Your favorite EC album and why.

[Neil.]

Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4 is one of my all time fave songs, and my second favorite EC song.

Which begs the question - what's your favourite Elvis song? I could never choose - but am fascinated by the decisions of those who can. What is it, and why?!

[Otis Westinghouse]

I don't get why WIWC or especially the magnificent Punch The Clock would be considered 'guilty pleasures'. This weekend when hearing Everyday I Write The Book had me hankering after PTC, it's snappy pop tunes sounded very refreshing after the over-long stodginess of parts of National Ransom. The Langer/Winstanley production is of course shiny 80s, but it still made for a hugely pleasurable experience. Listen again to a song such as 'The Element Within Her' - pop magic.

[when i was cruel]

In some senses, it's so hard to choose-- how can I NOT pick Get Happy!!?? Or Blood & Chocolate???

Or a half dozen other perfect Costello records? I probably listened to Brutal Youth more than I've ever listened to any other record in my entire life-- or ever will.

And yet, for me, it is easy: MLAR is my favorite Costello album. Hands down.

And it's not just the contrarian in me: it's genuinely the EC album I love the most, from start to finish. It's brilliantly sequenced, and I love every track on it, even "Playboy To A Man" and "Broken" (the two that draw the most scorn from some quarters), and I feel like it manages to do all the things that Costello does well.

Some have pointed to National Ransom as a summation of EC's entire career, but to me, MLAR shows off the balance of EC's gifts from angry rock to sensitive ballads, tender, noisy, clever, political, witty, dark...

Parts of it sound like he could have made it with The Attractions, while other parts sound like he could have saved some of these songs for The Brodsky Quartet.


I agree' Just Another mystery' is possibly one of my top 100 favorite EC songs lol such a brilliant song.
I'm not writing this to convince anyone who doesn't like MLAR that they should give it another chance. (Though maybe you should!) I'm just explaining a little bit of the reasoning for why it always locks down the #1 slot in my heart. If all my Costello albums were on a sinking ship, MLAR would be the one I would save.

And if you've never heard "Just Another Mystery", it's easily one of the best outtakes from any Costello album EVER.

[when i was cruel]

I pick All This Useless Beauty, .

With a name like that I would have thought you'd have picked "When I was Cruel"?

Best Wishes

Colin Top Balcony

Lol I knew someone would question me on that, I just think it's a beautiful saying. Now ATUB is amazing can you really think of a single song you don't like on it, I mean the lyrics are pure brilliance. "I am certain as a lost dog, pondering a sign post... throw another clown to the lions, throw another Joan on the blaze."

[Poor Deportee]

I agree that the title track to WIWC is a truly splendid song. So many full-realized characters, drifting on and off stage, and the way, unusually for an EC tune, it turns on itself at the end ('look at me now...') - it's a panorama of the pathetic, like a mid-60s Dylan song.

But the album as a whole is a disaster.

It's hard to pick one record. But la scene de la seduction for me was Spike and I will always have a soft spot for that album, flawed as it is, because it introduced me to a voice and an outlook the likes of which I had never encountered before. Plus I loved (and love) its eclecticism.

As someone with an interest in songwriting, though, I'd have to go either with GH for its almost inconceivable mastery of the pop song, or else KOA, a heart-wrenching confessional album heavily backloaded with masterpieces. And is 'Suit of Lights' his finest hour? It just might be.

[pophead2k]

Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4 is one of my all time fave songs, and my second favorite EC song.

Which begs the question - what's your favourite Elvis song? I could never choose - but am fascinated by the decisions of those who can. What is it, and why?!

My all time favorite, for reasons that I don't quite understand, is You Tripped at Every Step. I love the melody, the words, the arrangement, the backing vocals, the sympathetic backing from the Attractions- everything about it. The reason I say I don't fully understand is that I could say the same thing about any number of EC tracks. Somehow, this is the one I keep coming back to. Although I'm not 100% sure what Elvis is on about in this song, there is something stunningly sincere in his lyrics and delivery that make me suspect that this was an important lyric to him.

[Ypsilanti]

I don't get why WIWC or especially the magnificent Punch The Clock would be considered 'guilty pleasures'. This weekend when hearing Everyday I Write The Book had me hankering after PTC, it's snappy pop tunes sounded very refreshing after the over-long stodginess of parts of National Ransom. The Langer/Winstanley production is of course shiny 80s, but it still made for a hugely pleasurable experience. Listen again to a song such as 'The Element Within Her' - pop magic.

I shouldn't have called WIWC a guilty pleasure. I did so because I have seen how intensely disliked it is on this board, i.e.

But the album as a whole is a disaster.

