James

I only have My Aim Is True, This Years Model and Armed Forces so i'm using this thread to navigate my next download. Thanks!

Bulldog

Haha, nice one! All you have to do is get hold of Mighty Like a Rose and you've basically got all his top-tier albums At least the ones before the CD era anyway. I generally haven't bothered hunting down all Costello's vinyls (yet), but I do have a dog-eared copy of King Of America which I picked up second-hand about 5 or 6 years ago. Fantastic album. Next time I'm around my Dad's record player, I'll have to dig it out again.

No probs If you need help finding any of the slightly more scarce stuff, just gimme a call eh.

I'm still pretty snowed-under with various uni rubbish at the moment, and while I've got a bit of it done today, I'm still nowhere near out of the woods with it yet, so I'm gonna say I'll get Taking Liberties (and one more, non-album review) up anytime from Monday to Wednesday.

tgpo

Actually, I already have it, but it's on CD, so it's not as impressive to look at. It looks like it was only pressed to vinyl in Germany, so the price was way more than i wanted to spend. So I went the cheap way and picked up the CD.

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Bulldog

The CD eh. Is that the one with those ridiculously extensive liner notes from Costello himself? I've got those double-disc editions of his albums from My Aim Is True up to All This Useless Beauty myself, and I always enjoy reading them - they really made it worth getting all the hard copies for me.

tgpo

Nope, it's an original press CD. I took the cheap way out

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Bulldog

Ah, right. Still does the job eh. If I had a scanner up here, I'd upload some of the liner notes here myself. Then again, my parents do and I'm going back to their place for the summer - there's an idea...

Bulldog

So, while the schedule's cleared up a bit, I still haven't had enough free time to get any album reviews done, and won't do for a while so, as per my promise, I'm gonna chuck a quick book review in here in the mean time...


I won't go on too long, as I can't really be bothered to, but I'll just say that this is far and away the best unofficial biography of the man you'll find, and an absolute essential for fellow nutjobs like myself. Very thorough and really well-researched book, featuring interviews with the likes of Bruce Thomas (Costello's bassist in the Attractions), producer Clive Langer, a few of Costello's buddies in the media and so many others. While it's not quite up there with the brutally honest No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs by John Lydon for example, it's certainly among the best rock biographies I've read. Pivotally, it's not just a collection of statistics and albums reviews like a lot of lesser books I've read of this ilk, but instead goes out of its way to tell a pretty interesting story. Also, what makes this as interesting a read as it is, is that it doesn't fall into the trap of being too opinionated or, indeed, painting the picture of some kind of angel who did absolutely no wrong to anyone in his life. Elvis Costello, of course, was a very flawed person, at least back when he was a compulsive alcoholic and drug addict, and parts of this book do paint the picture of quite a nasty, angry guy. He's clearly mellowed out with maturity, but back in the day this was the case, all of which makes for a great read.

So, yeah, highly recommended stuff. Something that both the hardcore fans and more casual ones can appreciate.

James

I've read that book! It was great!

Bulldog

It's good stuff eh. There are definitely some very interesting stories behind a lot of the man's work. Also, it's a great indicator as to how bafflingly prolific he's been down the years too.

tgpo

His later releases are pretty boring. I miss the high energy of his early material. Although, Brutal Youth stands out with high marks from his recent LPs.

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