While the Rykodisc reissue program rolled on, Elvis stayed busy touring with the Attractions, promoting Kojak Variety in his own way and preparing for a return to the studio with those Attractions by playing a five-show residency in Manhattan. Many of the songs he tried out had been written with other people’s voices in mind, and some had already been recorded by those people. (Fans were understandably wondering if perhaps this was because the well had run dry; he pointed out that after covering other people’s songs on Kojak, now it was his turn to cover himself. Or something.)
The album with the Attractions did emerge on schedule, thank goodness. All This Useless Beauty was a relatively low-key set of original ballads. Several complained that it wasn’t “Pump It Up” enough; those people must not have noticed how much his voice had improved. There’s lots of piano too, which may have reflected his rediscovery of the Trust album via preparing its reissue the year before. That’s our theory, anyway.
As it turned out, not all of the songs had been heard before in other renditions, and even those that had—like the opening “The Other End Of The Telescope”, first released by ‘Til Tuesday—had evolved somewhat, so even if you liked the “original” version, he attempted to make his more definitive. “Little Atoms” piles on the imagery and wordplay over a gurgling backing with a melody based on “Deutschland Über Alles”. The theme of what we now call toxic masculinity is explored in at least three songs: the stately title track (a first for Elvis), the Beethoven-inspired “Poor Fractured Atlas”, and the overwrought soul of “Why Can’t A Man Stand Alone?” While it was written for Johnny Cash, “Complicated Shadows” takes a more menacing approach, deftly supported by a snippet of one of the live performances from the previous summer. Fans had heard of “Distorted Angel” as one of the unfinished songs from Brutal Youth; this rendition is more of a springboard for questionable remixes.
“Shallow Grave” is very much an improvement on its musical cousin “Pads, Paws And Claws”, probably the weakest of the batch written with Paul McCartney. “You Bowed Down” would have been familiar from the almost identical production of Roger McGuinn’s version, but for the ill-advised change of the waltz-time bridge. “Starting To Come To Me” and “It’s Time” originated from the Mighty Like A Rose period; the latter seems at first to be a classic nasty Costello kiss-off, but would be revealed to be yet another angry diatribe against Margaret Thatcher. “I Want To Vanish”—which, like the title track was originally recorded by English folksinger June Tabor—features the Brodsky Quartet, and provides something of a benediction.
While the album did occasionally rock, for the most part it accurately reflected the maturity of a band who’d known each other for two decades. After doing a pile of piano-and-vocal shows with Steve Nieve (commemorated on the limited edition Costello & Nieve live EP set released at year’s end) he promptly dragged the album around the world for another tour, at the end of which he threatened to retire and refused to work with the bass player ever again; of the two promises, he’s only thus far kept the latter.
Only five years later, All This Useless Beauty was given a position of honor in the first batch of Rhino releases, bolstered by various demos of unknown vintage, with a few more tracks written for others to sing. The lead track on the bonus disc was “Almost Ideal Eyes”, a dizzying pastiche a la David Crosby that came this close to making the album. Instead it was the token “B-side” for a CD singles from the album, along with demos, remixes, and mutual covers, such as the lovely “What Do I Do Now?”, originally by the band Sleeper. “The World’s Greatest Optimist” was another Aimee Mann collaboration, while “The Days Take Care Of Everything” would be cannibalized for “The Other End Of The Telescope”. A re-arrangement of “The Comedians” was the template for Roy Orbison’s eventual version, while “The Only Flame In Town” was returned to its ballad format for Aaron Neville.
Other timely bonuses included a rendition of the McCartney collaboration “That Day Is Done” with the Fairfield Four, the Brian Eno experiment “My Dark Life” written for an X-Files film, and “The Bridge I Burned”, which started out as a cover of Prince’s “Pop Life” but was quashed by TAFKAP himself. Back in 1997, those last two tracks were selling points of the contract-ending Extreme Honey compilation, which presented an enjoyable smattering of songs from the Warner period. With that over and the Ryko reissues completed, he was at (yet another) crossroads.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions All This Useless Beauty (1996)—3½
2001 Rhino: same as 1996, plus 17 extra tracks
Costello & Nieve Costello & Nieve (1996)—3½
Elvis Costello Extreme Honey: The Very Best Of The Warner Bros. Years (1997)—3½
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