Elvis's last great album

[alexv]

Painted from Memory is it for me, EC's last "great" record. That one gets an asterisk, because of BB. His last great individual effort is, IMO, KOA. I agree with those who despise WIWC. Can't stand it. Can I add a "near great" category? After we all love EC, and near great EC is plenty good for me. I really like Brutal Youth, and about half of North. I don't know why, but for me Brutal Youth is to late-EC what Punch the Clock is to early-EC: a fun record with lots of poppy songs, maybe with some production issues but who cares.

[Ypsilanti]

More and more I think I just see Costello as a completely different artist to the rest of you.

Jeremy,
That applies to me also and I think you and I have a couple of things in common--we both lean toward the later work and we both didn't hear most of the earlier work in "real time". We missed that moment when Elvis first exploded--probably has a huge impact on the way we see his work as a whole.

[migdd]

My view of Costello's work is similar to Jeremy's. While I love the Attractions, I feel they may have held EC back towards the end of their first run, which is one of the reason's KOA remains my favorite Costello album. We've all gotten acclimated to Elvis' excursions through the musical landscape but, for me, KOA was the first time (and maybe the best) Costello really made a record that substantially broke down the borders of both his perceived "image" and his musical versatility. It's a great album from beginning to end.

Of his latter albums, The Delivery Man far outdistances the others. It's a great batch of songs (maybe not quite as substantial as KOA as a whole) and the band doesn't miss a beat with the arrangements. The supposed "concept" of the delivery man doesn't exist for me when I listen to the record these days; it's just a collection of very good to great songs, played with gusto by the Imposters.

Like others have mentioned, I expect the next album (American Ransom - or at least that's the rumored title) to be another perfect storm. Unlike SP&S, it doesn't look to be a hodgepodge of songs but rather a collection of new, well-rehearsed and (most importantly) road-proven songs written as a collection during a finite time frame. This is the first time in several years (since TDM) that the songs have been road-tested prior to the recording of the album. That makes a big difference in the recording of the songs since the musicians have a better feel for the changes and dynamics of the songs and are not second-guessing the arrangements during the recording process, often allowing for greater bursts of spontanaeity in the studio. All of the songs we've heard over the past year or so have been top-notch and hopefully, they will comprise the bulk of the new album. It's also exciting to think of the possibilities of the the mix of musicians that are to perform on the album. The possible combinations of musicians serving any given song are somewhat mind-boggling. Can't wait to hear the results.

The last great album? Probably the next one.

[wordnat]

THE LOVED ONES
Imperial Bedroom
Get Happy!!
King of America

ALMOST IDEAL EYES
All This Useless Beauty
This Year’s Model
Armed Forces
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane
The Juliet Letters
The Delivery Man
Blood & Chocolate
Momofuku
Trust
My Aim is True

BRILLIANT MISTAKE(s)
Brutal Youth
When I was Cruel
Painted from Memory
The River in Reverse

THIS IS HELL
North
Punch the Clock
Spike
Goodbye Cruel World
Mighty Like a Rose
Il Sogno

LESS THAN ZERO
Almost Blue
Kojack Variety
For the Stars

[Neil.]

The idea of the sequenced album is all over, so the idea of a 'great' album is no longer relevant, but if we must, then Brutal Youth does it for me.

I love so many songs on the later albums, though, that I think the idea of a great album is irrelevant - a blip in popular music history. The song's the thing - the single song - and Elvis continues to pump out song after amazing song, whether they're set within a deliberate sequence of other songs, or not (not, in the case of the ipod shuffle generation).

Elv continues to satisfy right up to his most recent songs on tour - I can't wait for American Ransom, which I too have high hopes for (and which I will listen to in the sequence the artist planned - even though I know the sequenced album is dead and buried).

[Jeremy Dylan]

While we may debate his last great album, I think we can all agree this was his last great commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztG3zQhEyKs

[Jack of All Parades]

Not so certain your premise is valid, Neil. Were it dead we would only have singles and the last time I checked albums are still being released and in a sequence and which I still purchase. That you may choose to "Shuffle" the playing order once you have transferred the tunes to your player is your prerogative. The artist still released it in a sequence including our "beloved entertainer'.

"I love so many songs on the later albums, though, that I think the idea of a great album is irrelevant - a blip in popular music history. The song's the thing - the single song - and Elvis continues to pump out song after amazing song, whether they're set within a deliberate sequence of other songs, or not (not, in the case of the ipod shuffle generation)."

