All those obscure 45's of Elvis Costello, that people hear about but never hear aloud, have been collected and released on a new album, Taking Liberties.
In addition to the singles cuts there are three previously unreleased songs. Although this record continues in the tradition of Get Happy by crowding in 20 songs on one album, the sound quality does not appear to suffer.
The record has the widest range of styles of songs of any Costello album. There are two country western-type songs; one of the "Radio Sweetheart," is as soupy on the surface as anything you'll ever hear emanating from the local hicksville station. "I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea," "Crawling to the USA" and "Clean Money" are particularly energetic and angry.
Costello usually writes his own songs, but there are two cuts written by others. One is "My Funny Valentine" which is unbelievable (Elvis doing this?) until you hear it. Elvis turns this and "Getting Mighty Crowded" by Van McCoy into his own songs. The latter gives insight into the origins of New Wave. Elvis takes an old '50s song and turns it into thoroughly modern New Wave.
Taking Liberties is definitely worth buying. There has rarely been an album that contains such variety without sacrificing a uniformity of quality. Some call Elvis a genius, and this album certainly supports that sentiment.
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