King of America reissue
"Having it All" was probably my favorite song/scene from "Absolute Beginners" (and I wasn't even sure it was by Elvis when I saw it!) ...maybe it was the homage to Stanley Donen's cafe sequences in "Funny Face" and "Damn Yankees" that I dub, but I thought it was a swell song. Looking forward to finally hearing the man do it.
http://www.forwardtoyesterday.com -- Where "hopelessly dated" is a compliment!
I have to say that I absolutely love the new cover. The crown looks incredible and the added hints of color are really effective. It puts life into an album cover I never really could appreciate as much as the others.
After listening to King Of Americana, there was no bonus disc that could really live up to those expectations... but it feels good to have remastered versions of King Of Confidence and They'll Never Take Her Love From Me.
After listening to King Of Americana, there was no bonus disc that could really live up to those expectations... but it feels good to have remastered versions of King Of Confidence and They'll Never Take Her Love From Me.
Oy with the poodles, already!
I'm pretty sure the song 'Having It All' in Absolute Beginners isn't Elvis's song, but another one with the same name. I think EC was given the title by Julien Temple, who obviously wanted a song of that title to sum up the character, but who ultimately preferred the other one to Costello's. Does that make sense?!!bobster wrote:"Having it All" was probably my favorite song/scene from "Absolute Beginners" (and I wasn't even sure it was by Elvis when I saw it!) ...maybe it was the homage to Stanley Donen's cafe sequences in "Funny Face" and "Damn Yankees" that I dub, but I thought it was a swell song. Looking forward to finally hearing the man do it.
It's been so long since I've seen the film that I can't say for sure, but that's my memory. But, anyway. EC's Having It All is lovely.
Will we ever get to hear the takes of "I Hope Your Happy Now" cut with the Keltner/Scheff/Froom lineup? EC says "We struggled through a few tentative takes, but it was useless." So maybe not, but I think he is holiding it for the next re-re-re-release.
Spooky, if you haven't already bought this reissue, maybe wait for the next one (it is inevitable) because will include this version of IHYHN.
Spooky, if you haven't already bought this reissue, maybe wait for the next one (it is inevitable) because will include this version of IHYHN.
//I can't forgive you for things you haven't done yet
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It's available now on the Singles, Volume 3 box set, as well as the King of Americana bootleg.normabuel wrote:Will we ever get to hear the takes of "I Hope Your Happy Now" cut with the Keltner/Scheff/Froom lineup? EC says "We struggled through a few tentative takes, but it was useless." So maybe not, but I think he is holiding it for the next re-re-re-release.
Spooky, if you haven't already bought this reissue, maybe wait for the next one (it is inevitable) because will include this version of IHYHN.
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=279198
The Costello Show: «King Of America»
The Costello Show: «King Of America»
(Edsel/Bonnier)
Bøtter og spann - nå også i bøtter og spann
Folk som ikke fikser Elvis Costello, har som regel følgende innsigelser: For mange ord. For mange akkorder. For mange plater. For mange sanger. For mange samarbeidspartnere. For mange sjangre.
Legitime beskyldninger, alle som én. Han gjør det heller ikke lettere for seg ved måten han har valgt å behandle katalogen sin på. I 1995 kom en utgave av «King Of America», opprinnelig utgitt i 1986, med fem bonuskutt (samt en ekstra bonuskonsertdisk, om du var tidlig ute). Denne nye, med en helt egen bonusdisk, har tjueen, seks mer enn de femten på det opprinnelige albumet. Det spørs om ikke de ukonverterte kan slutte å lese sånn omtrent her.
Småtragisk, for «King Of America» (utgitt under navnet The Costello Show - han holdt seg i sin tid med mange pseudonymer også) er i utgangspunktet en ideell Elvis Costello-plate for folk som tror de ikke liker Elvis Costello.
Et utmerket sett country-influerte sanger, ypperlig fremført av amerikanske musikere som ti år tidligere hadde spilt med Den Andre Elvis. Costellos ubestridelige intelligens fråder fra både melodier og tekster - også bonuskuttene (juvel: «Having It All», skrevet for til filmkalkunen «Absolute Beginners», men ikke benyttet).