Am having difficulty making sense of your statement here- you seem to want it both ways. Is the album dead and the singular song supreme or is it the other way or is it a mixture of both?
For that matter why cannot it be a "great album" of individual songs that an artist releases? I would also hardly classify 60 to 70 years as a 'blip' in popular music history. Most confusing.

[chickendinna]

For me it depends on what time frame we're talking about. If this is about his entire career, then perhaps it's Blood and Chocolate.But if we want to go back only 10 or 15 years ago into what is either pahse 2 or 3 his career(or maybe phase 4 or 5 ) then I'd have to say it's The Delivery Man. I skip over less of the songs and I find it more cohesive and consistently enjoyable than his other recent work. I'm a serious fan who's loved him since I picked up a copy of MAIT at Odyssey Records the day it was released.But I have to say the Elvis of this last phase hasn't made a disc that I've loved from beginning to end like his albums up until Punch the Clock ( TDM is close). I understand,he's an artist.They all go through peaks and valleys. Dylan comes to mind when I think of someone who's had a very nice career renaissance into his 4th or 5th decade of doing this. It's not to say I haven't enjoyed his recent work but it's hard to compare the quality of Momofuku against Armed Forces or SP& S to KOA.He's a different person now and I know it may not be fair to compare, but he's still accountable for his art.

[Ypsilanti]

It's so weird--as usual I'm out of step. I see TDM is getting a ton of love, and while I consider it a worthy effort--it has a lot of good things going for it--the quality of the musicianship, the urgency of the playing, so much "bite" in the vocals, a lot of awesome songs--there are a few songs I don't really like so much (Button My Lip, Nothing Clings Like Ivy, She's Pulling Out The Pin), and as a result I don't play it very often.

On the other hand, I'm crazy about every song on WIWC (with the possible exception of Episode of Blonde--but it's growing on me). I love the complexity of the arrangements--the horns are nothing short of spectacular. I love Elvis' "dirty" guitar & the use of the vocal sample on WIWC #2. There are great lyrics throughout the record. Overall, it tells a compelling story about becoming middle-aged, traveling around the world while his marriage breaks up & feeling alienated from contemporary culture & media. Plus, the sound is such a departure--it's so danceable. But it's better than that--it's like a demonstration of what club music could be if it were made by people with actual talent & skill--who knew how play instruments and write arrangements--for real, rather than just turning on a drum machine and singing into Auto-tune.

Of course, this is all merely opinion and personal taste (not sure why my personal taste is always 180 degrees from everyone else, though). Not being a musicologist or an historian looking back from 100 years in the future, I don't really feel qualified to anoint any album as "great", or any one as being "greater" than another--obviously, what I think is great, others may think of as total crap.

I will say, however, Elvis is making a truly great career for himself and has created a great body of work which will last way beyond any of our lifetimes. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

[Poor Deportee]

Christopher, you mention The Band as a precursor to Elvis's 'historical' writing. I hadn't thought about the parallels, but you're bang on, obviously, that The Band were a major force in what's now called 'Americana' and a huge influence on EC. Having said that, I'm not so sure that the name of the game is for Elvis to write songs analogous to those of The Band (which seems, if I'm reading you right, to be the definition of what he should be striving for in this mode of writing). There are huge differences between their respective approaches to historical material, and I think that's as it should be.

In the first place, EC's musical pallette is quite distinct - his melodies are often more elegantly meandering, almost old-worldly in tone, The Band's are closer to rhythm-and-blues motifs usually. But more importantly, the lyrical tones are completely different. First, The Band tended to tell straightforward and general portraits of archetypes from the past: the Civil War soldier, dissolute drunks, etc.. EC is building rather more elaborate stories around actual historical figures - e.g.,the exact moment of PT Barnum's transition from profiteering showman to leader in the emancipation movement, Jenny Lind's American tour (and, if I read 'She Was No Good' correctly, some imagined atrocity - a rape? - that occured on a riverboat). This accounts for the much greater level of picturesque detail that leads to a quite different effect. 'How Deep Is The Red'...it only makes sense if you're willing to enter into the mental landscape of a deeply Christian believer for whom the answer to the mystery of their own suffering (the loss of the loved on in war) is somehow contained in the mystery of Christ's death. I can't see The Band doing anything so specific and literary.

