Customer Reviews

Elvis Costello Limited Edition Collector's Box Set - Amazon.com Exclusive

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Ok, look, if you don't own ANY of the Rhino 2-CD reissues of Elvis's albums, then yes, this box set makes sense. But, if you DO own the Rhino discs, this new set of reissues is a waste of money. The music doesn't sound better, AND you're getting the U.S. track listings. Plus, the Rhino reissues all came with a second disc of bonus tracks. This is now the 4th time these albums have been reissued! ENOUGH!!!

This is 5 star music. But it has already been reissued, many times.
In my opinion (and I believe, in any Costello-fan opinion), the
"definitive Costello reissue" is the 2-CD series issued a few years
ago, with each of the original albums doubled with a second,
full CD of unreleased, b-side, alternate, live, demo takes, sometimes
even better than the original material.
Very little (if any?) of that extra material seems to be issued in this box set.
If you love Costello's music, then the 2-CD reissue is the right place to
turn to: do yourself a favour, check it out, and pass on this box set.

Say what you want about the countless re-issues, if you've never owned EC's Columbia years or maybe frittered them away, this is an instant library. Overall, it's three stars, but you're going to get some of our greatest living songwriter's classics in one fell swoop.

Introduced by "My Aim Is True," Elvis set the standard for the new crop of songwriters. Shortly after Elvis Costello let this 13 song tornado touch down in the US, he made the infamous comment that his thorny songs about relationships were motivated by revenge and guilt. That established, rarely has this much misanthropic venting been so great a joy to listen to. It wasn't just that Elvis was angry, it was that he was throwing twisted phrases into the vocabulary with seeming effortlessness.

Then he upped the ante by making The Attractions his backing band. If "My Aim Is True" landed on like a stick of dynamite with the fuse lit, "This Year's Model" was the explosion after, and "Armed Forces" was Elvis and The Attractions' claustrophobic pop masterpiece. Elvis' first album with the Attractions more than lived up to its predecessor, in that having a working band behind him matched the music to the blunt force of the songs. These are some of the songs by which EC is measured, like "Radio Radio," "Pump it Up" and "The Beat." "Armed Forces" was loaded with melody and paranoia, fueled by cramped touring vans, hotel rooms and long stretches of listening to ABBA, Kraftwerk, Bowie and the Beatles while driving between gigs. It was also the last Elvis album to mirror the "angry young man" singer-songwriter of new wave. "Oliver's Army" and "Two Little Hitlers" brimmed with neo-fascist imagery and highly charged sexual/emotional content, yet flourished with pop-hooks. "Accidents Will Happen" portrays a barely apologetic philanderer as he tries to explain the infidelities of his life, and uses one of early Elvis' frequent descriptions of romantic partners as a "victim."

But it was an apologetic EC that was recording the follow-up. After incessant touring and the excesses of rock living, Elvis made headlines with a single regrettable drunken utterance. It forced him to a place that made him reevaluate his career to that point, and the 20 song "Get Happy" began to emerge. He immersed himself in a stack of his old favorite soul records (Booker T, Four Tops, Stax/Volt albums), and emerged a different songwriter. "Get Happy" was the album where EC challenged himself to move beyond a public's expectation and led to his forth five star record.

After the "Get Happy" experiment, Elvis wanted to try something else new, heading for Nashville to meet with an iconic country producer, and then cut an album of some of his favorites. It really could have been a great record. Instead, "Almost Blue" was Elvis' first big misstep; the sound of a 9 to 5 producer (Billy Sherrill) trying to shoehorn them into a paint by numbers sound. While the album kicks off like it should ("Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used To?"), the ensuing album finds the band in a straightjacket. The sole exceptions, naturally, were the ballads.

"Trust" broke form with earlier Elvis Costello albums. For the first time, Elvis shifted focus from the brute force of his music to presenting himself more as a vocalist. A fair amount of this might have to do with his budding relationship with Chris Difford of Squeeze (who duets on "From A Whisper To A Scream"). Elvis was also in the middle of a writer's draught, which left a couple of songs sounding like filler (hence the 4 star rating). Not like it mattered; along with "New Lace Sleeves" and "From A Whisper to a Scream," there was the stunning piano ballad, "Shot With His Own Gun." That particular song upped the ante for Elvis the writer, as well as being perfectly realized as a vocalist. Like many of Elvis' albums, "Trust" has aged delightfully.

When "Imperial Bedroom" first hit the shelves, critics were falling over themselves with superlatives. Even Columbia's "Artist...Masterpiece?" ad campaign was begging the question. Was this the album that would crack the new wave stereotype that had been hung around Elvis Costello's neck since "My Aim Is True?" The answer was yes...and no.