MORTEN STÅLE NILSEN
VG 31.05.2005
The Costello Show: «King Of America»
The Costello Show: «King Of America»
(Edsel/Bonnier)
Bøtter og spann - nå også i bøtter og spann
Folk som ikke fikser Elvis Costello, har som regel følgende innsigelser: For mange ord. For mange akkorder. For mange plater. For mange sanger. For mange samarbeidspartnere. For mange sjangre.
Legitime beskyldninger, alle som én. Han gjør det heller ikke lettere for seg ved måten han har valgt å behandle katalogen sin på. I 1995 kom en utgave av «King Of America», opprinnelig utgitt i 1986, med fem bonuskutt (samt en ekstra bonuskonsertdisk, om du var tidlig ute). Denne nye, med en helt egen bonusdisk, har tjueen, seks mer enn de femten på det opprinnelige albumet. Det spørs om ikke de ukonverterte kan slutte å lese sånn omtrent her.
Småtragisk, for «King Of America» (utgitt under navnet The Costello Show - han holdt seg i sin tid med mange pseudonymer også) er i utgangspunktet en ideell Elvis Costello-plate for folk som tror de ikke liker Elvis Costello.
Et utmerket sett country-influerte sanger, ypperlig fremført av amerikanske musikere som ti år tidligere hadde spilt med Den Andre Elvis. Costellos ubestridelige intelligens fråder fra både melodier og tekster - også bonuskuttene (juvel: «Having It All», skrevet for til filmkalkunen «Absolute Beginners», men ikke benyttet).
MORTEN STÅLE NILSEN
VG 31.05.2005
Lemme try translating that, my norweigan isn't very good 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Bla bla bla bla bla.
People that can't listen to (?) Elvis Costello usually don't because:
There are too many words, too many chords, too many albums, too many songs, too many collaborations, too many genres.
Reasonable accusations. Also, he's not making things any easier for himself with the way he's treating his catalogue. In 1995 there was a reissue of King of America (originally released in 1986) featuring 5 new bonus tracks as well as an extra live disc, for those who were quick. The latest reissue, featuring its very own disc full of bonus content, has 21 tracks, six more than the 15 tracks on the original album. Bla bla bla.
This is sad, because King of America is an ideal Elvis Costello record for people who don't think they like Elvis Costello.
An excellent set of country-influenced songs very well performed by american musicians who 10 years earlier had played together with the other Elvis. So me, being a very norwegian person, will now go dine on poopsicles!
-------------------------
That's it about it!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Bla bla bla bla bla.
People that can't listen to (?) Elvis Costello usually don't because:
There are too many words, too many chords, too many albums, too many songs, too many collaborations, too many genres.
Reasonable accusations. Also, he's not making things any easier for himself with the way he's treating his catalogue. In 1995 there was a reissue of King of America (originally released in 1986) featuring 5 new bonus tracks as well as an extra live disc, for those who were quick. The latest reissue, featuring its very own disc full of bonus content, has 21 tracks, six more than the 15 tracks on the original album. Bla bla bla.
This is sad, because King of America is an ideal Elvis Costello record for people who don't think they like Elvis Costello.
An excellent set of country-influenced songs very well performed by american musicians who 10 years earlier had played together with the other Elvis. So me, being a very norwegian person, will now go dine on poopsicles!
-------------------------
That's it about it!
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invisible Pole
- Posts: 2228
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Now this one has really pissed me off.
Lifeless production ? Songs rendered in unexciting manner ? Punch The Clock has more memorable melodies ?
http://popmatters.com/music/reviews/c/c ... 2005.shtml
ELVIS COSTELLO
King of America
by Zeth Lundy
PopMatters Associate Music Editor
"The album that fans, critics and Elvis Costello all agree on," proudly states the promotional sticker affixed to copies of Rhino's new two-disc reissue of Costello's King of America. If by "agree on" the oblique recommendation intends to assert the record's supreme superiority, what can I say? Sometimes the majority's wrong.