There's also an essential class distinction between EC's operative characters and those of The Band. The people of SP&S are markedly middle- to upper-middle class, most of them, or else (in the case of 'I Dreamed of My Old Lover') possibly one of those southern dames with middlebrow airs (Geraldine). The Band's characters are more in the way of proletariat and lumpenproletariat....ordinary folks, and worse. Intentionally or otherwise, this means that the more literate and sometimes piously Victorian tones of EC's lyrics on that record are a much better fit than The Band's more plain-spoken lyrics would be. 'I Dreamed of My Old Lover' really does read like a Victorian or Edwardian journal entry might. In short, EC's lyrics on this record are like entering into some elaborate, Tolstoy-ish historical novel, which is why I use the (possibly inappropriate) adjective 'baroque' to try to capture what they're doing. It's a whole other sort of character pool and storytelling technique from what usually goes in 'Americana.' If you are looking for something more plain-spoken, more country and western from EC, or more like The Band, then of course songs 7-13 on SP & S, with a couple of exceptions, ring false.

That's why I say he seems to be onto something fairly unique in popular music as far as I know. I think we need to be open to the possibility that he's onto something new here - whether we like it or not is another question - rather than regard him as failing to meet the established standards of The Band, or Dylan, or whoever.

[Jack of All Parades]

Need a deep breadth, both for the overtime in the World Cup and for your marvelous, balanced and judicious post.

My offering of The Band as a template is just that a template or guide. You adroitly point out the many varied disparities between these two artists. I am most conscious of those disparities. What I would like to see EC take from that template is a more anchored, concrete lyric approach and not the 'baroque' approach which has consistently tainted my efforts to enter the world he tried to paint in SPS. Your pointing out that he may be breaking through to a new historical lyric is an appreciation I share. That is why I have been enthusiastic about new material like "A Slow Drag With Josephine', "You Hung the Moon" and "Jimmie Standing in the Rain". These songs seem to me to gain much from a cleaner lyrical approach which places imagined characters in real situations and sentiments. They do not come off as manufactured for me like so much of SP&S. It is this concreteness I have seen all these years in The Band.

A second aspect of The Band which I would like to see him borrow is the adept usage of those ballads, rhythm and blues motifs and encapsulated short stories about ordinary people you cite. Couple that with infectious harmony singing as well as delicate instrumental work and I think he will have the breakthrough you and I would love to hear. In essence be remarkably simple and direct. EC even says now he is more interested in working in an American mode these days- which to me hopefully would exclude those notions of class and economics when it comes to musical characters.

I am most open to this possible 'historical' breakthrough. I do not want to see him copy the Band just utilize aspects of their creative process, as previously cited, to create his own 'historical' record. The songs previously mentioned , like your reasoned and well argued thoughts, have me most open to what I hope will be a memorable future listening experience for decades to come.

[cwr]

For me, I think the last great album would be Brutal Youth.

That doesn't mean I haven't really loved a lot of the albums since then-- just that it's more of a mixed bag.

PFM-- almost great. Don't care for "The Long Division"-- one of my least favorite Costello songs of all time. Plus, I feel he deferred to Burt on the sound of the record as a whole, so you get things like the guitar solo in "This House Is Empty Now" and other touches that drag it down a little for me. But MOST of it is pure greatness. "Toledo" is such an amazing song-- the perfect hybrid of Costello and Bacharach.

WIWC-- fun. But of all his "the band is BACK! And they're ROCKIN'!" albums-- Let's say Blood & Chocolate, Brutal Youth and maybe even Momofuku are the others that qualify for this categorization-- this is the weirdest and in some ways the most ambitious. It's also the weakest. Tons of things to love about it-- funny songs, strange sounds, trying new things. But there are also elements that grate on me, like how he essentially took a really wonderful, heartfelt song and transformed it into a much less emotional power pop track-- "45." When he was first playing this song on tour with Steve, it had so much more emotion. (I just tried to find the original Tonight Show performance on YouTube, but all I can find are comparatively dreadful later performances.) I never warmed to the WIWC arrangement-- I think his production approach was better suited to some of the songs than to others, and the result is that it doesn't all click for me... In some ways it's kind of a mess, but that's better than if he'd made a dull record.

NORTH-- I'd probably say that this is his "greatest album" of this period, though clearly it's not for all tastes. But it's the one time that he went in from start to finish and made a record of new songs that all held together as a larger whole. Having said that, it's also an album that I only return to when I'm in a certain kind of mood, so it doesn't have the repeat playability of earlier "great" EC records.

TDM-- Solid. A better album than WIWC. But with each passing year, it's an album I return to less and less, or with less enthusiasm than I feel like I had when it first came out. I'm not sure why. I might change my mind about this a year from now and think it's great again.

TRIR-- This album has a lot of the qualities that I wish PFM had in terms of how it sounds, how it was recorded. And it's a strong and joyful album. But the small batch of songs written with AT isn't quite as strong as the work he did with Bacharach. Makes me wish Joe Henry had produced PFM. (Of the new co-writes, "Six-Fingered Man" is the one that I think is most successful, in that it's the one that you could most easily be tricked into thinking that Costello was simply covering an old Toussaint classic...)

