Elvis Costello

This fine 1980 set collects the B-sides, rarities and album tracks that Costello's American label stripped off This Year's Model and Armed Forces (boo, American record label, boo!!!). Top cuts include the early rarity "Radio Sweetheart," his original version of "Girls Talk" (which he gave to pub-rock stalwart Dave Edmunds) and the oddly lovely "Clowntime Is Over." OK, there's more -- "Tiny Steps," "Just a Memory" and a cover of the old Rodgers & Hart standard "My Funny Valentine," which proves that Elvis was always clued in to things other than rock 'n' roll.

Taking Liberties takes its title from "Crawling to the U.S.A.," Elvis Costello's scathing
equation of foreign aid and whoredom – perfect for the latest installment of Costello's
love-hate affair with America. As a commercial gesture toward our LP-oriented market, this
collection of twenty B sides, British album cuts and outtakes is backhanded right down to
its reversed-negative cover photo. By ceremoniously gift-wrapping his trash, th... More >

OK, twenty more songs, all B sides etc., how could it hold together, but some sentimental part of me is taken with its reflexive passion and half-finished serendipity--this detritus was the work of a punk fellow-traveler, and he'll be missed. "Girls Talk" and "Stranger in the House" and "I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea" are more indelible than Get Happy!! at its happiest, and let me put in a word for all 1:43 of the previously unreleased "Hoover Factory," a punless piece of melancholy throwaway sarcasm that reminds us that he's in this because he's pissed, not because he's glib. (Grade: B)