Your Top 10 Favourite Elvis Costello Albums

[HopeYou'reHappyNow]

Bear with me. I'm new here!

I'm sure this subject has been covered before, but, scanning through the last few pages, it hasn't been tackled for a while and it's always nice to re-appraise and discuss favourites and differences of opinion.

So, if you would indulge me a little, could I ask you to list, in order, your Top 10 Elvis Costello albums (including Attractions, Imposters, Bacharach, Brodsky, etc.) and, if you care to expand with a few words on your choices, that is entirely up to you. If you just want to leave a list and nothing but a list, I will also enjoy reading those just as much.

Thank you for playing ball with a noob.

[docinwestchester]

Not until you list yours!

That's half the fun of the forum, putting your completely objective opinions up for all to see.

[watercamp]

In order of release not favorite

My Aim Is True
This Year's Model
Get Happy!!
Imperial Bedroom
King Of America
Out Of Our Idiot
Spike
Brutal Youth
All This Useless Beauty
The River In Reverse

[Jeremy Dylan]

10. King of America (1986)
9. Momofuku (2008)
8. Secret, Profane and Sugarcane (2009)
7. Armed Forces (1979)
6. Blood and Chocolate (1986)
5. My Aim Is True (1977)
4. Get Happy!! (1980)
3. This Year's Model (1978)
2. National Ransom (2010)
1. The Delivery Man (2004)

Of course, one always hopes the answer to this question will be 'the next ten Elvis Costello albums'.

[migdd]

In order as of this week:

King of America
National Ransom
Get Happy!
The Delivery Man
My Aim is True
Mighty Like a Rose ( )
Blood and Chocolate
Armed Forces (for about 5 of the songs)
All This Useless Beauty
All the rest . . .

Jeremy, here's hoping that there will be 10 more.

[so lacklustre]

001. Get Happy!
002. Mighty Like A Rose
003. Armed Forces
004. When I Was Cruel
005. Trust
006. Almost Blue
007. The Delivery Man
008. Spike
009. The River in Reverse
010. This Years Model

[Kevin Davis]

1. This Year's Model
2. Get Happy
3. North
4. King of America
5. National Ransom
6. All This Useless Beauty
7. Imperial Bedroom
8. Brutal Youth
9. Blood and Chocolate
10. Mighty Like a Rose

[Jack of All Parades]

No particular order in this other than that the first two are generally the first two in any such list I compile for this artist-I also have not posted any particular thoughts on any given album in this list as my thoughts are littered throughout this site concerning albums and individual songs:

1- Trust
2- Imperial Bedroom
3- Punch the Clock
4- Armed Forces
5- My Aim is True[A lynch pin for my ears as this one set the 'hooks' in my ears and brain]
6- King of America
7- National Ransom
8- Get Happy
9- Painted from Memory
10- Blood and Chocolate

On a given day I am frequently willing to substitute Momofuko for any one-3 thru 10.

[Emotional Toothpaste]

1. King of America
2. Blood and Choc
3. Get Happy
4. Trust
5. Brutal Youth
6. Delivery Man
7. My Aim is True
8. All this Useless Beauty
9. Painted from Memory
10. Almost Blue ? does this count?

[Poor Deportee]

Never a big one for lists - I prefer meandering discussion But I'll give it a whirl. These aren't necessarily the EC albums I would single out as objectively his 'greatest.' They're the ones that I personally have listened to and enjoyed the most over the years, which means that personal and idiosyncratic considerations are larded in with more strictly critical factors. Unable to just 'list,' I've added a quick word of explanation to each pick.

10. Armed Forces. A fundamental breakthrough in giving us the politicization of EC's early persona. Great hooks to boot.

9. Mighty Like a Rose. A flawed and bizarre album, but I love its sheer eccentricity as well as courageous compositions like 'All Grown Up' and 'Sumnmer.' What's really underrated here is his voice - its timbre the best of his entire career. It's like fine leather...worn by a leper.

8. Momofuku. An unassuming, engaging collection. I love records like this, just a batch of good songs, with no particular big concept or overarching agenda. 'Mr. Feathers' is, strangely enough, one of my all-time favourites - perhaps EC's best excursion into fusing the musicality of McCartney with Lennonish acid reflux. Pair that with the steamroller of 'Stella Hurt' and this record has an irresistable core.

7. Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane. A controversial pick, but this is one of his best sounding records to my ear. After a poor beginning, it rises to a great second half by virtue of its unique combination of sound and lyric: half a great record, then. But what a half.

6. Trust. See Momofuku. 'Fish and Chip Paper' is hilarious. And damn, could that band ever play.

5. National Ransom. Three songs - 'Jimmie', 'Voice,' and 'Dr Watson' - that rate with the very best of his entire career, along with a whole crop of other terrific numbers. Only the dubious crime of excessive generosity in including a few middling songs causes it to fall out of the top three.

4. Spike. My first Elvis Costello album. 'Nuff said.

3. Blood and Chocolate. The whole album sounds like it was made by some weird industrial organism. 'Battered Old Bird' is the only misstep and it took me years to realize even that. Just a tank of a record.

2. Get Happy!! Has there ever been an album with a higher percentage of catchily perfect pop songs? The absolute pinnacle of Elvis Costello as a pop genius on speed. My only quibble is the inexplicably tinny sound - I could never work out if this was a consequence of 'groove cramming' or the desired effect. If the latter, why?

1. King of America. Giving us Elvis the epic balladeer, the last four songs represent the acme of his achievement as a songwriter, and possibly the most powerful quartet of popular songs in sequence I've ever heard on any record. An extravagant claim, but one I just might be willing to defend.

[HopeYou'reHappyNow]

I can't claim to have objective opinions about Elvis - all my viewpoints are entirely subjective!

This was a lot more difficult that I imagined - and I feel lousy about leaving so many utterly fantastic albums outside this Top 10 (not enough!) list, but seeing as I suggested the topic, I can hardly wimp out now.

Top 10 Favourite Elvis Costello Albums

10. My Aim Is True
9. Get Happy!!
8. Armed Forces
7. The Delivery Man
6. All This Useless Beauty
5. Blood & Chocolate
4. Mighty Like A Rose
3. Brutal Youth
2. King Of America
1. When I Was Cruel

[docinwestchester]

I can't claim to have objective opinions about Elvis - all my viewpoints are entirely subjective!

Here's my objective list:

1. This Year's Model
2. Imperial Bedroom
3. Trust
4. Get Happy!!
5. National Ransom
6. My Aim Is True
7. Armed Forces
8. King Of America
9. Blood & Chocolate
10. Momofuku/The Delivery Man - a tie for 10th place

[Azmuda]

1. This Year's Model
2. thru 5 - four-way tie: My Aim Is True / Armed Forces / Get Happy!! / Imperial Bedroom
6. thru 9 - four-way tie: Trust / Almost Blue / Punch The Clock / Blood & Chocolate
10. Painted From Memory

[sheeptotheslaughter]

1. Get Happy
2. Imperial Bedroom
3. King Of America
4. Trust
5. This Years Model
6. Painted from Memory
7. Armed Forces
8. Blood and Chocolate
9. Punch The Clock
10. Brutal Youth

[Jack of All Parades]

Never a big one for lists - I prefer meandering discussion But I'll give it a whirl. These aren't necessarily the EC albums I would single out as objectively his 'greatest.' They're the ones that I personally have listened to and enjoyed the most over the years, which means that personal and idiosyncratic considerations are larded in with more strictly critical factors. Unable to just 'list,' I've added a quick word of explanation to each pick.

10. Armed Forces. A fundamental breakthrough in giving us the politicization of EC's early persona. Great hooks to boot.

9. Mighty Like a Rose. A flawed and bizarre album, but I love its sheer eccentricity as well as courageous compositions like 'All Grown Up' and 'Sumnmer.' What's really underrated here is his voice - its timbre the best of his entire career. It's like fine leather...worn by a leper.

8. Momofuku. An unassuming, engaging collection. I love records like this, just a batch of good songs, with no particular big concept or overarching agenda. 'Mr. Feathers' is, strangely enough, one of my all-time favourites - perhaps EC's best excursion into fusing the musicality of McCartney with Lennonish acid reflux. Pair that with the steamroller of 'Stella Hurt' and this record has an irresistable core.

7. Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane. A controversial pick, but this is one of his best sounding records to my ear. After a poor beginning, it rises to a great second half by virtue of its unique combination of sound and lyric: half a great record, then. But what a half.

