We love Elvis, whether he’s rocking out with the Imposters or delving into lite-fm with the Brodsky Quartet, Burt Bacharach, Anne Sofie von Otter, et al. His latest project is My Flame Burns Blue, a collaboration with Metropole Orkest, recorded live at the 2004 North Sea Jazz Festival.
Flame finds Declan reinterpreting his hits, adding lyrics to Mingus, and — on a bonus CD — tackling the three-act Italian suite “Il Sogno.”
CD 1: Costello: My Flame Burns Blue
01. Hora Decubitus [5:46]
02. Favourite Hour [3:58]
03. That’s how you got killed before [4:14]
04. Upon a Veil of Midnight Blue [5:12]
05. Clubland [4:52]
06. Almost Blue [5:51]
07. Speak Darkly My Angel [3:59]
08. Almost ideal eyes [4:16]
09. Can You Be True? [3:57]
10. Put away forbidden playthings [4:22]
11. Episode Of Blonde [6:09]
12. My flame burns blue (Blood Count) [5:14]
13. Watching the Detectives [5:24]
14. God give me strength [6:56]
CD 2: Costello: Il Sogno Suite
Act 1 (Il Sogno)
01. Prelude [0:46]
02. Overture [1:19]
03. Puck One [2:20]
04. The Court [2:28]
05. Workers’ Playtime [2:11]
Act 2
06. Oberon and Titania [4:15]
07. The Conspiracy of Oberon and Puck [1:08]
08. Puck Two [1:50]
09. The Identity Parade [4:42]
10. The Face of Bottom [2:49]
11. The Spark of Love [4:24]
12. Tormentress [1:41]
13. Oberon Humbeld [3:40]
14. Twisted – Entangled – Transform and Exchange [2:39]
15. The Fairy and the Ass [1:33]
16. Sleep [2:51]
Act 3
17. The Play [1:30]
18. The Wedding [4:17]
Preview four cuts here.
But what you’re probably most curious about. Elvis’ hit, jazz stizz, totally unrecognizable from the original.
Elvis Costello & The Metropole Orkest – “Watching The Detectives” (MP3 Link Expired)
And Elvis is touring. Don’t know if you’ll get rock or opera, but I’ve never been disappointed by an Elvis Costello concert.
Mon 03/27/06 San Francisco, CA Davies Symphony Hall
Fri 03/31/06 Honolulu, HI Blaisdell Center
Sat 04/01/06 Honolulu, HI Blaisdell Center
Sun 04/02/06 Maui, HI Arts & Cultural Center
Tue 04/04/06 Austin, TX Bass Concert Hall
Tue 04/11/06 Fort Worth, TX Bass Performance Hall
Thu 04/13/06 Houston, TX Jones Hall For Perf. Arts
Tue 04/18/06 Chicago, IL Orchestra Hall
Thu 04/20/06 North Bethesda, MD Music Ctr. @ Strathmore Hall
Fri 04/21/06 Baltimore, MD Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Sat 04/22/06 Baltimore, MD Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Wed 05/10/06 Boston, MA Symphony Hall
Fri 05/12/06 Brooklyn, NY Academy Of Music
Sat 05/13/06 Atlanta, GA Fox Theatre
[Fun fact: Somehow I ended up at Cyndi Lauper's apt a few years ago, and though it was a mess, we ordered in Italian and it was surreal to say the least. I played bball with her little boy Declan (named after Elvis Costello's real name) and I let him win, obvs.]
Favorite Elvis Costello album/song … Go:
UPDATE: More (albeit streaming) previews of the new CD:
And for when our MP3 link comes down…
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Fave album: Armed Forces
Fave song: I Hope You’re Happy Now
Fave album: (braces for indie lashings) Brutal Youth
Fave song: The Other End Of The Telescope
Album: My Aim is True (one of the strongest debuts EVER)
Song: Man Out of Time (out of many choices)
fave album: This Year’s Model
fave song: Lipstick Vogue
Somehow I’m not surprised that Cyndi Lauper’s apartment is a mess. Or that the new version of “Detectives” sucks. The original was great because of its restraint and subtle menace, the new one is just way way over the top.
Fave album: Imperial Bedroom
Fave song: Riot Act, although his performance of Nick Lowe’s ‘What’s So Funny ’bout Peace Love and Understanding’ is pretty spiffy
Fave song: Man Out of Time (I’m glad someone agrees!)
Fave album: King of America or Imperial Bedroom. But maybe because of my impressionable ages when they came out.
I met him once. He had changed glasses after the show – possibly the best live performance I’ve ever seen – and he was heading to a downtown Atlanta hotel to hang out with Bill Berry and Mike Mills. I believe his band that night was “the Rude Five”.
