Music Banter - View Single Post - Bulldog's Armchair Guide To Elvis Costello

Gavin B. · 06-27-2010, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bulldog

RE Live @ Hollywood High, it turns out that I've only got the 1979, 3-track EP version of it, and not the full-length LP that was released not so long ago. Might be a while longer before that review comes about then.

In the mean time, a self-assembled bootleg that might be of interest to any of the more tuned-in among us is uploading as I type this. I'll get round to posting the link here a bit later...

Hollywood High was released by Rhino Records in January 2010 as a full length 20 song download. AMG gave it a rave review:

Quote:

Live at Hollywood High isn’t as legendary as Live at the El Mocambo, which had the benefit of once being one of Elvis Costello’s rarest records, but it’s a better show, or at least a better indication of the Attractions at their absolute peak. Apart from the dramatic opening reading of “Accidents Will Happen,” featuring only Elvis and pianist Steve Nieve, every performance here is significantly revved up from the album versions, a change evident on all the My Aim Is True material — including a reworked arrangement of “Stranger in the House” stripped of its country influence — and the entire set has the momentum of a locomotive, twitchily pausing at “Alison” before crashing to a conclusion with a tremendous sequence of “You Belong to Me,” “Radio, Radio,” “Pump It Up,” “Waiting for the End of the World,” and “Miracle Man.” Moreso than This Year’s Model, this is the purest rock & roll record in Costello’s catalog: there’s passion and abandon in the Attractions' noisy revelry, not to mention some seriously heated fun.

I think it's the best live recording I've ever heard of the Attractions and the last 7 songs of the set hit you like a sledgehammer.