Costello attracts new and old fans with rereleases

Catalog sales of older CD titles are continuing to dwindle as Baby Boomers finally convert their LP collection to digital. And while it's likely there will always be college freshmen lining up to buy Bob Marley's Legend, you can also expect to see an ever-widening parade of spiffy re-releases advertising remastering, repackaging and the ever-popular extra bonus tracks. Elvis Costello gets his second turn on the re-release merry-go-round starting this month. \nCostello's early 1977-1987 catalog was originally reissued by Rykodisc in the mid-1990s. Now, after some of his older titles are falling briefly out of print, Rhino Records is again re-releasing his first 17 albums in groups of three. Instead of releasing them in chronological order, the groups of three in question are spread out over the periods of Costello's long and diverse career.\nCostello fans who already own these albums in other forms will have to decide if the supplementary material warrants re-purchasing them. Since Spike and All This Useless Beauty were not included in the first reissue series, these two later albums give you the most bonus bang for your buck -- each offer 17 cuts not on the original records, including demos and single B-sides. My Aim is True is another story -- its bonus disc includes only four tracks not included on Rykodisc's 1993 CD reissue.\nIn 1976, when London's punk pioneers were indulging themselves in a protracted adolescence, swearing on TV and tearing up their clothes to shock the (at the time very shockable) establishment, new husband and father Declan MacManus was squeezing onto a train every morning and riding to his job as a computer operator. Sure, the Sex Pistols might seem more angry on the surface, but the songs MacManus (the soon-to-be Elvis) was writing, for what would become his 1977 debut album, burn with a smoldering rage at the disappointments of life and love that's still startling after 25 years. By this time, Costello's gift for the clever turn of the phrase is already well-formed: see "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" ("I said I'm so happy I could die/She said 'drop dead' and left with another guy").\nThe only pieces not in place on this near-perfect debut are Costello's backing musicians. American bar band Clover (incidentally, the group who would become Huey Lewis & The News) does a serviceable job, but lacks the attitude and skill of The Attractions, the band Costello would assemble in time for 1978's This Year's Model. \nIn 1989, Costello was in the middle of a temporary split with The Attractions and recording his first album with Warner Bros., which would become Spike. The differences from My Aim is True are unmistakable -- instead of his usual small backing band, Spike boasts over two dozen contributors, including Tom Waits sidemen Marc Ribot and Michael Blair, Byrd-man Roger McGuinn and fellow Liverpudlian Paul McCartney. Consequently, the sound is much more expansive than earlier releases, and the record is very much a studio creation. And even if the late-1980s production sounds slightly dated at times (I'm not saying electric drums don't have their place, but it's not here), Costello handles the arrangements of a much larger ensemble handily -- especially considering he wouldn't learn to write or read musical notation until his collaboration with The Brodsky Quartet three years later.\nLyrically, all of Costello's young self-righteous anger is still present on Spike, but tempered with an older man's worldview. His focus is now directed to external injustice instead of personal, like on the death penalty protest "Let Him Dangle," or "Tramp the Dirt Down," the most vitriolic anti-Thatcher anthem since Morrissey's "Margaret on the Guillotine." The dense arrangements and sometimes oblique lyrics ultimately make this record one of Elvis's less immediately accessible -- so it's especially ironic that upon its release, Spike became Costello's best-selling album to date, sales spurred almost entirely by the success of the single "Veronica," co-penned with Paul McCartney. The highlight of Spike's bonus disc are the demos Costello recorded for the album. Stripped down to voice, guitar and basic percussion, the songs reveal new facets not immediately apparent in their dense studio constructions. \nThe final album in the first trilogy of re-issues is also the most recent, 1996's All This Useless Beauty. The sound owes less to the band's earlier amphetamine-and-alcohol fueled rock than the sophisticated pop Costello would make two years later with Burt Bacharach (on 1998's Painted With Memory, not included in this reissue program). The album sees Costello the songwriter's continuing shift toward melancholy over anger-- Consisting mostly of songs written by Costello for other performers, All This Useless Beauty contains some of Costellos' greatest ballads and is helped by crystal-clear production from former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. Beauty is truly the lost gem of the Costello catalog -- underpromoted at the time of release, its initial sales were almost nil. Hopefully the re-release of this future classic will inspire some newfound appreciation. Beauty's bonus disc collects some excellent scattered B-sides, demos and non-album tracks that trainspotting Elvis fans will be glad to have in one place.\nIf you're a fan of rock, pop or just enjoy great music and have yet to acquaint yourself with Elvis (don't worry -- I was once one of the unwashed as well), these three albums will serve as a great introduction. Just be careful if you get hooked -- the next three don't hit the shelves until October.