I was trying to slip it in without taking too much heat from the cool kids. Actually, I am VERY fond of WIWC. Songs about middle-aged disappointment and disillusion with ultra bad-ass, hard-core danceable beats? Love! And, it's a cathartic, super pissed-off break-up record. I listen to it all the time.
I would also agree, btw, that PTC is magnificent.

[bambooneedle]

One of about 12 albums which I happen to enjoy immesurably... ATUB, TYM, BY, GH, AF, MAIT, TDM, KOA, B&C, PTC, IB, Trust. The one I'm listening to out of those.

[strangerinthehouse]

For me, the absolute favorite albums would have to be This Year's Model and Brutal Youth. Those were the albums that really introduced me to EC and made me want to listen to more.

Like docinwestchester said, TYM is the perfect album. Every song is amazing, it never feels dated and I always have to hear the album from start to finish. It's a unyielding barrage of anger and alienation that makes you feel alive.

I like Brutal Youth because it's almost in the same vein as TYM while also having some of the greatest pop songs he's ever written. It's also connected to the first girl who broke my heart.

But then, there's the other albums that sneak up on you and could be your favorites for weeks. Spike and Blood & Chocolate are up there. I still think The Delivery Man is his best album of this decade.

[watercamp]

Got to go back to the roots and go with "My Aim Is True" as my all time favorite.
That's where it all started and it's just flowed from there ever since.

In reality it's everything from 1977 to 1982 (MAIT, TYM, AF, GH, T, IB and let's not forget Taking Liberties") except for "Almost Blue" which is a cover album and doesn't really count anyway but it is a sneaky little pleasure now isn't it?

Truth be told there's not one EC album that I'd trash but I have to admit that I haven't listened to Il Sogno more than a few times.

Gotta mention two boots that beg for an official release someday:
1) The McCartney/MacManus Collaboration
2) My Aim Is True Live with Clover in San Francisco

[Ypsilanti]

Welcome, Watercamp!

[History History]

Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4 is one of my all time fave songs, and my second favorite EC song.

Which begs the question - what's your favourite Elvis song? I could never choose - but am fascinated by the decisions of those who can. What is it, and why?!

My all time favorite, for reasons that I don't quite understand, is You Tripped at Every Step. I love the melody, the words, the arrangement, the backing vocals, the sympathetic backing from the Attractions- everything about it. The reason I say I don't fully understand is that I could say the same thing about any number of EC tracks. Somehow, this is the one I keep coming back to. Although I'm not 100% sure what Elvis is on about in this song, there is something stunningly sincere in his lyrics and delivery that make me suspect that this was an important lyric to him.

I've always thought Elvis sings with a great fondness for whoever this song is about.

[Jackson Monk]

It will always be "Get Happy" for me. The sheer musical energy and muscle coupled with a lively verbal dexterity always make this album a fun listen. I do not think they ever sounded better as a unit- singer/songwriter and the accompanying band. A close second will always be Trust/Imperial Bedroom where I think he hit peaks as a singer and songwriter.

Agreed...with the addition of KOA...which is just sublime

[Jackson Monk]

I pick All This Useless Beauty, various reasons why, possibly his best lyrics, catchy, quotable, fun, mysterious, features "the great mosey delta blues man Paul McCartney" and it even has a meaningful title as to what he thought was the fate of the album.

Isn't it great Mersey delta blues man?

Sorry to be pedant...

[alexv]

Welcome, Watercamp. My all-time favorite is IB, but like you it's really that 77 to 82 period that for me is the favorite, cutting across all the albums. And this includes Taking Liberties. I've posted my reasons for loving IB before, but as far as loving the EC of that period, he was young, had something to say, and hit upon a style ideally suited for it, with band backing that was perfect for the songs.

[when i was cruel]

I pick All This Useless Beauty, various reasons why, possibly his best lyrics, catchy, quotable, fun, mysterious, features "the great mosey delta blues man Paul McCartney" and it even has a meaningful title as to what he thought was the fate of the album.

Isn't it great Mersey delta blues man?

Sorry to be pedant...

You got me lol, I was very tired, damn grammar nazis lol

[jardine]

i think mosey delta blues man is much more true to macca

[krm]

I´m just too lazy to check, but is Macca really playing on ATUB?

[jardine]

co-wrote three on the rhino, but i don't see him playing

[The Towncryer]

Has to be Imperial Bedroom for the verbal gymnastics ,plus his greatest ever song "Man out of Time" Still making great music ,his voice is as good if not better than on IB .

[sulky lad]

The Towncryer wrote

Has to be Imperial Bedroom for the verbal gymnastics

If IB did have Verbal Gymnastics singing on it, I'd have burnt every copy I could lay my hands on !!