Despite the forgiving accolades heaped upon its rootsy frame since its original 1986 release, King of America is not Costello's best record. It does serve, along with Blood & Chocolate (also from '86), as a cap-doffing feather to a prolific, near-inhuman run of 11 albums in just nine years. Lauded for its unflinchingly personal tone (seriously, though, which Costello record isn't unflinchingly personal?), King of America is an anomaly in Costello's catalog, one that forsakes his given stage name for a more anonymous vantage point. In the liner notes to the new Rhino edition, Costello describes a desire to shake the "vengeful geek" tag and "reclaim [his] family name". Most traces of "Elvis" are unceremoniously removed from the record's credits: Costello is rechristened the self-deprecating moniker "Little Hands of Concrete" for performance credits and Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus (minus Aloysius, his given name), for compositional credits. The record itself was credited to "The Costello Show" only after the record company balked at Costello's insistence that it bear his original name. This effort to concoct an album of unburdened anonymity speaks to the record's private, delicate nature and, consequently, Costello's personal attachment to its contents.
King of America's most regrettable shortcoming is its lifeless production: the instruments and Costello's voice are rendered thin as sacrament wafers; the entire mix is doused in a questionable amount of reverb. In his new book Complicated Shadows: The Life and Music of Elvis Costello, Graeme Thomson refers to the record's sound -- affectionately -- as monochromatic, which is both a fitting and infuriating description. Perhaps an attempt to regain "organic" textures following the plastic '80s pop of the underrated Punch the Clock (1983) and unjustly demonized Goodbye Cruel World (1984), King of America levies the burden of proof on its songs alone, the first record in Costello's catalog to do so since his 1977 debut My Aim Is True. Blood & Chocolate, released barely six months later, was a much stronger, more visceral example of this, proving that even the best songs benefit greatly from how they're presented. Rhino does a tremendous job of injecting some blood into King of America's veins; the remastering fleshes out the mesh of intricately plotted instrumentation in songs like "Brilliant Mistake" and inflates the chest-wheeze of Jo-El Sonnier's accordion in "American Without Tears". Still, King of America is a casualty of the increasingly problematic mid-'80s production techniques, much like its predecessor Goodbye Cruel World. (Some credit must be given to the loathed Goodbye Cruel World for causing King of America to appear, at the time and in hindsight, better than it actually is.)
In chronological context of Costello's catalog, King of America is, therefore, worthy of the cliché "return to form", but it can also instill a faulty impression of importance -- much in the same way Dylan's Blood on the Tracks is championed as a similar "comeback" and career highlight. Take Goodbye Cruel World out of the equation, and King of America appears less flattering and more competent: My Aim Is True has better songs; This Year's Model more paranoia; Armed Forces a more challenging concept; Get Happy!!! and Trust superior style; Imperial Bedroom more adventurous studio explorations; and Punch the Clock more memorable melodies. What may draw people to King of America is its plain, uncomplicated presentation. It's easy to understand and digest, unlike the baroque curlicues of Imperial Bedroom or the speed-fueled alliterative soul of Get Happy!!!; in this regard, King of America is a welcoming start for the uninitiated or apprehensive.
Let us retain this perspective and judge accurately: King of America is a collection of strong songs (which, frankly, is simply what had come to be expected of Costello) rendered in an unexciting manner, and that's OK. It's not the conclusive hallmark of Costello's career, and that's OK. It contains definitive songs of artistic purpose -- "Brilliant Mistake" muses on regret and stupidity while neatly summarizing the crux of Costello's career. There are classic instances of machismo deflation ("You think that you'll be sweet to her but everybody knows / That you're the marshmallow valentine that got stuck on her clothes") and innate contradiction ("Like a chainsaw running through a dictionary") (both from "Our Little Angel"). It's an album full of harrowing portraits of rejection and isolation ("I'll Wear It Proudly"), confrontation ("Indoor Fireworks"), and downright dazzling displays of lyrical fortitude ("Suit of Lights"). It is the watershed moment where his lifelong fascination with America took on a larger swath of his artistic palette, an obsession that would continue to inform much of his work throughout the late '80s and '90s. King of America is a British perspective plagued by visions of America: a land of opportunity and disgrace, a place where fortune breeds folly. While not exactly a concept record, King of America has speckles of Americana mixed into its paint (the traditional country-folk-blues format of its songs, visions of Eisenhower, ABC, Judy Garland, and Nat King Cole dancing in its head), most of it, appropriately, performed with the assistance of legendary American session men (including Elvis Presley's "T.C.B." band members James Burton, Jerry Scheff, and Ron Tutt, as well as Jim Keltner, Earl Palmer, Ray Brown, and co-producer T-Bone Burnett).