MF-- More fun than WIWC. But also less ambitious. Nothing wrong with that. But if ever there was a "lite" Costello album, this is it. Some fun to be had, but it feels, somehow, less nutritious than most EC albums. "Turpentine" is one of my favorite tracks of recent vintage, especially it's infectious chorus. I think if you could combine the ambitions of WIWC with the fun of Momofuku, you'd have a great album.

SP&SC-- Still almost confused as to why I like this album so much. I feel like I should like it less than I do, because it's such a hodge-podge (like WIWC and TDM) of songs from abandoned side projects. I prefer it when he sits down and writes a batch of songs-- an "album"-- and then goes into the studio to record them. And it's frustrating to see him sort of half-complete these various musicals and song cycles before using the scraps to fill up half a new record. And yet, it really works. Time will tell if my enthusiasm eventually wears off, a la TDM, or whether I will still think this is one of his strongest recent albums...

I mean, that's a hugely ambitious slate of songs and albums, and none of them are embarrassing. But it has been a weird decade. I definitely had more fun being a Costello fan in the 90s, even with the bitterness of the Attractions 2nd break-up, and the recording silence at the tail end of the decade. It was just fresher for me then. I feel like I would have flipped out if Costello had hosted a show like Spectacle in 1998, but for some reason it didn't feel like appointment television for me in the late 00s. Nothing to do with the quality of the show, I hope it gets a third season-- it just has to do with the second decade of being a Costello fan being less magical than the first. I imagine this is what it felt like for a lot of the fans who were there from the beginning-- most of them weren't as wild about the Warner Years. Since I didn't start listening until 1993, I sort of feel like The Universal Years are my "Beard Years," if that makes sense.

(If I could make one wish about his future recordings, it would be this: PFM through SP&SC are notable for how little he employs "self-harmonies" on record. Part of this is because he has Davey or Jim Lauderdale to harmonize with him now, so he can do more "live in the studio" type recordings without overdubbing. But on almost ALL of his records from the early years right up to BY and ATUB, his vocal style included a lot of self-harmonies, and it's a quality I feel like is sorely lacking from so many of these later records. I just wish he'd do it a little bit more, every now and then, because I feel like it's a defining trait that really adds an extra dimension to his sound...)

[Jackson Monk]

(If I could make one wish about his future recordings, it would be this: PFM through SP&SC are notable for how little he employs "self-harmonies" on record. Part of this is because he has Davey or Jim Lauderdale to harmonize with him now, so he can do more "live in the studio" type recordings without overdubbing. But on almost ALL of his records from the early years right up to BY and ATUB, his vocal style included a lot of self-harmonies, and it's a quality I feel like is sorely lacking from so many of these later records. I just wish he'd do it a little bit more, every now and then, because I feel like it's a defining trait that really adds an extra dimension to his sound...)

Agreed. Just listening to the fade-out on Hoover Factory gives me goosebumps.

[Poor Deportee]

I agree that Hoover Factory's coda is awesome, but in general I prefer EC harmonizing with others rather than himself. He has a powerful voice that can at times be overbearing; the contrasting tones of a second vocalist work wonders to soften those rough edges IMHO. That's one area where the last few albums - whether it be Dave on TDM or whatshername on MF - mark a distinct step forward aurally, I find.

[Bezrodny]

On the other hand, I'm crazy about every song on WIWC (with the possible exception of Episode of Blonde--but it's growing on me).

It's funny you should say that 'cause, while I absolutely love WIWC as an album, 'Episode of Blonde' is probably like one of my favorite songs of his ever.

Now, as for his last great album, I'd go for Momofuku. From the moment it was released it completely blew me away. It's got everything you want from a Costello record: straight-on rockers, ballads, somewhat more "experimental" things, sneerish vocals (I'm kind of a "punk rock" kid myself and the vocal delivery on 'No Hiding Place' sounds a lot more courageous and in-your-face than most bands I know of in that genre) and sneaky wordplay. Moreover, the whole kind of mythos surrounding that record is simply astonishing: recorded in a week, an initial vinyl-only release (right after EC had declared no longer wanting to release a record in Word), the "vocal supergroup," ... Simply amazing.

I'm also really looking forward - as we probably all are - to the new record, 'cause the songs he's been playing at shows ('Slow Drag for Josephine' and 'Jimmy Standing in the Rain') are nothing short of crazy.

