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| University Of Iowa Daily Iowan
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Growth evident in Costello album
Elvis Costello / The Best Of Elvis Costello
United Press International
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Choosing the best work from one of the wittiest and most consistent voices in rock music is at best a difficult task. That may explain why this record features so many songs — it would have been tough to eliminate any of the 16 included here.
The most remarkable thing about having Costello's eight-year career squeezed into a compilation album is seeing the tremendous development he's undergone.
Side one of this album, featuring the often angry, brutally intense songs from his first three LPs, could almost have been performed by a different artist than the one who recorded the songs on side two, which is luxurious, romantic and almost Cole Porter-like in its wit. Rarely does the outright anger of early Costello surface in his later work.
A "best of" package is not the ideal forum in which to savor Costello — his albums are too textured and cohesive to be chopped up and spliced together like this. Each possesses a special personality, whether it be the Stax sendup of Get Happy or country posturing of Almost Blue. But even under these circumstances, Costello comes across as a songwriter and performer of startling ability.
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Clipping.
Page scan.
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