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All This Useless Beauty
Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Thomas Conner
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Steve Nieve is a god. His piano and organ playing is the key to the righteousness of the Attractions, and he is the reason Costello's solo records have sounded a bit cheap and haughty without him. Costello has tried string quartets and Paul McCartney, but his prematurely aged vibrato and witty barbs fly farther when slung from the grandiose playing of Nieve's piano strings than anyone's cellos or guitars.
That doesn't mean this is another amazing Costello record. It's been 10 years — the last time he worked officially with the Attractions — since Costello had a truly stunning record. 1994's Brutal Youth tried to recapture the spit and spark of his angry young days, but this one more effectively uses spit and polish to highlight Costello's songwriting finesse. Most of these tracks were written for other singers (from Johnny Cash to 'Til Tuesday), and some of them performed them better. June Tabor's reading of Costello's "I Want to Vanish" is breathtaking; Costello sleeps through his own key changes.
But the power in this record belongs to Nieve. From the flourishes in "The Other End of the Telescope," which recall his Liberace sweeps in "Shot With His Own Gun," to the groovy, low synthesizer riff of "Little Atoms," the keys set the most evocative moods for Costello's rich stories. There may be hope for the Costello Show yet.
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