Ok, ok, ok, I'm Convinced Already!

[Guest Incandenza]

I can tolerate "Everyday I Write the Book," but I do not like it. In fact, that just about desribes my feelings on Punch the Clock as a whole; it is a painfully nondescript album. However, if something's gonna suck, I want it to inflame me with dislike, which the very worst moments of Spike and Mighty Like a Rose do. Just because I hate it doesn't mean I shouldn't care.

 

And Kinetic, given your hatred for Almost Blue, what do you think of "Good Year for the Roses"? It's the only track I've heard off that album, and I think it's a fine song.

[Guest Kinetic]

"Good Year For The Roses" is great. Unfortunately, it's also the only good or even passable song on that album.

[Guest Incandenza]

Oh, what the hell! I'm gona rank the Costello albums I have, in preferential order:

 

01. This Year's Model

02. Trust

03. Blood & Chocolate

04. Imperial Bedroom

05. When I Was Cruel

06. Armed Forces

07. Brutal Youth

08. All This Useless Beauty

09. My Aim is True

10. Spike

11. Mighty Like a Rose

12. Cruel Smile

13. Punch the Clock

 

Albums 1-8 range from great-to-good; 9-13 are from okay-to-sucks. Also, it's strange to look at this list and see how far I've come along, because I didn't even own a single Costello album until Rhino started reissuing them in 2001.

[Guest Kinetic]

1. Get Happy!!

2. My Aim Is True

3. This Year's Model

4. Blood and Chocolate

5. Imperial Bedroom

6. Armed Forces

7. King of America

8. Almost Blue

 

I have two best-of comps, but I won't count those.

[Guest Incandenza]

I completely forgot The Juliet Letters. I've only listened to it once; it wasn't bad, but I haven't had the urge to bust it out again.

 

I very nearly did not add Cruel Smile, which isn't a regular album, but there it is.

[Guest Kinetic]

I think I'll get Trust when that's reissued, but I could stop there for the time being and never think twice about it. If I manage to find some of his stuff that I'm mildly interested in for cheap, I'll probably pick it up but I'm past the point with him where I feel like I need to own everything. He's been surpassed by Dylan and Neil Young as far as singer/songwriters that I enjoy and the sheer volume of music that I want to buy at some point makes stockpiling Costello albums cost prohibitive. So fuck him and his mediocre middle period.

[Guest Incandenza]

I hear ya (though I still prefer him over Dylan, and I've never cared for Young--and THAT opinion isn't likely to change). All I really need to get is Get Happy and King of America. I'll get the Trust reissue when it comes out, too, simply because my vinyl copy ain't in the best of shape. Outside of that, I already have enough shitty Costello albums; I don't need any more.

[Guest Kinetic]

This just in: I also own Painted From Memory, his unlikely collaboration with Burt Bacharach. This album is sort of all right, if you can stomach that sort of thing. The first two tracks are great, while the third and fourth compell me to listen to something else. I've never gotten any further than that.

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

I've only heard scattered bits, and I think "God Give Me Strength" is the last track on there, right? That's a goodie. I don't think I could handle a whole album of it, though...

[Guest Incandenza]

I was bored with "God Give Me Strength" after two minutes, and the song runs for six minutes. I have no desire to hear the rest of the album.

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

So I figure this is the place to ask, since people looking here have themselves quite a few of the reissues. There's a copy of the Ryko Armed Forces used at my local store for 8 bucks. I'm thinking about getting it. How are the bonuses on the reissue? I think the only real difference is the addition of the Hollywood High concert; the Ryko has the rest of the b-sides.

[Guest Incandenza]

The Hollywood High stuff is pretty good, though I don't know if it's worth the extra money. There's also the matter of sound quality: just about anyone who's heard both the Ryko and Rhino releases of any of the E.C. albums testify to Rhino's superior remastering skills. If that kind of thing matters to you, go with Rhino. If not, it's your call.

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

Sound matters moreso than even the bonus stuff, so that'll be worth the money. Considering that the money is only really 6 or 7 bucks, I'll take the better remaster.

[Guest Kinetic]

I've got both the Ryko and Rhino reissues of My Aim Is True and my untrained ears detect no difference. Comparatively speaking, that's a pretty lo-fi album, so it might have changed as his albums got more sophisticated musically. I don't know. I will say this, however: The Ryko reissue version of "Radio Sweetheart" is better than the Rhino one. The Rhino version has what sounds like a choir of bums singing "Play one more for my radio sweetheart" dubbed onto the end, while the Ryko version does not. Why?

[Guest Incandenza]

I haven't heard any of the Ryko issues, but, having heard Rhino's 2-disc Best of, I can tell that the album versions of the songs are different from that. The drums kind of sound flat on many of the Best of's tracks, for instance, but sound just fine on the whole album. I think I read that the Rhino's Best of master was basically lifted from Ryko's, but I could be imagining it.