6. Trust. See Momofuku. 'Fish and Chip Paper' is hilarious. And damn, could that band ever play.

5. National Ransom. Three songs - 'Jimmie', 'Voice,' and 'Dr Watson' - that rate with the very best of his entire career, along with a whole crop of other terrific numbers. Only the dubious crime of excessive generosity in including a few middling songs causes it to fall out of the top three.

4. Spike. My first Elvis Costello album. 'Nuff said.

3. Blood and Chocolate. The whole album sounds like it was made by some weird industrial organism. 'Battered Old Bird' is the only misstep and it took me years to realize even that. Just a tank of a record.

2. Get Happy!! Has there ever been an album with a higher percentage of catchily perfect pop songs? The absolute pinnacle of Elvis Costello as a pop genius on speed. My only quibble is the inexplicably tinny sound - I could never work out if this was a consequence of 'groove cramming' or the desired effect. If the latter, why?

1. King of America. Giving us Elvis the epic balladeer, the last four songs represent the acme of his achievement as a songwriter, and possibly the most powerful quartet of popular songs in sequence I've ever heard on any record. An extravagant claim, but one I just might be willing to defend.

First, I like how you stick to your guns. We have gone back and forth on several of these selections over the years. Like that you try to encapsulate your favorites with pungent thought bites that I notice really do catch the flavor of the individual album as you have experienced it. Nice job! But I will never like SPS no matter how often I have tried to hear it through your considerable listening ears-such is indivdual fan admiration.

Second-no love for IB? Not even the least?

Third- agree with the mighty Dr. Watson, I Presume. That song has grown appreciably for me after many listens. I would add You Hung the Moon to your list on that album. Quite the third act for our man.

Fourth- these lists demonstrate real generational change. Marvel at the preponderance of first period selections and the marginal love shown to the 90s.

Fifth- you make me want to reconsider Momofuko amongst my choices. Is that not the real purpose and usefulness of these list exercises?

[when i was cruel]

1. All This Useless Beauty
2. Spike
3. When I Was Cruel
4. The Delivery Man
5. My Aim Is True
6. Mighty Like A Rose
7. Painted From Memory
8. The River In Reverse
9. Brutal Youth
10. Blood & Chocolate

Very hard to put these in order correctly ! I'd say most of this list is wrong except ATUB, Spike and WIWC are always in that order
I was born in 1995, so this might add to the generational difference. I was not surprised to see the love for "King of America" but I was to see that "All This Useless Beauty" has gotten little love !

-Joel

[Poor Deportee]

First, I like how you stick to your guns. We have gone back and forth on several of these selections over the years. Like that you try to encapsulate your favorites with pungent thought bites that I notice really do catch the flavor of the individual album as you have experienced it. Nice job! But I will never like SPS no matter how often I have tried to hear it through your considerable listening ears-such is indivdual fan admiration.

Second-no love for IB? Not even the least?

Third- agree with the mighty Dr. Watson, I Presume. That song has grown appreciably for me after many listens. I would add You Hung the Moon to your list on that album. Quite the third act for our man.

Fourth- these lists demonstrate real generational change. Marvel at the preponderance of first period selections and the marginal love shown to the 90s.

Fifth- you make me want to reconsider Momofuko amongst my choices. Is that not the real purpose and usefulness of these list exercises?

Thanks for the reply, Chris. I've been sort of hoping this thread would morph from 'mere' lists and into a general retrospective discussion of various bits of EC's career, inspired by those lists.

In that spirit: I don't think the 1990s were an especially great decade for our boy. The weakness of ATUB leaves his best moments of that decade to those collaborative projects that involve the subordination of his distinctive lyrical voice to formal discipline. And I don't think EC is Nick Lowe, that effortless master of form; he certainly has moments of great 'formalist' writing ('Almost Blue' being Exhibit A) but by and large he is at his best when he allows his distinctively skewed perspective to shine through.

I know EC is adamant that his 1990s excursions were not 'side projects,' but I see these endeavours as part of a process of creative searching...more specifically, searching for an approach/persona that could transcend the limitations and expectations of his earlier incrantions. How to write in a way that was less unyieldingly acerbic, less jaundiced, more mature? Much good work was done in that process, but it still seems has something of a studious and transitional feel to it. Conversely, from TDL onward he seems to be more comfortable in his skin, no longer fleeing from his own distinctive voice, yet enriched by what he learned through the explorations of the 1990s. I see the '00s' as giving us an EC more or less at peace with the first decade of his career, able to marshal those early strengths in a manner informed by his exploratory middle period.