In his liner notes to the Rhino edition (extensively informative and humorous, as usual), Costello describes King of America as "inherently contradictory" (hence the title), and he's right. It's not only contradictory, it's enigmatic -- slyly, almost unconsciously so. Its greatest vocal performance is in the cover of the Animals'/Nina Simone's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (Costello reaches down to that mysterious bottom reef in his throat that, in '86, he rarely explored). The most exciting songs are those that are the most traditional (the Sun/bluegrass shuffle "Glitter Gulch" and the Attractions' scornful domination on "Suit of Lights", their only appearance on the record). Additionally, the record sounds like a bid for inclusion in the hierarchy of a greater tradition -- that of the Great American Songbook -- observing linear chord progressions and the trodden soil of fundamental instrumentation. It's as if, for the first time in Costello's career, he's not forcibly sticking his feet into a genre or sub-genre of his choice, but quietly nudging his way into a cemented lineage with self-doubting confidence. Like Dylan in Blood on the Tracks, Costello's in an extraordinary lyrical league here, but the feel of breaking ground and exiting swiftly out the back, so crucial to earlier albums, has been lost in the stylistic reassessment.
With King of America, Rhino continues one of the most impressive reissuing campaigns in recent memory, actually giving fans a reason to repurchase Costello's catalog for the third or fourth time (if not for the immaculate remastering and bonus tracks, then for the complete lyrics and Costello's essays). Half of the inclusions on the bonus disc were originally included on Ryko's reissue ("King of Confidence", "Shoes Without Heels", the Coward Brothers songs "The People's Limousine" and "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me") or its limited edition bonus disc (six live tunes, including an incendiary cover of Dave Bartholomew's "That's How You Got Killed Before", recorded in New York City in '86). In the unreleased material department, the bonus disc boasts a number of whiskey-abetted solo demos, recorded throughout '85; the cautious readings ("raw and sozzled", Costello notes) stretch and wring the songs 'til their tongues pop out, and provide little more than a passing fascination with their geneses. There's also "Betrayal", a fine political song cut with the Attractions (left off the record) that would provide the impetus for Spike's "Tramp the Dirt Down". Instead of issuing King of America as part of a like-minded group (as has been done with the other Costello reissues), Rhino has chosen to release this one on its own, a not-so-subtle indication of the record's status among fans and record companies alike. Fair enough -- let's just not let the album get a fatter head (or more bejeweled crown) than it objectively deserves.
— 3 June 2005
Lifeless production ? Songs rendered in unexciting manner ? Punch The Clock has more memorable melodies ?
http://popmatters.com/music/reviews/c/c ... 2005.shtml
ELVIS COSTELLO
King of America
by Zeth Lundy
PopMatters Associate Music Editor
"The album that fans, critics and Elvis Costello all agree on," proudly states the promotional sticker affixed to copies of Rhino's new two-disc reissue of Costello's King of America. If by "agree on" the oblique recommendation intends to assert the record's supreme superiority, what can I say? Sometimes the majority's wrong.
