Consisting largely of songs written for other artists, All This Useless Beauty is yet another showcase for Costello’s startling facility to write comfortably in practically any idiom. Standouts include the “The Other End Of The Telescope,” co-written by and originally intended for Aimee Mann, and “Little Atoms,” one of Costello’s best ever originals that he performed to great effect during a legendary guest appearance on The Larry Sanders Show. The collection is a bit of an incoherent hodgepodge, but it’s a fun one, containing enough hidden gems to make for a winning listen.