Not that TJL and PFM are bad albums. But it'd be a little surprising to have them make the top-10, and for the most part, they don't.

SPS: again, I just love that sound. 'How Deep is the Red,' 'I Dreamed of my old Lover,' 'She's was no Good'...these songs have a sort of 'baroque folk' feel to them that seems unique and I just can't get enough of. But I can certainly see where it's not everyone's cup of meat.

Finally, IB. Its absence from my wee list is rather what I was driving at when I said I was mixing personal with more 'objective' critical considerations. IB is an important album in EC's canon and I would never sit down and try to argue that MLAR is in fact the better album. I just enjoy MLAR more for its sheer wilful and misanthropic bizarreness.

I wish, indeed, that I could truly warm up to IB. But something about it has always left me cold despite enormous love for some of its key tracks ('Almost Blue,' 'Man out of Time' and especially 'Beyond Belief,' which really is). It may be that my CD suffers from the bad sound of being the first-generation CD recording and that the remastered versions would transform my response. Or, it may be that the whole business of creating little sonic 'mystery rooms' for the listener just leaves me cold - preferring as I do the more immediate sound captured on albums like KOA, Blood, and even SP & S.

[Jack of All Parades]

PD- I think I hear and read what you mean about that middle period and particularly the 90s portion of his career. I do think there are highlights in that period- TJL and PFM- and I concur with your thoughts on ATUB[an album I rarely play these days].

I think his casting about in that decade for a new 'voice' was a success as you state. It has led to a narrative voice that is more humane and less judgmental, not as shrill and 'jaundiced', as it musically and lyrically surveys periods and people and their complex relationships. I am even eager to discuss with you over a good bottle how he has morphed[somewhat] for my ears into competition for an artist we hold quite dear- Bob Dylan. There are moments on Momofuko and National Ransom where he approaches the master's narrative art. Big statement but I am prepared to back it up in private and public conversation.

Thank you for your thoughtful pointing of the way in this discussion. As usual you give me much to consider.

[pophead2k]

I like lists, but I can't rank 'em. Here are my ten faves in no particular order:

National Ransom
Trust
River in Reverse
Brutal Youth
Get Happy
Imperial Bedroom
Spike
King of America
Painted from Memory
Armed Forces

Pains me to leave off North, This Year's Model, Momofuku, and When I Was Cruel.

[Poor Deportee]

PD- I think I hear and read what you mean about that middle period and particularly the 90s portion of his career. I do think there are highlights in that period- TJL and PFM- and I concur with your thoughts on ATUB[an album I rarely play these days].

I think his casting about in that decade for a new 'voice' was a success as you state. It has led to a narrative voice that is more humane and less judgmental, not as shrill and 'jaundiced', as it musically and lyrically surveys periods and people and their complex relationships. I am even eager to discuss with you over a good bottle how he has morphed[somewhat] for my ears into competition for an artist we hold quite dear- Bob Dylan. There are moments on Momofuko and National Ransom where he approaches the master's narrative art. Big statement but I am prepared to back it up in private and public conversation.

Thank you for your thoughtful pointing of the way in this discussion. As usual you give me much to consider.

Well, I'll take you up on that bottle someday!

Funnily enough, I think Elvis most clearly approaches Dylan - an artist I nervously regard as of lasting significance in a way probably not true of his contemporaries (save The Beatles, whose music is destined to endure at the popular level for generations to come) -on what might be his worst album: When I Was Cruel. I cordially dislike most of that record, but the title track always struck me as rising to that level, with its parade of memorable characters all sketched in a few words ('ghostly first wife'...the bride, the husband...the editors 'like playground sneaks,' etc.) and the fundamental pathos of the singer's dilemma: he is as pathetic as the crowd to whom he has chosen to pander. 'Look at me now...' Like a major Dylan song, it opens up its own, off-kilter world and imaginatively walks you through it.

One thing I wanted to add about those 'transitional' 1990s: his vocals. That decade was characterized by a willful stretching of his vocal prowess that all too often grated, at least to my ears. Both TJL and PFM are partially compromised by the sheer strained effort EC is pouring into his singing. I don't like that, and I'm relieved that since The Delivery Man , or maybe North, he seems to have settled into a more comfortably confident delivery, one that is - again - enriched and empowered by the trials of the 1990s, but no longer defined by them. (The contrast between the tastefully-sung North and the often strained and overblown PFM exemplifies what I'm driving at here. At some point he figured it out and just relaxed).

