Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello embarked on a small, intimate tour with his longtime pianist Steve Nieve in the spring of 1996 to promote All This Useless Beauty. All of the shows from the five-date tour were recorded, and highlights from each show were issued on a series of promotional EPs that were later released commercially as the box set Costello & Nieve. Stripped down to their basics, the songs from All This Useless Beauty sit elegantly next to Costello classics, as well as several lesser-known gems from his rich back catalog. The performances are all understatedly passionate, and rank among the best that Costello has given, making Costello & Nieve five discs that any hardcore fan will treasure.

Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint - The River In Reverse (2006) {Verve Forecast 0602498560570}
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© Verve Forecast / UMG | 0602498560570
R&B / Adult Alternative Rock / Jazz / Blues / Retro-Soul

It's impossible to consider The River in Reverse without taking the devastation Hurricane Katrina wreaked upon New Orleans into account. Indeed, it's quite likely that this collaboration between Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint would not even have occurred if it weren't for that cataclysmic event. They've collaborated before – Toussaint wrote horn charts for Costello's 1989 album Spike – but neither had plans to work together until they appeared together at several benefit concerts for the victims of Katrina in September of 2005.

Following his second covers album, Kojak Variety, Elvis Costello set out to assemble a collection of songs he had written for other artists but never recorded himself – sort of a reverse covers album. As it turned out, that idea was only used as a launching pad – the resulting album, All This Useless Beauty, is a mixture of nine old and three new songs. Given its origins, it's surprising that the record holds together as well as it does. The main strength of All This Useless Beauty is the quality of the individual songs – each song can stand on its own as an individual entity, as the music is as sharp as the lyrics. Although the music is certainly eclectic, it's accessible, which wasn't the case with Mighty Like a Rose.

The Third of Three Special Digitally Remastered Box Sets Including CD Facsimilies of Costello's Original Vinyl Single Releases from 1977-1987. Each Single is Presented in a Miniature Version of the Original UK Picture Sleeve (Many of which were Extremely Limited Editions). Some Tracks Make their CD Debut in this Set, Like "Everyday I Write the Book (Extended Mix)", "Everyday I Write the Book (Special Version), "Everyday I Write the Book (Instrumental)", "Let them all Talk (Extended Remix)", "i Wanna Be Loved (Extended Smoochy N Runny Version)", "i Wanna Be Loved (Version Discotheque)","The Only Flame in Town (Version Discotheque)", "Pump it Up (84 Dance Mix)", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Live)", "i Hope You're Happy Now", "a Town Called Big Nothing (The Long March)". Includes a Booklet with Full Single-by-single Annotation. This Set is Essential for Collectors who Relish the Fun of Having Everything in the Costello Canon.

For those keeping score, Universal's 2008 Deluxe Edition of This Year's Model is the third expanded reissue of Elvis Costello's classic 1978 album. Like its 2002 predecessor from Rhino, Universal's expanded edition is a double-disc set, sharing many, but not all, of the same bonus material from that previously released package. Rhino shuffled off all the bonus tracks to a separate second disc running 12 tracks, whereas Universal adds ten tracks to the 13-track album on the first disc, then presents a full concert – recorded on February 28, 1978, at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. – on the second disc. Of those 12 tracks from the 2002 edition, three of them have been excised – excellent Capital Radio versions of "You Belong to Me" and "Radio, Radio" plus a BBC version of "Stranger in the House" – while "Tiny Steps," which was included on the 2002 Rhino expansion of Armed Forces, was added.

Elvis Costello is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He began his career as part of London's pub rock scene in the early 1970s and later became associated with the first wave of the British punk and new wave movement of the mid-to-late 1970s. His first three albums all appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Steeped in wordplay, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader than that of most popular songs. His music has drawn on many diverse genres; one critic described him as a "pop encyclopaedia", able to "reinvent the past in his own image". He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male. In 2003, Costello and the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Mighty Like A Rose is the 13th studio album by the British rock singer and songwriter Elvis Costello, released in 1991.

Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Look Now (2018) {2CD Concord Deluxe Edition CRE00791}
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© 2018 Elvis Costello / Concord Records | CRE00791
Rock / Adult Alternative Pop-Rock / Indie Rock

Elvis Costello had already taken a few steps from the "angry young man" persona that dominated his first two albums by the time he began work on 1982's Imperial Bedroom, but that was the disc where his evolution from brash upsetter to gifted pop craftsman began in earnest. In 2017, Costello staged a concert tour in which he re-imagined the songs from that LP, and while that may or may not have put those tunes and their style back into his mind, 2018's Look Now certainly is an extension of the mature and literate pop songwriting that he first fully embraced in that material.