new introductory bit here.

This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input. Purple lettering indicates something nobody legally got paid for.

King Elvis's 1977 debut, produced by Nick Lowe, is rough, ragged, heartfelt and very good. It includes "Alison," "Red Shoes" and the sublime "Watching the Detectives." If you can, find the Rykodisc reissues of his pre-89 albums. They all contain extensive bonus tracks from the era. This one, for instance, follows up the original 13 songs with a further nine demos and B-sides. Later that year and teamed with his regular band of the 80s, Elvis offered 12 choice tracks, more focussed and astute, on This Year's Model. It features such late 70s classics as "Pump it Up" and "Chelsea." Ryko's 1993 reissue adds six bonus cuts, including the crucial single "Radio, Radio." No disrespect to the finished version from the next LP, but I really like the early demo of "Green Shirt" included here.

The 13 songs that comprise this edition of Armed Forces were released in different sequences in the US and the UK. By including all the tracks deleted by the respective record companies back in '79, this collects all of both versions. Among the eight bonus B-sides on the Ryko reissue, you'll find the three songs from the rare "Live at Hollywood High" EP. For another look at Elvis live, track down the El Mocambo promo album. It was distributed to US radio at the time, and reissued in limited quantities by Ryko in a box set with the first three albums. The Attractions are in top form and rampage through "Less Than Zero," "Chelsea," "Radio, Radio" and 11 others. Sadly, their leader, who's straining his vocals, wasn't quite as able to rampage with them.

Cited by many critics (like me) as one of the best albums of the '80s, Get Happy!!, Elvis's finest hour, contains 20 tracks, inspired by 20-year old Stax records. His cover of Sam & Dave's "I Can't Stand Up (for Falling Down)" became his biggest hit. Ryko's reissue adds an astounding 10 further bonus tracks. And back in the charts after only months off, Trust offered up 14 tiny pop epics, none over four minutes, including the seminal "Clubland," in this underrated 1981 gem. It follows the same blueprint as Get Happy!!, but with a style all its own. The 1994 Ryko reissue adds nine bonus tracks, including a previously unreleased reading of Porter's "Love for Sale."

After three more releases in such a short period, the Attractions were hitting a creative slump by 1984. By Elvis's own account his worst album, World starts with a meandering duet with Darryl Hall and goes downhill from there, surfacing only for the delightful "Comedians" about halfway through, and the dated-but-charming "Peace in Our Time" at the end. Ryko's reissue contains nine bonus tracks, most of which are more fun than the album. King of America is a massive improvement, a tour of American styles and genres with guests like T-Bone Burnett, Mitchell Froom and Jim Keltner. It includes his cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," which might well have been the best single of that year.

Later in 1986, Blood and Chocolate was a comparative flop, yielding no hits and starting Elvis down the road through commercial obscurity, while his critical success remains high. A mostly well-written effort that remains defiantly uncommercial, it includes the epic noise-fest "Tokyo Storm Warning" and the epic obsession-fest "I Want You," but also a fair amount of jetsam.

In 1989, Elvis signed to Warners for the successful Spike, an album which featured several songs co-written with Paul McCartney and his biggest American hit, "Veronica." His days with Warners are generally regarded a dry period for Elvis, as successive releases met with less critical interest. 1994's Brutal Youth, fourth of the Warners albums, did debut at UK #2 and featured "Sulky Girl," his biggest hit since 1983's "Pills and Soap," but the company plainly wasn't behind the veteran.

All This Useless Beauty, a 1995 reunion with the Attractions, couldn't get much interest from the media and quickly stiffed despite a weird idea on the UK end to release four different songs from the LP as singles on the same day. They all bombed. The album was a much slower and expressive set of love songs which cemented Elvis's growing reputation as a maturing balladeer. The Warners contract was not renewed.

Elvis's most recent success has been the 1999 LP Painted from Memory, a collaboration with Burt Bachrach. When I Was Cruel followed in 2002. (10/02)

note on CD issues: Elvis's albums through Blood and Chocolate were originally issued on Demon in the UK and Columbia in America. These were all issued on CD in 1986, in disappointingly-mastered editions which are best avoided. In 1990, Rykodisc reissued these albums, each remastered and with seven to ten bonus tracks. The albums from Spike through All This Useless Beauty were issued on Warner Brothers. In 2001, Rhino bought Elvis's back catalog (all the albums through Beauty) and began a series of extensive reissues, each containing a 28-page book and a second CD with around 15 bonus tracks.

ELVIS COSTELLO: I Stand Accused (Bethlehem PA 4/12/79, Great Dane)
This is a quite common boot from one of the larger companies and should not be difficult to find. Either FM or soundboard sourced from a show at Lehigh Community College, this just blows the more common period piece El Mocambo right out of the water. It's a fantastic performance with the four players stampeding powerfully through selections from the first three Costello LPs.