Day 0918 - Punishing Kiss

Ute Lemper "Punishing Kiss" (2000)

I'd not heard of Lemper, but it seems she is an acclaimed actress as well as being a singer.   She had built much of her music career dipping into the past, particularly interpreting the songs of Kurt Weil.  For this album she went with modern composers, though many of them had been inspired by Weil too, so still within Lemper's comfort zone.

Thankfully it's VERY much in my wheelhouse too, with her modern composers being such luminaries as Scott Walker, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Elvis Costello and Neil Hanlon.   Hanlon's band the Divine Comedy provide backing for much of the album and he duets with Lemper on a couple of tracks.

The album is bombastic, theatrical and bursting with good music.    Though the individual composers' voices can certainly be heard (Lemper even seems to mimic Costello's snarling crooning style on some of his songs) there's a cohesiveness across the album, and Lemper owns each song with a voice that ranges from gentle theatrical murmur through to passionate howl, on the almost Bjork-esque opener "Little Water Song".

The Costello-penned title track is a fun highlight for me, but the whole album is really good.  The finale is a brooding 10-minute late-era style Scott Walker dirge, which is quite frankly as good a way as any to close an album.

Day 0765 - Brutal Youth

Elvis Costello "Brutal Youth" (1994)

The book mentions Costello having recorded albums of surf and classical music.... so in a way it's a pity that they haven't really looked at those, instead selecting this one which returns to his early sound of melodic, yet biting rock music.

Having said that, the album does seem to wrap in different sounds that Costello had been playing around with, from jazz and soul flavours, piano balladry, and Beatles/Wilson-esque vocal harmonies which helped to keep things interesting.

As with all his other albums here, I enjoyed this and would happily listen to it again.

Day 0565 - Blood and Chocolate

Elvis Costello & the Attractions "Blood and Chocolate" (1986) - got it

Costello took a break from his usual band 'the Attractions' to make an album with producer T-Bone Burnett... which I'll have to check out, because I love his work on True Detective, O Brother Where Art Thou, and the Rhiannon Gidden's solo album.  Here he brings the Attractions back on board for a wild, relatively straightforward album.
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Elvis took the idea of "recording as live" to new levels.  Instead of everyone wearing headphones to hear the playback so that all the instruments are recorded cleanly and in isolation; he just had stage foldback monitors with the volume set to standard live show levels.  As a result, everything has a pretty rough in-your-face rawness to it; a sound that nicely emphasises the angry and direct lyrics.  There are morose ballads, the epic blues odyssey of "I want you", the almost beat-poetry style of "Tokyo Storm Warning".

Costello credits himself as 'Napoleon Dynamite' in the album liner notes, though Jared Hess states that he did not get the name of his film from this reference.

Day 0556 - Rum, Sodomy & the Lash

The Pogues "Rum, Sodomy & the Lash" (1985)

Produced by Elvis Costello and titled with a quote attributed to Winston Churchill (said to be his take on naval tradition), this album is like shot of whiskey snorted straight to the brain.

Costello avoided studio polish, stating that it was his job to just get out of the way and capture them in all of their "dilapidated glory".  The result is a blistering mix of celtic folk, punk energy, and MacGowan's 'gutter hymns'.  This is a brilliant album, it has heart, it has spit and snarl, it has misery, humour.  You couldn't ask for a better album for drinking, dancing and just straight-up listening.

Day 0499 - Imperial Bedroom

Elvis Costello and the Attractions "Imperial Bedroom" (1982)

Costello was up to the grand total of 6 albums in 5 years, including raw rock n roll with a punk energy, a country album and an album of keyboard-heavy pop.

With the Beatles' engineer Geoff Emerick on board as producer, Elvis and co set down a platter of lush pop here, with arrangements ranging from smokey jazz blues to full-on Sgt Peppers-esque bouncy baroque pop.  Sonically, the band throws in everything from backwards guitars to horn sections.

As with previous Costello albums, I keep thinking that his prolific output is going to offer up a few duds, or at least 'middle of the road' fare... if it is, it's yet to show up, because this is a great album!

Day 0443 - Armed Forces

Elvis Costello "Armed Forces" (1979) - got it

I keep expecting to find that the next Elvis Costello album I listen to will be rubbish. He's one of those artists who has been around so long that you'd assume he'd have a few duds in him, but nope, this is another good'un.

Here Costello's keyboardist Steve Nieve was beginning to exert more control and the result is a very poppy, catchy, keyboard-heavy album. Bubbly pop rock with hints of new-wave and just the lightest ska-flavour. Possibly my favourite from Elvis and his band so far.

I picked up a copy sometime after listening to it for the list.

Day 0401 - This Year's Model

Elvis Costello "This Year's Model" (1978)

 
A bit more of a polished effort than "My aim is true" (though still a little gritty production-wise).  The swirly, occasionally psychedelic electric organ adds a little extra flavour to Costello's jaded stories of love, lust, disgust and the grey areas between them.

The song "pump it up" was ripped off wholesale by U2 for their track 'Get on your boots' but then Costello claims that his track was likewise an appropriation of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean homesick blues"...music continues to eat itself.

This album sounds like it's another one (and maybe it's true of the more stripped down rock of this whole period of music) that influenced the 00s indie sound, I can hear shades of the Shins on one song.

Day 0391 - My Aim is True

Elvis Costello "My Aim is True" (1977)

 
Costello mixes 1950s-style rock n roll with the dirty production sound, angst and sneer of punk.  In some ways he was anticipating the 1980s’ fondness for all things 50s (back to the future, cry-baby, nu-greasers, plus all of those people who really just wanted a return to the 'golden years' when they could be racist and sexist with impunity (MAGA)).

According to the book, he had not recruited his band 'the Attractions' for these sessions. He recorded the album over six 4-hour sessions in a tiny little 8-track demo studio - which probably helps lend it its gritty sound.

"Welcome to the working week" is a catchy, danceable number, "Mystery dance" is boisterous rockabilly and "Alison" is a more tender track.

"Watching the detectives" (not on the original album but released shortly after and included on the version I listened to) is a little bit of white-boy reggae/ska that mines a similar vein as artists such as the Police and the Specials.