Despite the forgiving accolades heaped upon its rootsy frame since its original 1986 release, King of America is not Costello's best record. It does serve, along with Blood & Chocolate (also from '86), as a cap-doffing feather to a prolific, near-inhuman run of 11 albums in just nine years. Lauded for its unflinchingly personal tone (seriously, though, which Costello record isn't unflinchingly personal?), King of America is an anomaly in Costello's catalog, one that forsakes his given stage name for a more anonymous vantage point. In the liner notes to the new Rhino edition, Costello describes a desire to shake the "vengeful geek" tag and "reclaim [his] family name". Most traces of "Elvis" are unceremoniously removed from the record's credits: Costello is rechristened the self-deprecating moniker "Little Hands of Concrete" for performance credits and Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus (minus Aloysius, his given name), for compositional credits. The record itself was credited to "The Costello Show" only after the record company balked at Costello's insistence that it bear his original name. This effort to concoct an album of unburdened anonymity speaks to the record's private, delicate nature and, consequently, Costello's personal attachment to its contents.
King of America's most regrettable shortcoming is its lifeless production: the instruments and Costello's voice are rendered thin as sacrament wafers; the entire mix is doused in a questionable amount of reverb. In his new book Complicated Shadows: The Life and Music of Elvis Costello, Graeme Thomson refers to the record's sound -- affectionately -- as monochromatic, which is both a fitting and infuriating description. Perhaps an attempt to regain "organic" textures following the plastic '80s pop of the underrated Punch the Clock (1983) and unjustly demonized Goodbye Cruel World (1984), King of America levies the burden of proof on its songs alone, the first record in Costello's catalog to do so since his 1977 debut My Aim Is True. Blood & Chocolate, released barely six months later, was a much stronger, more visceral example of this, proving that even the best songs benefit greatly from how they're presented. Rhino does a tremendous job of injecting some blood into King of America's veins; the remastering fleshes out the mesh of intricately plotted instrumentation in songs like "Brilliant Mistake" and inflates the chest-wheeze of Jo-El Sonnier's accordion in "American Without Tears". Still, King of America is a casualty of the increasingly problematic mid-'80s production techniques, much like its predecessor Goodbye Cruel World. (Some credit must be given to the loathed Goodbye Cruel World for causing King of America to appear, at the time and in hindsight, better than it actually is.)
In chronological context of Costello's catalog, King of America is, therefore, worthy of the cliché "return to form", but it can also instill a faulty impression of importance -- much in the same way Dylan's Blood on the Tracks is championed as a similar "comeback" and career highlight. Take Goodbye Cruel World out of the equation, and King of America appears less flattering and more competent: My Aim Is True has better songs; This Year's Model more paranoia; Armed Forces a more challenging concept; Get Happy!!! and Trust superior style; Imperial Bedroom more adventurous studio explorations; and Punch the Clock more memorable melodies. What may draw people to King of America is its plain, uncomplicated presentation. It's easy to understand and digest, unlike the baroque curlicues of Imperial Bedroom or the speed-fueled alliterative soul of Get Happy!!!; in this regard, King of America is a welcoming start for the uninitiated or apprehensive.
Let us retain this perspective and judge accurately: King of America is a collection of strong songs (which, frankly, is simply what had come to be expected of Costello) rendered in an unexciting manner, and that's OK. It's not the conclusive hallmark of Costello's career, and that's OK. It contains definitive songs of artistic purpose -- "Brilliant Mistake" muses on regret and stupidity while neatly summarizing the crux of Costello's career. There are classic instances of machismo deflation ("You think that you'll be sweet to her but everybody knows / That you're the marshmallow valentine that got stuck on her clothes") and innate contradiction ("Like a chainsaw running through a dictionary") (both from "Our Little Angel"). It's an album full of harrowing portraits of rejection and isolation ("I'll Wear It Proudly"), confrontation ("Indoor Fireworks"), and downright dazzling displays of lyrical fortitude ("Suit of Lights"). It is the watershed moment where his lifelong fascination with America took on a larger swath of his artistic palette, an obsession that would continue to inform much of his work throughout the late '80s and '90s. King of America is a British perspective plagued by visions of America: a land of opportunity and disgrace, a place where fortune breeds folly. While not exactly a concept record, King of America has speckles of Americana mixed into its paint (the traditional country-folk-blues format of its songs, visions of Eisenhower, ABC, Judy Garland, and Nat King Cole dancing in its head), most of it, appropriately, performed with the assistance of legendary American session men (including Elvis Presley's "T.C.B." band members James Burton, Jerry Scheff, and Ron Tutt, as well as Jim Keltner, Earl Palmer, Ray Brown, and co-producer T-Bone Burnett).
