ELVIS COSTELLO & The Attractions "All This Useless Beauty" Sealed 1996 US LP
$
26
$ 26
Sold For
Oct 9, 2011
Sold Date
Oct 2, 2011
Start Date
$ 10
Start price
6
Number Of Bids
USA
Country Of Seller
eBay
Auctioned at
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
Elvis Costello & The Attractions / All This Useless Beauty - Warner Bros. Records 46198 (US)(1996) ...This auction is for an original factory Sealed Record on U.S. vinyl.
Elvis Costello set out to assemble a collection of songs he had written for other artists but never recorded himself -- sort of a reverse covers album. As it turned out, that idea was only used as a launching pad -- the resulting album, All This Useless Beauty, is a mixture of nine old and three new songs.
Track listings and reviews listed below...
Detailed item info:
Track listing(Side One)
1. The Other End Of The Telescope
2. Little Atoms
3. All This Useless Beauty
4. Complicated Shadows
5. Why Can't A Man Stand Alone
6. Distorted Angel
(Side Two)
1. Shallow Grave
2. Poor Fractured Atlas
3. Starting To Come To Me
4. You Bowed Down
5. It's Time
6. I Want To Vanish
Details Producer: Elvis Costello Recording type: Studio Distributor: Warner Bros.
Recording mode: Stereo
Album notes Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Elvis Costello (vocals, acoustic, electric & guitars, celesta, keyboards, bass); Pete Thomas (acoustic guitar, drums, percussion); Steve Nieve (piano, keyboards, programming, sequencing); Bruce Thomas (bass).
Additional personnel includes: Brian Eno, The Fairfield Four, The Brodsky Quartet.
Producers include: Elvis Costello, Geoff Emerick, Brian Eno, The Attractions, Lee Olsen
.Engineers include: Geoff Emerick, Jon Jacobs, Sam Gibson.
Principally recorded at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland and Westside Studios, London, England.
After years of radical stylistic detours, ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY, is a logic-defying marvel, finding Costello and the Attractions at the peak of their powers. Though some of the arrangements hark back to THIS YEAR'S MODEL, EC and the boys don't really try to revisit the past. Rather, they apply the musical lessons they've learned over the years to create a new, more mature sound that still bears their unique sonic trademark.The song selection here is a bit of a grab bag, as many of these tunes were written by Costello for other artists, but there's such a consistency and vitality to the material that it all seems to be of a piece. "Why Can't a Man Stand Alone" is an emotive soul ballad that shows Costello's '60s R&B roots. "Complicated Shadows" has a whisper-to-a-scream arrangement that shows off the band's dynamic facility. The harmonically sophisticated ballad "I Want to Vanish" is proof positive that Costello really is the Gershwin of the post-punk generation.
Editorial reviews 3 Stars - Good - ...the most likable and organic Costello album in years....these tracks arise as modern standards--the '90s answer to the brilliance of the old Brill Building catalog.
Rolling Stone (05/30/1996)
...sounds surprisingly good....Steve Nieve's piano has as much reverbed twinkle as it did 15 years ago, and it's a very welcome sound....the sort of great pop music Elvis Costello was supposed to be making, if...he'd only been paying attention or something...
Musician (07/01/1996)
Recommended - ...It's not useless, just awkward--awkward with the dignity of the auteur....this album draws you into its sullenness, its subtle shades of colour that surround and encompass....when it is simple and graceful--namely in the big ballads--you are lost in a beauty that could crack glass...
Melody Maker (05/18/1996)
7 (out of 10) - ...A strange, slightly confusing, but mostly gripping channel-hopping session through the accumulated tricks of a show-off songcraftsman...
NME (05/11/1996)
...possibly the mildest-tempered album he's ever made....Loyalists, however, can rest easy knowing the record's relative quietude camouflages plenty of unladylike phlegm and bile... - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (05/17/1996)
...a vocal 'tour de force': he has never sounded so intimate, so confiding....[the album] does boast a growing vocal mastery, a newfound sense that Elvis's phrasing is now the equal of his lyrical genius.
Mojo (06/01/1996)
4 stars out of 5 - ...Costello unveiled the best singing of his career here, purring and insinuating...
Uncut (11/01/2001)
4 stars out of 5 - ...An uncommonly confessional set by Costello's standards - direct, affecting, and largely overlooked in its day.
Q (10/01/2001)
3 Stars - Good - ...the most likable and organic Costello album in years....these tracks arise as modern standards--the '90s answer to the brilliance of the old Brill Building catalog.Q (10/01, p.141) - 4 stars out of 5 - ...An uncommonly confessional set by Costello's standards - direct, affecting, and largely overlooked in its day.Musician (7/96, pp.86-87) - ...sounds surprisingly good....Steve Nieve's piano has as much reverbed twinkle as it did 15 years ago, and it's a very welcome sound....the sort of great pop music Elvis Costello was supposed to be making, if...he'd only been paying attention or something...Mojo (6/96, p.114) - ...a vocal 'tour de force': he has never sounded so intimate, so confiding....[the album] does boast a growing vocal mastery, a newfound sense that Elvis's phrasing is now the equal of his lyrical genius.Melody Maker (5/18/96, p.49) - Recommended - ...It's not useless, just awkward--awkward with the dignity of the auteur....this album draws you into its sullenness, its subtle shades of colour that surround and encompass....when it is simple and graceful--namely in the big ballads--you are lost in a beauty that could crack glass...NME (5/11/96, p.44) - 7 (out of 10) - ...A strange, slightly confusing, but mostly gripping channel-hopping session through the accumulated tricks of a show-off songcraftsman...Entertainment Weekly (5/17/96, p.61) - ...possibly the mildest-tempered album he's ever made....Loyalists, however, can rest easy knowing the record's relative quietude camouflages plenty of unladylike phlegm and bile... - Rating: A-Uncut (11/01, p.110) - 4 stars out of 5 - ...Costello unveiled the best singing of his career here, purring and insinuating...
Rolling Stone (05/30/1996)
price rating