Favorite Album: Punch the Clock
Favorite Song: Has to be tied between “I Want You” and “Poor Fractured Atlas.”
Album – “This Years Model” (I don’t care what anyone says, still the best and most consistent)
Song – “Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes”
Best Album: Blood and Chocolate
Best Song: I Hope You’re Happy Now
Favorite album: This Year’s Model
Favorite song: Lipstick Vogue
You said it, max.
Album: Blood & Chocolate
(The Original Napolean Dynamite!)
Song: Beyond Belief
album: this year’s model
song: i want you
Album: This Year’s Model
Song: Accidents Will Happen/Oliver’s Army (tie)
That’s kinda hard. Also, shout out to my dad who loves Elvis so much he named my sister Alison, and who loves me so much he gave me his Elvis records.
Album: Get Happy (I’m old.)
Song: Sleep Of The Just
including both covers on Almost You tribute album
album: my aim is true
song: alison
i don’t really care if that’s a cliche choice, but it’s one of the most beautiful songs ever written. also, welcome to the working week is a close second.
fave album(s): The 5-CD live promo of Elvis and Steve Naive
fave song: “Radio, Radio” from SNL
fyi: http://www.marathonpacks.com just put up the youtube of the SNL performance.
album-blood and chocolate
song-tokyo storm warning
I’ll join you Paul.
Album: Brutal Youth
Song: Lipstick Vogue
Album: This Year’s Model
Song: Little Triggers
Album: My sentimental favorite is Armed Forces (1979) , but I’m also fond of This Year’s Model (1978), Spike (1989) and Brutal Youth (1994).
Song: Almost impossible to pick, but how about “Clubland” and “Alison”?
Contrary to the comment above, the new version of “Watching the Detectives” sounds swell to me. But if you like the sound of the original, and want to hear it mucked with, how about Go Home Productions’ mash-up “Wrapped Detective,” which combines Elvis Costello with The Police, Lionel Richie, Peggy Lee, Bob Marley, The Hollies, and Led Zeppelin. Download it here:
http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/audio/ghp_wrapped_detective_full_mix.mp3
Album: Get Happy!!
Song: literally impossible. I’d need a top 30. I am a near-completist of Costello’s work. The songs that come to mind right away include “Tokyo Storm Warning,” “King of Thieves,” “You Little Fool,” over half of Trust, over half of Get Happy!!…
Thanks for posting this info, dude; amazing that I didn’t hear about it.
album: tie btw. My Aim Is True/Brutal Youth
song: The Other End of the Telescope
Oh, and I must object– the Brodsky Quartet album, The Juliet Letters? Ain’t no lite FM.
I’m glad to see Brutal Youth getting props. It was the album that got me into EC.
Album: “This Year’s Model”
Song: “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding” (okay, Nick Lowe wrote it, but Elvis made it his own)
But how can you pick just one of each? I couldn’t…
Album Runners-Up: “Get Happy”, “Armed Forces”, “King Of America”, “Imperial Bedroom”
Songs: “Living In Paradise”, “Radio Radio”, “Blue Chair”, “Everyday I Write The Book”, “American Without Tears”, “High Fidelity”,
“I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down”, “Party Girl”
“I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down” — no contest.
Fave album: I think Armed Forces is the most consistently amazing. There’s not a single average song on there.
Album: Armed Forces/Imperial Bedroom/My Aim is True (I can’t pick just one.)
Song: “Beyond Belief”
armed forces, obvs.
the rest is way too hard…accidents will happen, lipstick vogue, high fidelity, party girl, alison, tiny steps, stranger in the house, angels wanna wear, etc.
To whomever expressed some diffidence re choice of…rest assured, I find your choice less odd than that of the
fan above. Would be curious to hear PtC’s fans describe the album’s virtues in more depth (I mean, beyond the few killer tracks like “Shipbuilding”…). Oh, and at the moment, I suppose I’m
SONG: “New Lace Sleeves” or “Ghost Train”
ALBUM:
Oh right, killed my post with brackets. I was noting that Brutal Youth seemed not quite as odd as Punch the Clock (which was also noted above). Oh, and my album choice of moment would be Trust.
gotta go with “no action” – i’m a sucker for the hooks.
Fave(s): My Aim is True, tied with Armed Forces
Fave Song: I keep coming back to (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding
I made the mistake back in the 90′s to buy some of his Bacharach stuff, and I’ve never looked at it since. I respect the fact that he’s stretching his creative muscles with arrangements, etc., I just don’t want to listen to it.
