By Jayson Greene, Managing EditorThe internet is currently resplendent in Fiona love, so apologies if these feels like an SEO pile-on. But sometimes we can use the SEO pile-on effect for good. Like here. Â "I Want You" is my favorite… more »
By Dan Hyman, eMusic ContributorIs it the song or the singer? Hunker down with a Bob Dylan song -- or 50 -- and where's the debate? Brilliant songs are open books; singers can be replaceable. It's hardly shocking then,… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorThe only thing ardent music fans seem to enjoy more than watching artists unquestionably succeed is getting to see them fall flat on their faces. It's reassuring to know that our heroes are fallible, even… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorSmart, angry and mercurial, Elvis Costello is one of the greatest living songwriters; for better or worse, he knows it. The man with the big spectacles (born Declan MacManus) is an exile everywhere he goes:… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorThe legend goes that when the London independent label Stiff Records announced that it was open for business and accepting demo tapes, a struggling young songwriter named Declan MacManus (formerly of the not-very-successful pub-rock band… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorThe legend goes that when the London independent label Stiff Records announced that it was open for business and accepting demo tapes, a struggling young songwriter named Declan MacManus (formerly of the not-very-successful pub-rock band… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorCostello's second collection of B-sides and miscellany is his most scattered album — spanning eight years' worth of sessions, it was originally released as a "Various Artists" record (with individual tracks credited to the Coward… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorIt takes all of five seconds for Elvis Costello's second album to kick into high gear. "I don't wanna kiss you, I don't wanna touch," he sneers. (You were expecting a love song?) Then Pete… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorCostello's always had a thick strain of "don't you tell me what to do!" running through him, and perhaps the quickest possible way to convince his new wave audience that he wasn't interested in toeing… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorBy the time Costello recorded his fifth studio album, he'd been on the music-biz treadmill for four years — apparently, a lot of its songs were reworked from fragments that had been sitting around for… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic Contributor"Probably the worst record that I could have made of a decent bunch of songs," Costello's called this one, and though it's not entirely a stinker, he's close. (Some of the arrangements are better than… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorFrom the utterly perfect opening line of "Accidents Will Happen" on down, this is Costello and the Attractions' big new wave record, and the first of many albums he's made with a conceptual framework: the… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorAfter the rococo extravagance of Imperial Bedroom and the country detour of Almost Blue, Costello and the Attractions shifted gears again, working with hit producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley in an attempt to work… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorElvis Costello's always recorded more material than there's room for on his albums, and for the first few years of his career, he was really cranking 'em out. Shortly after his fourth record, the 20-song… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorIt takes all of five seconds for Elvis Costello's second album to kick into high gear. "I don't wanna kiss you, I don't wanna touch," he sneers. (You were expecting a love song?) Then Pete… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorThe most furious record Costello has ever made in a career that's not short of fury, Blood & Chocolate is the sound of everything exploding. The band — the Attractions, augmented by returned producer Nick… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorAfter a drunken quarrel on the Armed Forces tour turned into a disaster that left Costello looking like a dick at best and a racist at worst (in retrospect, it was definitely "dick"), he took… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorIt took Costello a good long while, but he finally addressed the legacy of that other King Elvis — on a regally assured, uncharacteristically relaxed and expansive album on which his rotating backup included several… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorIt takes all of five seconds for Elvis Costello's second album to kick into high gear. "I don't wanna kiss you, I don't wanna touch," he sneers. (You were expecting a love song?) Then Pete… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorOriginally released as a promotional item, then bootlegged ceaselessly until it was finally released for real, this 1978 concert features Costello and his then-newish Attractions in full-throttle garage-rock mode, rocketing through a show that's half… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic Contributor"Masterpiece?" read the ads that Elvis Costello's record label took out for Imperial Bedroom. The question mark was apt. It wasn't entirely clear what they had on their hands: a difficult, densely layered album, to… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorCostello's longstanding fascination with the music of the American South paid off on this raw, lively album, recorded in Mississippi with the Imposters. Originally intended as a linked sequence of narrative songs, it ended up… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorCostello's longstanding fascination with the music of the American South paid off on this raw, lively album, recorded in Mississippi with the Imposters. Originally intended as a linked sequence of narrative songs, it ended up… more »
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic ContributorThe songs on Elvis Costello's first rock album in six years had been piling up for a while — "45" (a quadruple-entendre about World War II, vinyl singles, gun calibers and middle age) had first… more »