The Smiley Smile Message Board

Can anyone recommend a good place to start if I want a CD or 2 of Elvis Costello? Anyone here who rates his stuff ?

I'd start with a few of his earliest albums. Pick any from My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, Get Happy, Almost Blue, Armed Forces, etc. But I also love his 2004 album The Delivery Man and, from a few years before that, North.

You may want to check allmusic.com to get reviews for each and get an idea of what to expect from each. 

By the way, weren't you just asking about Top 5 Beach Boys albums, too? Just starting a music collection and looking to get the classics out of the way, are you?

Some hardcore Elvis fans would shoot me for this but I really like Painted From Memory, the collaboration with Burt Bacarach.   A mature voice in all respects.

I had no idea Elvis Costello had such hardcore fans. Gunplay. Wow.  :lol

Yes that's more or less it - maybe diversifying, rather than starting a new collection. I have more patience for slower music than was previously the case. Think it's because of getting older, partly. And people in these parts, such as your good self, seem to be very clued-up.

For me, "This Year's Model" and "Armed Forces" are his two best from the early years (they beat out "My Aim Is True" and "Get Happy" in terms of production, arrangment and songwriting). "Imperial Bedroom" (from '82) is a baroque pop masterpiece; if you like the Beatles and other 60s pop icons, then you'll like what Elvis does with this album. If you like a little country & western influence, go for "King Of America" (1986) or the aforementioned "Delivery Man" (2004).

Costello has so much quality material, you might eventually want more than just two or three CDs. I tend not to care as much for his jazzier torch song material ("Painted From Memory" which is overwrought; "North" a little less so), but "Get Happy", "Trust", "Spike", "Mighty Like A Rose" and "Brutal Youth" are all very solid rock/pop albums that fall just below the high quality found on the ones I mentioned above.

On 9/28/07 in Columbia, Maryland, Elvis Costello is appearing in concert, and the headliner is..........Bob Dylan!

Getting into Elvis Costello can be a daunting task for sure.  The man has covered so many genres of music that it's really hard to find a starting point.  I agree with what most of the others have said in that you can't go wrong with his first 4 albums:  My Aim is True, This Year's Model, Armed Forces, and Get Happy.  After hearing those I was hooked and had to own every single album.  There isn't a single one of his that I don't like.  My least favorite is Goodbye Cruel World, but even it has a few gems.  Along with the first 4, Imperial Bedroom, Brutal Youth, and The Delivery Man are essential.

begin with these:

my aim is true
this years model
get happy
extreme honey (best of the warner years)
when i was cruel

then get the rest.   :hat