Geoff Emerick put his Beatle-esque touches for a handsome, rich sound, more than any other album in EC's discography. Working from the pretext that they could experiment like the Beatles did, each song was tinkered with till they barely resembled their original ideas. It made the original LP's side one a song-suite of near "Sgt. Pepper" proportions, with the standout "Man Out Of Time" marking the bridge between Elvis old and Elvis new. Comparisons to Gershwin and Porter were being tossed around when "Imperial Bedroom" first came out, one suspects they had more to do with overzealous critics trying to make associations with "serious music" than to the obvious merits of Elvis' songwriting prowess. It was likely the best album of 1982.

Flush with artistic raves and the critical success of "Imperial Bedroom," Elvis Costello did exactly what we should have expected him to do. He made an album absolutely nothing like the one prior. "Punch The Clock" is a maniacally obsessive pop album, primarily due to producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. They wrapped EC and the Attractions with soul vocals, punchy horns and a free-swinging style of production that was the polar opposite of Nick Lowe's. (Imagine "Get Happy" with more breathing space in the songs.) This CD caught Elvis flirting with American Top 40 via "Everyday I Write The Book." It also meant Elvis' definition of "pop" included heartfelt jabs at the then state of England. "Pills and Soap" and "Shipbuilding" were remarkable for their inclusion among the giddy "The Greatest Thing" or "Mouth Almighty." The understated, elegant lyric, along with a perfect solo from Chet Baker made "Shipbuilding" not only the best song on "Punch The Clock," but one of the outstanding songs in EC's library.

Given the success of PTC (one of EC's first to reach gold status), it made sense that L&W would be around for the next. If you want to gauge how underrated "Punch The Clock" usually is, give a re-listen to "Goodbye Cruel World," the undisciplined follow-up. Even Elvis himself conceded the point on the Ryko reissue, with the infamous "You've purchased our worst album" comment. Time has given "Goodbye Cruel World" a finer burnish. The tug of war going on between Elvis himself, his band and producers Langer and Winstanley took some good songs and "date stamped" them. The songs aren't any less stellar; two of his strongest ever are here, the anthem "Peace In Our Time" and "The Comedians." Along with "Shipbuilding," "Peace In Our Time" joins the great political songs that EC has written, timely even now.

When Elvis decided to finally to roots rock HIS way, he switched his name back to Declan MacManus and forged ahead into brilliance. With the exception of the slippery jam session of "Eisenhower Blues," the 15 songs on "King Of America" are as flawless a whole album as anything from his early years and his most successful collaboration with a producer, in this case, T-Bone Burnett, save Burt Bacharach. Songs like "Brilliant Mistake" and "American Without Tears" effortlessly blossom with atmosphere and honesty. Even the Attractions, who at this venture, had become estranged and embittered, contribute one of their best performances ever with the single song "Suit Of Lights." Elvis seemed to be at a more relaxed state of lyricism than since the underrated "Trust." Compare the fire analogies of "The Only Flame In Town" (on "Goodbye Cruel World") to the far superior "Indoor Fireworks" here. Or such leap from the speakers couplets like "She said that she was working for the ABC news, it was as much of the alphabet as she new how to use" from "Brilliant Mistake." There is also one of my all-time favorite Costello-isms, as he describes a relationship with a contrary girlfriend to be akin to "a chainsaw running through a dictionary." Perhaps my favorite moment on "King Of America" would be the two person viewpoint of the disc's closer, "Sleep Of The Just." A tale of an army pin-up girl and her soldier brother, it's a masterful tale of conflicting family and emotions, with a slow sad organ fade. "King Of America" showed the vitality of his early exploration of the genre. It remains one of the many five star albums in Elvis' Columbia years worthy of rediscovery.

After the extremes of the three previous records, Elvis made what people would probably conceive of as a typical "Elvis Costello and the Attractions" album. Nick Lowe came back and threw subtlety to the wind for "Blood And Chocolate," Elvis' angriest album since "This Year's Model." Elvis himself described the inspiration for most of this material as "Messing up my life so I could write stupid little songs about it." Wave after wave of vitriol backed by The Attractions' and Lowe's artful distorted sound matched the emotional content of many of the songs, and one of all time Elvis' brilliant performances is here. "I Want You" drags you into a hellish confrontation with more than a passing nod to John Lennon and The Beatles' song of the same name. Elvis vents with derisive passion till the sounds slowly drop away to little more than the sound of him deeply breathing the title over and over.

Perhaps it's in the fact that the recording of "Blood And Chocolate" was done as quickly as possible with as few takes as necessary, but for the most part, this was Elvis most relentless CD since "This Year's Model." As the final song in this chronology of the Columbia years, it marks a moment when Elvis came full circle.

It's true that these latest re-re-[re-, etc.]issues are not being forced upon anyone who already owns other copies of the albums. But for those of us who don't, it's frustrating that the most widely available editions of Costello's albums are now inferior to the previously released ones, which will no doubt become pricey and more difficult to seek out once they're out-of-print and the last lingering copies have been bought up. I've liked EC's music for a long time, but since he's an artist whose work can be heard in popular media, and since I own much of his music in one form or another, I've never felt compelled to go out and buy his albums, title by title, as they've been reissued. Now I feel obligated to buy the Rhino reissues while they're still available.

