Rhino / Wea
2001
All This Useless Beauty
About This Album
Arriving at the end of his stint at Warner Bros., All This Useless Beauty is one of Elvis Costello's overlooked records, which is a shame since it's a fine album -- a clearing-house of old songs, tunes he co-wrote with other artists (who recorded them initially), and songs he had written for other songs and brand new artists. It's a wild, diverse record that showcases not just his strengths as a songwriter, but the depth of his catalog -- particularly since he was tying up a lot of loose ends, working with new collaborators, and finishing off old songs, while putting an end to the Attractions. There were a lot of songs that didn't make it to the record for various reasons, most notably the B-side "Almost Ideal Eyes" and "My Dark Life," a superb collaboration with Brian Eno that later surfaced on an X-Files soundtrack. Then, when the album started failing on the charts, Costello dreamed up the idea of weekly singles with new B-sides, including covers of songs from the album by contemporary artists (including Sleeper and Lush). Among these B-sides were a remix of "Distorted Angel" by Tricky and a lovely understated version of Sleeper's "What Do I Do Now.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9 and 10)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 12)

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