I think he could record an album with rock re-workings of a lot of his b-sides and unreleased demos from his first few albums and release it now, and it would be one of the top 10 albums of 2006. Esp. “Jump Up” “Wave a White Flag” and “Cheap Reward” off of the ‘My Aim is True’ Rhino re-release.
chume beat me to it–
best album: My Aim Is True, Brutal Youth a close 2nd
best song: Little Triggers, although Big Tears, Party Girl, and All The Rage are in my top 10 as well
Fave album: King Of America
Song: I Hope That You’re Happy Now
Album: This Year’s Model (or Trust) (or King of America)
Song: Pills and Soap (or…)
sorry jakeleg, just a bigger fan of the young and hungry elvis, i guess. would have also included his cover of don’t let me be misunderstood, everyday i write the book, beyond belief/the land of give and take, baby plays around, and yes, shipbuilding, for what it’s worth. i mean if asked.
To me Punch the Clock is a case where wild, stylized production works purely in favor of the songs; if you’re not a fan of the sound, you’ll get lost. (If you ask me, it sounds like Clanger & Winstanley’s own version of some of the already-hyper excesses of Imperial Bedroom.) Don’t let the inane “Greatest Thing” distract you, either (and I like that lame song, but I know it’s lame); there’s a lot to be loved in songs like “Charm School,” “The Invisible Man,” “Mouth Almighty,” “The Element Within Her.” My favorite is “King of Thieves”… Nieve’s almost Looney Tunes piano work crowning that quasi-baroque, majestic sound. “Pills & Soap” is bizarre and chancey and I have no comment on it.
Fave album: Armed Forces
Fave song: Alison
Alison is the ultimate song to hear right after you drop the needle and hear the static. It’s incredible. If I were to describe music formats to an alien, I’d use Robert Johnson for primitive mono recordings and “Alison” for 33 rpm stereo
Complicated Shadows-All This Useless Beauty
“All you gangsters and root clowns who were shooting up this town”
Used to perfection to close out an episode of the Sopranos in season two left an impression I have yet to shake. 1:56 in is the best.
album: Get Happy!
song: fuck, really?! off the top of my head: Lipstick Vogue, Green Shirt, New Amsterdam, Town Cryer, &c. &c.
Album: This Year’s Model
Song: Big Boys (acoustic demo version)
Album: When I was Cruel
Song: “Indoor Fireworks” ties with “Man out of Time”
Album: This Year’s Model
Song: I Want You and Little Triggers (dependent on mood)
album: this year’s model
(runner up: imperial bedroom)
song: new lace sleeves
(runner up: lipstick vogue)
Your Fort worth date is wrong. I don’t believe he’s coming at all.
And at risk of really riling folks up:
Fave album: Almost Blue
Pump it Up.
My favorite EC songs probably “Inch by Inch” and “God’s Comic.”
News of this project bothers me, though. In 2000, Joe Jackson did a similar project called Night and Day II, in which he revisited his album Night and Day. On the Night and Day II tour (which I saw), he debuted a new song called “Blue Flame,” which ended up on the next album.
Kind of… oddly coincidental.
he’s doing a thing now where all his album titles have to rhyme with “my aim is true”
That’s ok, we can share jennifer.
I dig Big Tears too… great song and that’s Mick Jones (from the Clash) playing guitar.
Album: Trust
Song: Shipbuilding
I was so going to say “Beyond Beleif/Land of Give and Take” (both versions) from Imperial Bedroom, but then reading all of your favorites reminded me of the mass genius – and I simply can’t choose.
How about “Still” from North? Anyone?
You mean toy basketball goal in Cyndi’s kitchen?
I’m a huge, huge fan and near completist, so my favorite change and it’s hard to choose Get Happy!!, Trust or Imperial Bedroom as far as my favorite album, but here are my favorites as of now:
ALBUM: Trust
Song: “Jack of All Parades”
Fave Song: Secondary Modern
Fave Album: Blood & Choc
Fave Facial Hair: Mighty Like A Rose-era beard
Fave Glasses: Brutal Youth tortoise shells
Fave Guitar: J-160E
Fave Wife: Cait
Fave Letterman appearance: So Like Candy, ’97
Thanks for the jazzy version of “Watching…”. Last year I saw Elvis Costello at a music festival here in Buenos Aires. He played all of his classics and some covers, including Beatles and Elvis Presley.
Album: King of America
Song: “Indoor Fireworks”
EC has too many great albums / songs — instead, how about:
WORST album: Goodbye Cruel World (80s hell)
WORST song: Playboy to a Man (EC + Paul = please stop)
Album: This Year’s Model
Song: Pump It Up
Yeah yeah, I know the oldies say “Pump It Up” rips off Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, but for me this song marks the start of New Wave — that raffish, spiky and oh too clever epoch in pop songwriting that in my lifetime has never been equalled. It was a time when Costello was one among kings; he had Paul Weller and Joe Strummer to keep him company. If I could time-travel, I’d be back in 1979, thrashing round the room to this astonishing album (but respectfully trying not to make the needle jump!).