Elvis Costello: The Juliet Letters [Import]

Brodsky Quartet, Elvis Costello | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 19, 1993)
• Original Release Date: 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Warner Bros
• ASIN: B000002MI4
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,693 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Deliver Us

2. For Other Eyes

3. Swine

4. Expert Rites

5. Dead Letter

6. I Almost Had A Weakness

7. Why?

8. Who Do You Think You Are?

9. Taking My Life In Your Hands

10. This Offer Is Unrepeatable

11. Dear Sweet Filthy World

12. The Letter Home

13. Jacksons, Monk And Rowe

14. This Sad Burlesque

15. Romeo's Seance

16. I Thought I'd Write To Juliet

17. Last Post

18. The First To Leave

19. Damnation's Cellar

20. The Birds Will Still Be Singing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars magical..., February 21, 2003

By 

Todd Gillette (KC, Missouri United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elvis Costello: The Juliet Letters (Audio CD)

What an irony : one of my favorite recordings EVER, but I can't think of one person to recommend it to. My rocker friends wouldn't last 10 minutes into this as they await the drums to kick in, and my friends of the classical persuasion would give Elvis' "unclassically trained voice" even less audition time. My ongoing "desert island" top ten rotates over time, but Juliet Letters is a permanent fixture on that list. Now, if they'd just release the 1-hour PBS concert/documentary on DVD ...

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I know Elvis..., December 3, 2003

By 

P. Wilson "pawil71" (Teaneck, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Elvis Costello: The Juliet Letters (Audio CD)

I am a great admirer of Elvis Costello. Like many of us, I like it better when he is with the Attractions, rocking out than when he is with Burt Bacharach getting self conscious and arty. I am also a classical musician, deeply skeptical of "crossover" albums. In fact, I don't think I can name one crossover album I like. Except this one. And I love it. I think this record has several of Costello's best lyrics AND melodies. "Taking my life in your hands" would make Lennon, McCartney, and Mahler all equally proud. It defies genre and comes scarily close to what I am tempted to call "pure expression." Of course, that's a ridiculous notion, but this song is such an emotional and aesthetic slam dunk that I am awed. Also I love "Damnation's Cellar" and "Who do you think you are?" There are some duds here, and I'd have to say the first two tracks will scare a lot of people off. Hang in there. It was a year or two after this album was released that I learned to love it, and time after time, it holds up better for me than any other Costello release.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes my "desert island" list, August 7, 2000

By 

Elliott Delman (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elvis Costello: The Juliet Letters (Audio CD)

Juliet Letters definitely makes my "desert island" list. If ever stranded on a desert island (with CD player and a lifetime supply of batteries, of course) this is one of a handful of recordings I would choose. Costello's sense of melody, honest theatrics and storytelling is a rare and welcome gift. And accompanied by the Brodsky String Quartet, well...Tension, release, complexity, simplicity, the beautiful, the raffish. And ah, the melodies that strike the heart and live there long after the music ends. Each time I listen to this CD I am filled with gratitude and awe.