So, yes, it does suck that there's no incentive to buy these Universal re-releases other than the fact that they're what's in-print. The sound quality is nothing new, and there are none of the incredible bonus tracks that made the Rhino reissues so great. Maybe someday Universal will reissue them *again* with a track or two added to what was released by Ryko and Rhino, so they can shake as many pennies from fans' pockets as possible.

Until then, I'm getting the Rhino CDs while I can, and I recommend them to new fans or others who are buying the albums for the first time.

I've really enjoyed reading all the Elvis fans' reviews regarding this collection. There's nothing more charming to me than a fellow Elvis follower -- especially one who has his dudgeon up. I love the idea that somehow we've all been forced to purchase reissue after reissue of our favorite musician's work -- and are bitterly playing and replaying them, listening carefully for higher-fi or something we (the faithful) somehow missed the first, second or third times around.
I love Elvis. At the ripe old age of 41, I can safely say that my shameless fandom is the last remaining vestige of my high school years.
As far as I'm concerned, we should all be allowed one artist who we don't just listen to, we believe in. This kind of devotion is akin to religious fervor or true love, and it can not be easily dismissed or ignored. Quality of recording -- or even material -- notwithstanding.
For those of us who've so enjoyed these releases in some or all of their earlier incarnations, there's only one reason to own this set -- so that we can say we own every Elvis recording. (Admit it, that's why you bought the rhino releases even though you owned the rykodisc...)
Frankly, I think it would be weird for someone who's new to Elvis to buy this package -- and it probably wouldn't make a fan of anyone (what if the first recording they listened to was Goodbye Cruel World? That would be that.)
This is for the diehards. Complain if you must, but clear yet another shelf of the CD tower to make room for it. (Hey, you can keep it wrapped -- there's nothing new here - and you'll have yourself a bonafide mint-condition limited edition collectible in a few years.)
signed, in solidarity, a fellow fan.

I bought them the first time when Ryko put out good reissues during the 90's, and Rhino got me hook line and sinker with the outstanding releases they did just a few years ago( and just finished with last year by the way ). I can understand any record label wanting to put out what they have the rights to, but the Elvis reissues have just gotten out of hand. I'm glad these cd's are going to be in print for anyone who wants to buy them, but unless something really special comes along my Rhino cd's will not be replaced.

Up until now, the repeated re-reissuing of EC's brilliant catalogue has been a delight and a thrill, with pleanty of new material added to the Ryko reissue, and then staggering amounts of it in the Rhino releases. But who in their right mind would buy any of these new reissues? How moronic does Hip-O think Elvis's fans are? I don't even buy the line that they are suitable for new EC fans. All fans, new and old, should own the Rhino reissues. This set doesn't even cover the Warners albums. I'm a long time, tragic EC fan, but he should be ashamed to sanction this latest reissue program, at least so far. The plans for later release of new material, and a deluxe MIAT look much more worthwhile.

Top quality songs but a total rip-off. This has all been issued and re-issued in numerous and superior formats. Only buy if you have money to burn!

Let's see: I've bought Get Happy literally more times than I can count--on CBS vinyl, on CBS cassette, on CBS CD, on Ryko CD, on Rhino CD....seriously: enough is enough. It's not about the packaging. It's about the music. Ironincally, "High Fidelity" was never the point of listening to Elvis. The songs are great, but this set is redundant and sub-par unless you have nothing, in which case, I'd say, go to eBay and but the Rhino stuff used.

If only the amazing Rhino re-issues were available at this value in one place, I wouldn't have spent months biding my time, searching for each masterful release. Oh well, here's the shrug-worthy 3rd set of Elvis Costello re-issues. Each album is a pop gem (except perhaps for the uncomfortably slick Goodbye Cruel World) waiting to be discovered and analyzed. I assume all the amazing tracks from the Rhino re-issue bonus discs will themselves be released (with 5-10 new tracks that we "MUST HAVE" as Costello completists) in their own, separate "Rarities" box. Honestly, this set is nothing I will ever buy. All the "deluxe cover art" is merely digipack design, and the exclusive tracks on the "best of" disc can always be purchased separately. This is only for the compulsively masochistic, or those unfortunate enough to have missed the unparalleled Rhino 2-disc sets. Considering that the Rhino 2-packs are still in stock at many Best Buys/Borders/etc. for $15, cheaper used, or at a local record store, you aren't getting a heck of a lot, except the convenience of having all the albums at once. Honestly, the presentation of these classic albums is a real letdown. Elvis, we still love ya, but Universal really dropped the ball on what could have been another epic series of EC remasters.