In his liner notes to the Rhino edition (extensively informative and humorous, as usual), Costello describes King of America as "inherently contradictory" (hence the title), and he's right. It's not only contradictory, it's enigmatic -- slyly, almost unconsciously so. Its greatest vocal performance is in the cover of the Animals'/Nina Simone's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (Costello reaches down to that mysterious bottom reef in his throat that, in '86, he rarely explored). The most exciting songs are those that are the most traditional (the Sun/bluegrass shuffle "Glitter Gulch" and the Attractions' scornful domination on "Suit of Lights", their only appearance on the record). Additionally, the record sounds like a bid for inclusion in the hierarchy of a greater tradition -- that of the Great American Songbook -- observing linear chord progressions and the trodden soil of fundamental instrumentation. It's as if, for the first time in Costello's career, he's not forcibly sticking his feet into a genre or sub-genre of his choice, but quietly nudging his way into a cemented lineage with self-doubting confidence. Like Dylan in Blood on the Tracks, Costello's in an extraordinary lyrical league here, but the feel of breaking ground and exiting swiftly out the back, so crucial to earlier albums, has been lost in the stylistic reassessment.
With King of America, Rhino continues one of the most impressive reissuing campaigns in recent memory, actually giving fans a reason to repurchase Costello's catalog for the third or fourth time (if not for the immaculate remastering and bonus tracks, then for the complete lyrics and Costello's essays). Half of the inclusions on the bonus disc were originally included on Ryko's reissue ("King of Confidence", "Shoes Without Heels", the Coward Brothers songs "The People's Limousine" and "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me") or its limited edition bonus disc (six live tunes, including an incendiary cover of Dave Bartholomew's "That's How You Got Killed Before", recorded in New York City in '86). In the unreleased material department, the bonus disc boasts a number of whiskey-abetted solo demos, recorded throughout '85; the cautious readings ("raw and sozzled", Costello notes) stretch and wring the songs 'til their tongues pop out, and provide little more than a passing fascination with their geneses. There's also "Betrayal", a fine political song cut with the Attractions (left off the record) that would provide the impetus for Spike's "Tramp the Dirt Down". Instead of issuing King of America as part of a like-minded group (as has been done with the other Costello reissues), Rhino has chosen to release this one on its own, a not-so-subtle indication of the record's status among fans and record companies alike. Fair enough -- let's just not let the album get a fatter head (or more bejeweled crown) than it objectively deserves.
— 3 June 2005
Last edited by invisible Pole on Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
If you don't know what is wrong with me
Then you don't know what you've missed
Then you don't know what you've missed
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Paste , June/July '05
ELVIS COSTELLO ~ King of America [RHIN0]
Costello's excursion through Americana gets the royal treatment Considered the ugly duckling of his catalog in 1986, the roots-inflected King of America is now thought to be among the brightest jewels in Costello’s crown. Depth of storytelling and ace performances on material like “Indoor Fireworks” and “Our Little Angel” overcompensate for a lack of hit singles. Songs, including the rambling “Glitter Gulch,” feature guitarist James Burton, who gained notoriety playing for that other Elvis. Rhino’s remaster gives notable improvement to full-band arrangements when compared to Rykodisc’s 1995 version, though spare numbers like “Little Palaces” seem to lose their sparkle.
The real treat here is the ample bonus disc. T’he Coward Brothers (Costello and producer T Bone Burnett) appear on “The People’s Limousine.” “I’ll Wear it Proudly” is illuminated via acoustic demo. A set from New York’s Broadway Theater includes covers of Buddy Holly’s “True Love Ways” and Mose Allison’s “Your Mind is on Vacation. The live band features Burton alongside Jerry Scheff, his bandmate in Elvis Presley’s TCB Band.
