CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Momofuku

by: Elvis Costello & the Imposters

Release Date May 06, 2008
always a treat when elvis gets the rock quartet thing going again...not the best...and i miss the attractions (bruce thomas) but it's better than 90% of the rock music out there.

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

The Best of Elvis Costello: The First 10 Years [DIGIPACK]

by: Elvis Costello

Release Date May 01, 2007
Elvis Costello is Evil himself.
*He stole the name from the the Good Elvis
*He can't sing.
*He has not composed one good song.
*He snatched Diana Krall.
*He has totally ruined and vandalised others' good songs:
-"Good year for the roses" by George Jones
-"On your way down" by Little Feat/Allen Toussaint
-"London Calling" by the Clash.

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

My Aim Is True

by: Elvis Costello

Release Date May 01, 2007
Music writers in 1977 hailed the appearance of this record as the introduction of a major new songwriting talent. Indeed, EC demonstrates here an astonishingly precocious ability to combine sophistication and popular sensibility with both personal ("Alison") and sociological ("Less than Zero") themes.

Of course the musicianship is considered the primary flaw of the album (it's not worth getting bent out of shape over 'remastering' - I've heard these songs for thirty years and they have always sounded weak and tinny in any format). It's very easy to mock 'Clover''s performance as either lazy or incompetent but in the interest of fair play I would like to propose that they were a victim of the disease of 'mellow', i.e. a perception that popular ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

The Big Lebowski: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

from: Gramercy Pictures

Release Date February 24, 1998
First let's get this out of the way: This is a great soundtrack! One cannot help but visualize the film while listening. From Bob to the Gipsy Kings to Kenny Rogers. The songs are now forever linked to the Dude and Jesus and Maude. Anyone who loves the film will want to own this. This review isn't so much about that but about my criticism of film soundtrack criticism in general.

There are several reasons why a soundtrack like this is "incomplete". Most of the time a soundtrack featuring various artists includes much more music than can fit on one cd. With BL specifically obviously there were some tracks that seem like they "must" be included. Songs that were featured prominently (tumbleweeds) or are indispensible to the plot (the eagles or creedence) ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

This Year's Model

by: Elvis Costello

Release Date March 04, 2008
If only for the great bonus live disc. I am sure they could have just released the concert on its own and sold it out many times over. Like another reviewer suggested, this is even more thrilling than the El Mocambo concert disc, but they could've fixed that also by releasing the entire Mocambo show, un-edited. Setlists being similar, we probably don't need both, but heck, Elvis could release them anyway. A whole passel of live show releases would be nice, for that matter...
Docked one star only because the bonus material on the first disc has already been reissued.

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

This Year's Model

by: Elvis Costello

Release Date May 01, 2007
The album is flawless. The musicianship is so tight and economical that not a single note or beat seems out of place (every person I've ever known is thrilled to hear 'Pump it Up'). While obviously one would not cast EC in "I Pagliacci" his vocal tones and inflections are perfect for his material, perhaps never more so than on this record.

But what makes listening to this so breathtaking is the songwriting. This, along with 'Armed Forces' form the most brilliant collection of compositions in the history of popular music. The genre that once relied on "one-two-three'o'clock, four'o'clock rock" and "tutti-fruitti aw rooty" now had Declan the Great to provide "you want to throw me away, but I'm not broken" and "I want to bite the hand that feeds me".

Forget ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Armed Forces

by: Elvis Costello & the Attraction

Release Date May 01, 2007
Most of us, even with our very favorite CD's, will have one or two tracks we will always skip over for no other reason than that the style varies a little bit making it not quite to our taste. Well the performances here and on 'This Year's Model' are so flawless that I will not listen to any EC music unless I am in a position to hear every single song on both of the original versions in one sitting.

Musically, the arrangements here are substantially more ambitious than the first two albums, but the instrumental sophistication is always serving the craft of the song - Nick Lowe's production really shines. Steve Nieve stakes his claim as one of rock and roll's all-time great sidemen - he provides incredible power to both the rhythm and melody in "Oliver's Army", "Goon Squad" and ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Painted from Memory

by: Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach

Release Date September 29, 1998
With a reputation so rooted in the turtle-necked, nicotine-infused lounge lizardry of Hal David, Dionne Warwick and the zero consequence hedonism of Southern California affluence - the prospect of a Burt Bacharach tag-team with the much rougher and far more tumbled Elvis Costello would have seemed to be an Irwin Allen disaster in waiting - finally ushering in the very sorry age of post-post-post-post-irony. A futile vanity project with all the nervous energy and awkward body language of an arranged marriage.

Well, a strange thing happened on the way to that opposites don't attract scenario - Bacharach and Costello made a remarkable record that after a decade of repeated listening has only become more vibrant and powerful. The vastly different approach of both artists makes little difference ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Imperial Bedroom

by: Elvis Costello & the Attractions

Release Date May 01, 2007
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.

Granted, hiring Geoff Emerick to put his Beatle-esque touches made for a handsome, rich sound, more than any other album in EC's discography. The expansiveness paid off right from the album's opener, "Beyond Belief." Toying with his own range and the overlapping vocal parts, Elvis' willingness to experiment rocked the foundations of all the early "punks" of the period. (Think of how closely Joe Jackson's "Night And Day" and The Police's "Synchronicity" ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Get Happy!!

by: Elvis Costello & the Attractions

Release Date May 01, 2007
Get Happy may not be entirely free of filler, but there's still enough great stuff here to make your head spin. Costello's fourth album is a twenty-track tour-de-force that sees him nodding to the visceral new wave punk of This Year's Model while further expanding his musical vocabulary. He builds on Armed Forces' pop influences, incorporating them into a vision that now includes soul, punk, folk, classicist rock `n' roll, as well as references to reggae, disco, and whatever else he can get his hands on. Get Happy is more noticeably soul-influenced than his previous records, but it's more than just a genre exercise- Costello builds on the Stax/Volt sound, using its raucous and hook-filled ideals as the basis for some of the most creative songs ever written or performed: The music is smartly built, catchy in ... Read More: