Musician, July 1996

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications Musician   1980 April 1980 December 1981 April 1982 January 1982 June 1982 August 1983 October 1984 January 1984 July 1984 August 1984 October 1984 November 1986 March 1986 April 1986 December 1987 February 1988 February 1988 March 1988 June 1989 March 1989 November 1990 May 1991 February 1991 March 1991 May 1993 February 1994 March 1994 June 1995 January 1995 July 1995 August 1996 July 1996 December 1999 January Year In Rock 1981-1982 US rock magazines  Circus Crawdaddy Creem East Coast Rocker Gig Good Times Grooves Hit Parader Hot Rock Musician New Orleans Wavelength New Sounds New Wave Rock New York Rocker Paste Phonograph Record Pop Rock Special Punk Rock Stars Pulse! Ray Gun The Record Relix Revolution Rock Around The World RockBill Rock Scene Rock World RockBill Rolling Stone Spin Star Hits Trouser Press Vibes — All This Useless Beauty Elvis Costello Dave DiMartino It's easy to get lost within the sheer bulk of Elvis Costello's work — particularly since most of it, from 1977's My Aim Is True through 1986's Blood & Chocolate, has been reissued by Rykodisc, bearing bonus tracks galore and directly competing with his new material. Of which, of course, there's been lots. In that context, All This Useless Beauty sounds surprisingly good. Since The Juliet Letters, his disappointing 1993 collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet — "disappointing" because whatever it attempted to do, it didn't — Costello has seemed to be struggling, making albums that have "angles," often at the expense of individual songs. 1994's Brutal Youth: Elvis reunites with the Attractions. 1995's Kojak Variety: Elvis does oldies. All This Useless Beauty? Elvis reunites with the Attractions and does oldies, sort of. In fact, the new record puts Costello and the Attractions back on track, making music that often sounds like it might've come from their best work, 1992's Imperial Bedroom. Partial credit here surely stems from co-producer Geoff Emerick, who likewise shaped Bedroom; unlike Kevin Killen or Mitchell Froom, Costello's most recent co-producers, he's a Brit, and the sound here reveals as much. Steve Nieve's piano has as much reverbed twinkle as it did 15 years ago, and it's a very welcome sound. In a sense, this album clears the decks: There are six songs here Costello has written for or with others but never recorded himself, including the opener "Other End (Of The Telescope)" (co-written with Aimee Mann and previously sung by 'Til Tuesday), "You Bowed Down" (written for Roger McGuinn's 1991 comeback set Back From Rio), and "Shallow Grave" (from the Paul McCartney collaborations), among others. Those songs are fine but the newer material is more satisfying and sounds less written-for-hire and more written-from-the-heart. Once, long ago, Costello sang Dusty Springfield's "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself." Later, on the liner notes to Kojak Variety, he raved about her classic 1969 album Dusty in Memphis. It's not difficult to imagine Dustsinging "[[Distorted Angel," one of Beauty's better tunes. Nor would "It's Time" sound out of place had Sandie Shaw covered it 30 years ago. This is no small compliment. All This Useless Beauty sounds like the sort of great pop music Elvis Costello was supposed to be making, if, I don't know, he'd only been paying attention or something. Now he is — and we should be, too. << >> Musician, No. 212, July 1996 Dave DiMartino reviews All This Useless Beauty. Images Cover.

External links

• Wikipedia: Musician magazine
• elviscostello.info
• rocksbackpages.com