Ha, yeah, he was at the Chicago Theater on the 3rd. Oh well -- maybe next time!

Got this text from a good friend who does audio/visual installs in people's houses:

Hahaha that's awesome

New song released off The Boy Named If



It's really sweet

Good tune. Really looking forward to this album. Crazy to think he'd basically sworn off making albums for a while; he's really been on a roll here these past few years.

This might take a while, but why not make this the next journey! I am going to try to power through the studio catalogue from what is available on Spotify. I have only listened to one of his albums that I quite enjoyed (Wise Up Ghost with the Roots), so unlike some other journeys, this is nearly all new.

My Aim Is True

We open with a holy crap! This is great! Standing on the platform of the train station, Welcome to the Work Week comes blaring out and I can tell within 15 seconds this thing is gonna work. From there, it’s just a perfect blend of bar band rock and something closing in on punk - something akin to early Tom Petty but even more focused, if that’s possible. The songs are tidy but jangly. Costello’s voice full of fire while never breaking its control. The range of the album from No Dancing, Blame It On Cain, Alison, and Pay It Back is remarkable for how cohesive it all feels. For the first album, it certainly feels like stumbling on something great.

Songs I knew, but I didn’t know I knew: Alison, Mystery Dance

Nice. I barely ever listen to My Aim is True but when I do I remember why it's so well regarded.

Note that some of his catalogue is listed on Spotify under "Elvis Costello" and some of it under "Elvis Costello and the Attractions". Just to be safe, check his discography list on Wikipedia so you don't accidentally skip over something

Thanks. That is exactly what I did because the Spotify listing was confusing.

This Year’s Model

One of the benefits of being totally unaware is that you do sometimes stumble into little things here and there. I sort of left the tracks rolling on My Aim Is True to catch some of the b-sides, and they were all good, but included Costello doing No Action and Living in Paradise with Clover, so when No Action kicks off on This Year’s Model, I got a quick and stark transition to the Attractions. The first things that jump out are Costello leaning more on organ and piano to drive the songs forward, and Pete Thomas’s drumming, which is exceptional throughout and always interesting. This album is particularly consistent, and while very different from the first, no less great. You can sort of sense the greater comfort in this band, which feels lived in already despite this being Costello’s first album with them. For me, The Beat really stuck out, as did (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea, Living in Paradise, Lipstick k Vogue, and Night Rally. A very emphatic 2 for 2 so far.

Songs I knew, but I didn’t know I knew: Pump It Up

The jump from My Aim is True to This Year's Model to me is comparable to the jump from License to Ill to Paul's Boutique.

Has Elvis ever attempted rapping?

He comes close on a few songs. Arguably the "you think you're alone until you realize you're in it..." verse from "Watching the Detectives" is a kind of rap.

Parts of "Hurry Down Doomsday" probably qualify as rapping.

liebzz, this is fantastic that you're doing this. I hope you love it all

This Year's Model is one of my favorite albums of all-time, and one of the best rock ensemble performances I can call to mind. The synergy between Nieve, Thomas, and Thomas just right out of the gate is insane.

Same. It's an unrepresentative album** but the songs are almost uniformly excellent. I think my low-key favorite on the album is "Sneaky Feelings."

I also think "Radio Sweetheart" is irresistably catchy and could have been a hit -- surprised it wasn't included.

**Not that this is necessarily a rarity in EC-world, but there are arguably no other such outliers in his discography that are as celebrated.

I don't agree with that verse being a rap, it's simply a melody with a little mustard on the extra syllables. But thanks for answering my question. I was mostly thinking of David Byrne's goofy "facts" rap from Crosseyed and Painless and imagined that yeah, Elvis probably tried his hand at that once or twice.

I think maybe the closest he comes is on "The Bridge I Burned"

Try the "chorus" section of this song (the first one starts around 0:37) -- in places he seems to fully surrender pitch and melody to rhythm, though in the context of the full song (if you can make it through -- admittedly it's not one of his more beloved songs, and not one of his more beloved albums), I don't know that it really registers as rapping...

1:05



Sorta?

Yeah that strikes me more as “talk singing,” but maybe we’re splitting hairs here…

More interesting to me is how closely the production sounds like Suzanne Vega’s 99.9F, one of my all time favorites. Does the whole record sound like this?

Edit: Replying to KD

No, Mighty Like a Rose is a pretty lushly-produced album with a lot of orchestration; "Hurry Down Doomsday" and its junkyard clatter sticks out like a sore thumb on it (though I wouldn't go so far as to say it doesn't fit).