[Emotional Toothpaste]

okay, okay, PFM has some of Elvis worst vocals and "overblown" is a good word for it, but it also has some of his very, very best. A few tracks as well as portions of tracks should've maybe been left off, edited, or redone. But I put it in my top ten, and the title track Painted from Memory is outstanding, as is My Thief.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kciE6tgWr44

[Kevin Davis]

I wish, indeed, that I could truly warm up to IB. But something about it has always left me cold despite enormous love for some of its key tracks ('Almost Blue,' 'Man out of Time' and especially 'Beyond Belief,' which really is). It may be that my CD suffers from the bad sound of being the first-generation CD recording and that the remastered versions would transform my response. Or, it may be that the whole business of creating little sonic 'mystery rooms' for the listener just leaves me cold - preferring as I do the more immediate sound captured on albums like KOA, Blood, and even SP & S.

Personally, I think the run of years from 1981-1984 contains some of Elvis's most awkward, misshapen, cluttered writing. Obviously the great tracks from that era are tremendous, and the band is consistently in fine form, but melodically and lyrically, a lot of the songs on these albums just feel overwritten to me, even by EC's standards. "Trust" gets something of a pass as (a) most of the songs that fit this description were left off the record, and (b) mostly the personnel on the record is just the Attractions, who give the songs what little breathing room they've got written into them. With "Imperial Bedroom," "Punch the Clock," and "Goodbye Cruel World," though, there are a number of songs--especially on their respective Side B's--that are just too jam-packed with content--lyrics crammed into meters that can't sustain them, deformed melodies that offer nothing to sink your teeth into, gratuitous orchestral arrangements--things that work in doses but overwhelm in such mass quantities. "Imperial Bedroom" is the best of the three albums not only because the songwriting is generally better but because there's a sense of wonder to the excess absent from the two later records, where it was basically just a pro's attempt at commercialism. I love "IB," but I agree that it can be a tiring listen.

[Jack of All Parades]

"Imperial Bedroom" is the best of the three albums not only because the songwriting is generally better but because there's a sense of wonder to the excess absent from the two later records, where it was basically just a pro's attempt at commercialism. I love "IB," but I agree that it can be a tiring listen."

I like that description 'a sense of wonder to the excess' being attributed to IB. Though not my absolute favorite, that will always be "Trust", it ranks quite high for me and has remained there over the three decades since its appearance. I have worn several copies to death over the years playing it as an lp. I have always thought it must have been fun to go into the studio, with a fair recording budget, and then be allowed to experiment and see what you can do. The result has always seemed one of the best records of the last 30 years and his peak as an observer and commentator about human relations[male/female]. The sounds and musical combinations he created along with his engineer on that record do not sound dated to me. They have an inventiveness and creativity that I consistently find exhilarating. I firmly believe he can take great pride in this record.

As a 'pop' record- "Punch the Clock" has always registered with me. And the shows that backed it up have always been among the favorites I have attended.

[Poor Deportee]

Kevin, that was an interesting post. I'd not previously thought of that period as characterized by weak writing in the sense you describe. What came to mind immediately was 'King of Thieves,' a song that always struck me as cluttered; maybe 'TKO' too. But I strain to find other clear-cut examples...'Pidgin English' maybe? Could you give some examples?

For myself, I like Punch the Clock quite a bit for what it is, which is to say, an entertaining if slightly silly pop album. The horns are great, and the bookends - 'Let them All talk' and 'World and his Wife' - are perhaps the most sheer fun of any such combo in his entire catalogue. (The latter track is also among his funniest; 'something in your LAP!!' always cracks me up, even as I recoil - prototypical EC moment, that). Someone or other said they were glad that Elvis made one record like this. I'm inclined to agree: you wouldn't want all of them to be like this, but on its own terms, it's fun.

[Kevin Davis]

I think "Punch the Clock" is great through "Shipbuilding," dies off for a while, and then recovers at "Pills and Soap." "The Element Within Her" was a surprise highlight of the Spinning Songbook show I saw last year. And I've always loved "The Greatest Thing"--it always sounded to me like it could have been inspired by early hip-hop.

I'll try to expound on my earlier post a little bit later tonight.