must make our own decisions relative the value of the item versus the cost. These things aren't essential... no one's ever died from not hearing a particular recording.

Having said that, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some of these new tunes showed up on or around Record Store Day. I'm just hoping against hope that one of these new recordings is "Go Tell (Your Quiet Sister)."

[Ymaginatif]

I'd buy the super super superdeluxe edition (I enjoy paraphernalia, especially when they're signed), but I fear the import duties on that for delivery to the UK would knock me sideways ...

[Arbogast]

Greed.

[jardine]

Whose greed, though? Those who impose import duties on an object you can only get by importing it? Elvis? his label? This is, no doubt about it, an extravagant thing. And it looks like there is elaborate art work, etc. involved. It is all expensively done...i hope so, anyway for the price being charged. I mentioned way up in this thread that i hoped for more of e.c.s artwork and it looks like that is involved in the sleeves and design.

[A rope leash]

For the Elvis fan that has everything!

...and museums!

[jardine]

i actually like elvis's artwork and am glad to have more of it

[verbal gymnastics]

It’s not a matter of life and death
What is, what is...?

Go for it if it floats your boat and don’t worry if it doesn’t.

[jardine]

"Go for it if it floats your boat and don’t worry if it doesn’t."

Perhaps this should have read "Go for it if it floats your boat and don’t worry if it don’t." One might then say, however, "spare us the theatrics and the verbal gymnastics," which, of course, puts us right back to where we started. Oh, and, yes, this is good advice and this is a [rather obscure] joke I'm trying to make, mainly about myself. After all, I'm the guy waiting for a nice hardcover book of Elivs's art anyway, so what do i know?

[cwr]

In the not very distant future
When everything will be free
There won't be any cute secrets
Let alone any novelty

We all get annoyed by different things-- I certainly was at my peak of disenchantment back in like 2007 when EC was talking about never making records again and all that talk really got under my skin, for some reason. A waste of energy on my part, in hindsight, given that he was about to put out 3 big albums in a row.

Even during the relatively "quiet" years of this decade, we still got a lot of great concerts and recording projects. But I feel it more now, the idea that a new Costello record hits me harder as an event to be celebrated. (It always has been, for me, but in these past few years, it has hit me harder how quickly things can go from the excitement of a new Bowie album to, that very same weekend, the sadness of it immediately becoming Bowie's last album.)

I don't need this new box. But it's a fun thing, and I'm excited about it. And I'm lucky enough at the moment to be able to afford an indulgence like this and not feel TOO big of a pinch relative to how much pleasure it will bring me to own it.

At the same time, if this had happened a few years earlier, at a different moment, I might be unable to buy it and would be hoping to at least hear the 4 new songs, which would either happen via legitimate means or, if that wasn't an option, via the generosity of another EC fan making me copies (either via cassette in the 90s or via file transfer more recently.)

I don't think it's greed. I think it's a deluxe edition designed for fans who are into this sorta thing, in a marketplace where most people don't buy music in a physical format anymore but some still do, and those people tend to be really into it. It's designed for roughty a thousand of us, and 50 more who are SUPER into it (for the test pressings).

[bobbydriver]

I don't get how there can be no UK-based webshop for this?

It's prohibitively expensive to order from the UK and get hosed down by the customs fees

[sulky lad]

Looking at tours and releases , I think it’s safe to assume we aren’t the primary target audience in Elvis’ view of the world of merchandising and promotion anymore- all this and no surprises !

[verbal gymnastics]

We haven’t been for quite a while.

[jardine]

I'd be interested in who you think his target audience might be, e.g., with Look Now. Hard to imagine, for me at least, who it might be other than me/us, so to speak. But I don't have any idea, either, of how well his stuff sells.

[migdd]

I'd venture to guess that his target audience is whoever wants to book him.