Man out of Time wrote:For the sake of posterity, here is the
Elvis Costello Essentials playlist on Apple Music:
- No Flag, Single, 3:56
The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes, My Aim Is True, 2:46
Unwanted Number, Look Now, 3:33
Pump It Up, This Year's Model, 3:18
(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?, Armed Forces, 3:33
Alison, My Aim Is True, 3:23
Accidents Will Happen, Armed Forces, 3:00
Veronica, Spike, 3:08
Every Day I Write The Book, Punch The Clock, 3:54
Watching The Detectives (single version) My Aim Is True, 3:45
Radio, Radio, This Year's Model, 3:06
High Fidelity, Get Happy!! 2:27
(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea, Taking Liberties, 3:07
Clubland, Trust, 3:43
Beyond Belief, Imperial Bedroom, 2:34
Oliver’s Army, Armed Forces, 3:00
Man Out Of Time, Imperial Bedroom, 5:27
Brilliant Mistake, King Of America, 3:43
She, Timeless Love Songs, 3:08
Good Year For The Roses, Almost Blue, 3:10
Almost Blue, Imperial Bedroom, 2:50
Indoor Fireworks, King Of America, 4:09
I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down, Get Happy!!, 2:06
Shipbuilding, Punch The Clock, 4:53
New Lace Sleeves, Trust, 3:48
I Want You, Blood And Chocolate, 6:41
God Give Me Strength, The Sweetest Punch – the New Songs of Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach 4:41
The Editor's note as a preface to the list says:
"Elvis Costello may be a revered pop craftsman, honing his acidic wordplay like a Brill Building master, but he plays with the agitated energy of a born outsider. His New Wave-era anthems like “Pump It Up” still deliver an ecstatic jolt, blending the sharp riffs of the British Invasion with the bounce of Motown. Of course, they’re just the beginning of Costello’s endlessly shape-shifting but always inimitable songbook. He’s hidden remarkably biting lyrics under gorgeous soul melodies (“Alison”), explored psychedelia at its darkest edges (“Beyond Belief”), and even reinvented himself as a Nashville crooner (“Good Year For The Roses”).
MOOT
I gotta say, it's not thrilling me. No idea who 'the editor' is but this reads like the usual collection of stock phrases from someone who hasn't actually listened to an Elvis Costello LP in more than 30 years. This is the greatest and most stylistically versatile popular musician of the last hundred years, and the best you can manage is the surprise revelation that in 1981 he made a country-and-western record?
It also irks me that when this kind of stuff happens, there is so little acknowledgement of Elvis' career post 1986. Here - as usual - we have the latest single (naturally), one track from his most recent LP, two 1990s ballads (one of which is a cover), and Veronica. Everything else - 22 out of 27 tracks - is pre-1987. In fact, even Veronica is...1989? So that means that nearly 90% of the 'essentials' (wonderful songs though they are, don't get me wrong) ignores the last 30 years of Elvis Costello's career.
Now -
we all know that if you completely ignored
everything pre-1990, Elvis Costello would still have a gargantuan catalogue of high quality pop music that few, if any, could equal. But these 'essentials' and 'best ofs' always seem to focus on the 1970s and 1980s stuff. Not that that's not good stuff! But I could reel off twenty 1990-2020 songs that deserve to be on that list, and I bet you could too!