Pretty much any style is fair game for Elvis Costello.

Is older really wiser? By 1994, the angry, bitter young man of My Aim Is True, Next Year’s Model and Armed Forces had long vented most of his vitriol. The year before, Elvis Costello had dabbled in chamber music on The Juliet Letters, which suited his eclectic nature, but, like many other fans, I still hoped that 1994’s Brutal Youth …

Spite and meanness – those are what make the world go ‘round – and few artists’ lyrics are as poachable for prime examples as Elvis Costello’s. This List Inconsequential contains 10 of my favorite Costello insults and offers ways to incorporate them into daily life. Because, let’s face it, there are few things in life more satisfying than a well-timed …

[xrr rating=4.0/5]Who exactly is the Ghost on this project? Both Elvis Costello and the Roots have done their own background fades while collaborating with other artists and styles, but neither side hides their light on Wise Up Ghost. Instead, the album resurrects a collection of specters from Costello’s songbook, recasting lyrics and melodic references in an updated setting. Sometimes this …

40. Van Morrison – The Best of Van Morrison Van Morrison had been a powerful force in pop music for 25 years when his first compilation album, The Best of Van Morrison, was released, and frankly, it’s astonishing that it took so long. While many greatest hits albums go the easy route of simply rounding up and sloppily curating a …

[xrr rating=2.5/5]There’s a saying that “nobody sings Dylan like Dylan,” a durable phrase that’s been borrowed for a strange double-album of two previous covers album releases (Good as I Been to You and World Gone Wrong) and, more perversely, for an ongoing fan-made bootleg series that now consists of several dozen volumes. It’s a compliment to the man himself, of …

Elvis Costello National Ransom Rating: 3.8/5.0 Label: Hear Music What is there to say about Elvis Costello that hasn’t already been said? For over 30 years, critical wits have described him in various too-clever ways; he’s been the Angry Young Man, Buddy Holly on Acid and the Bearded Bard, laughable depictions that may have made for good press but still …

Revisit: Elvis Costello Mighty Like a Rose 1991 Revisit is a series of reviews highlighting past releases that now deserve a second look. Among Elvis Costello’s fans and critics, Mighty Like a Rose is frequently considered one of the musician’s lesser works, not quite as awful as Goodbye Cruel World and Punch the Clock but nowhere near his “supposedly irreproachable” …

Revisit: Elvis Costello Spike (demo version) 1989 Revisit is a series of reviews highlighting past releases that now deserve a second look. Spike is either Elvis Costello’s most ambitiously experimental or self-conscious and overindulgent album. Released in 1989 as the musician’s Warner Bros. debut – the start of a relationship that would eventually become as contentious and vengeful as one …

Elvis Costello Live at the El Mocambo Rating:(Performance: 5.0/5.0, Reissue: 1.5/5.0) Label: Hip-O Records/UMe The Elvis Costello reissue machine continues to hum along relentlessly. After the Rykodisc reissues of 1993-1995 did a serviceable job in re-examining Costello’s back catalog, these were eventually bested by Rhino’s stunning series, which, to use the technical term, kicked major ass. With their classy packaging, …