[A rope leash]

It depends on the definition of "great".

If you mean "Beatles" great...My Aim is True

If you mean great groundbreaking...King of America

If you mean great Elvis songwriting...(Toss up) All This Useless Beauty or When I Was Cruel

If you mean something that will stand the test of time and make history...gee, I'm sorry...it might be Il Sogno or The Juliet Letters

...he needs to get away from Nashville and start getting serious about real music.

[Neil.]

Regarding Elvis's double-tracking, I love it, but it can be overwhelming for a whole album, so I'm all in favour of other people harmonising with him... but am I just imagining it, or are Elvis's self-harmonies a little more imaginative and off-the-wall than the ones other people do with him?

[thepopeofpop]

The answer is "American Ransom", of course.

[Jeremy Dylan]

I'm against self-harmonising, no matter who's doing it. Because it's impossible - someone can't actually sing two vocal lines at the same time. So it pulls me out of the song on a subconscious level. My brain realises it's not possible for it to be happening live and goes 'this is a trick'. Besides, it adds so much more texture if it's another voice - like Lennon with McCartney, Townshend with Daltrey, Richard with Jagger and Lauderdale with Costello.

[Poor Deportee]

I'm against self-harmonising, no matter who's doing it. Because it's impossible - someone can't actually sing two vocal lines at the same time. So it pulls me out of the song on a subconscious level. My brain realises it's not possible for it to be happening live and goes 'this is a trick'. Besides, it adds so much more texture if it's another voice - like Lennon with McCartney, Townshend with Daltrey, Richard with Jagger and Lauderdale with Costello.

You know, I have exactly the same reaction on both counts: it makes it harder to suspend disbelief, and it doesn't sound as rich. Hear hear!

[cwr]

All I know is that it is one of the defining traits of the vast majority of his records from the very beginning right up to ATUB. Multi-tracked harmonies are all over the place.

Then he stops.

I don't quite understand the suspension of disbelief as a criteria for listening to an album that was recorded in a studio-- is Imperial Bedroom not "believable"? I'm not suggesting that every album needs to be wall-to-wall multi-tracked harmonies, just that it's a real shame that he's all but abandoned them after using them on most of his albums up until PFM. (There have been a small handful of examples in this past decade, but much more spare and infrequent than in the previous ones. Certainly nothing as striking as his self-harmonies on Brutal Youth, Blood & Chocolate, Imperial Bedroom, etc...)

[Jackson Monk]

I'm definitely with you cwr.

[Ypsilanti]

On the other hand, I'm crazy about every song on WIWC (with the possible exception of Episode of Blonde--but it's growing on me).

It's funny you should say that 'cause, while I absolutely love WIWC as an album, 'Episode of Blonde' is probably like one of my favorite songs of his ever.

I hear you, Bezrodny, and it is growing on me. I love the chorus and there's a lot of cool stuff going on. And the alternate versions on MFBB & Cruel Smile are pretty exciting.

I tend to be either won over or repelled (usually won over) by small details in Elvis' songs. In this case it's the lyric...
She was a cute little ruin that he pulled out of the rubble
Now they are both living in a soft soap bubble

It's not so much the words, but the way he delivers them--spoken, rather than sung--like a rap--it just bugs the shit out of me. And I guess the expression "soft soap" sounds anachronistic to me--like something a man in his 70's or 80's would say. So a really old man rapping? That's creepy--and it makes me kind of cringe on Elvis' behalf.

It's a big, elaborate, expansive song but that tiny little element hits me like bucket of ice water in the face every time--a real turn-off. However, I'm becoming desensitized to it with repeated listening--and other than this one detail I really don't dislike the song at all.

[funkygibbon666]

For me its When I Was Cruel (although have been listening to A&SC a hell of a lot since seeing the solo gigs) or The Delivery Man

And I adore, Episode Of Blonde, the faux sweet chorus is sublime and Elvis's glee and swagger as he spits out the lyrics in the verses is infectious. 'My Blue Window' is also unfairly overlooked.

The only albuims of his recently I have found it hard to take to my heart are North and Momofuku. But there is plenty of time.

As for the album format being dead - balls, sir! Sitting down and listening to an album in sequence as the artist set it out is a discipline. It takes a concentrated effort rather than the butterfly flittery of the ipod experience but is much more rewarding. I always try and listen to EC's albums on vinyl first so I can really get a hold on them

[Jackson Monk]

I'll never understand the antipathy levelled towards North. It's such a moving and emotional record. If you've ever had your heart broken or have fallen in love when you shouldn't have, this record should be so easy to relate to. Easily his best record of the noughties for me.