Jeff Elbel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mojo , July '05
The Costello Show
King Of America
From ‘86 one of Elvis’s favourite albums returns in
“vastly expanded” form. Fine though it was, Costello’s first foray into country music, 1981’s Almost Blue, smacked of pastiche. But by the time of King Of America — recorded in LA with top session players such as guitarists James Burton and T-Bone Burnett — he’d assimilated those strands into a more individual style. There are a lot of raw nerve ends on show: Indoor Fireworks is exceptionally bitter, even by its author’s standards. The 21-track bonus disc, with liner-notes by Elvis, makes an irresistible package. The acoustic solo demos — despite Costello deep into the whiskey — are gripping. There are some fine outtakes too: Betrayal would certainly have given a lift to the album, and the seven in-concert cuts show off his backing band, The Confederates, as a formidable live unit.
Mike Barnes
ELVIS COSTELLO ~ King of America [RHIN0]
Costello's excursion through Americana gets the royal treatment Considered the ugly duckling of his catalog in 1986, the roots-inflected King of America is now thought to be among the brightest jewels in Costello’s crown. Depth of storytelling and ace performances on material like “Indoor Fireworks” and “Our Little Angel” overcompensate for a lack of hit singles. Songs, including the rambling “Glitter Gulch,” feature guitarist James Burton, who gained notoriety playing for that other Elvis. Rhino’s remaster gives notable improvement to full-band arrangements when compared to Rykodisc’s 1995 version, though spare numbers like “Little Palaces” seem to lose their sparkle.
The real treat here is the ample bonus disc. T’he Coward Brothers (Costello and producer T Bone Burnett) appear on “The People’s Limousine.” “I’ll Wear it Proudly” is illuminated via acoustic demo. A set from New York’s Broadway Theater includes covers of Buddy Holly’s “True Love Ways” and Mose Allison’s “Your Mind is on Vacation. The live band features Burton alongside Jerry Scheff, his bandmate in Elvis Presley’s TCB Band.
Jeff Elbel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mojo , July '05
The Costello Show
King Of America
From ‘86 one of Elvis’s favourite albums returns in
“vastly expanded” form. Fine though it was, Costello’s first foray into country music, 1981’s Almost Blue, smacked of pastiche. But by the time of King Of America — recorded in LA with top session players such as guitarists James Burton and T-Bone Burnett — he’d assimilated those strands into a more individual style. There are a lot of raw nerve ends on show: Indoor Fireworks is exceptionally bitter, even by its author’s standards. The 21-track bonus disc, with liner-notes by Elvis, makes an irresistible package. The acoustic solo demos — despite Costello deep into the whiskey — are gripping. There are some fine outtakes too: Betrayal would certainly have given a lift to the album, and the seven in-concert cuts show off his backing band, The Confederates, as a formidable live unit.
Mike Barnes
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Otis Westinghouse
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He can write quite well, but he's full of crap. Like fuck does MAIT is true contain better songs than KOA. It's an admirable debut, the songwriting ability is powerful from the off, but he'd developed massively by the time of KOA. Like fuck is DLMBM the greatest lyrical performance on the LP, it's interesting in itself but pales next to the true magnificence of Sleep of the Just and several others. And he over-exaggerrates production issues, which generally speaking enhance the power of the songs. So he's basically up his own arse.King Hoarse wrote:I think that's a good review, albeit not one I agree with.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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Meadowmeal
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My Youngest Son
Hello, I just downloaded King of Americana and I thank the member of this forum who shares it, but unfortunately one song is missing, namely "My Youngest Son Came Home today". Since I cannot find it via Soulseek and the song isn't commercially available, I would like to ask if anyone here would be so kind to upload it to yousendit or send it to my gmail (jtdekogel at etc.) I would be infinitely grateful, all the more since the song is mentioned in the liner notes of the KoA-resissue and I haven't been able to hear it yet.
"A WONDERFUL WOODEN REASON"