Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding
2. Oliver's Army
3. Watching The Detectives
4. Alison
5. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
6. Accidents Will Happen
7. Pump It Up
8. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down
9. Radio Radio
10. Clubland
11. Good Year For The Roses
12. Man Out Of Time
13. I Wanna Be Loved
14. Every Day I Write The Book
15. Brilliant Mistake
16. The Other Side Of Summer
17. Tokyo Storm Warning
18. Sulky Girl
19. So Like Candy
20. Veronica
21. She

Disc 2:

1. Big Tears
2. Beyond Belief
3. Lipstick Vogue
4. Green Shirt
5. Pills & Soap
6. Tramp The Dirt Down
7. Shipbuilding
8. High Fidelity
9. New Lace Sleeves
10. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
11. Talking In The Dark
12. New Amsterdam
13. I Hope You're Happy Now
14. Riot Act
15. My Funny Valentine
16. Indoor Fireworks
17. Almost Blue
18. I Want You
19. God Give Me Strength
20. That Day Is Done
21. I Want To Vanish

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6574 in Music
• Released on: 2004-08-16
• Number of discs: 2

Album Description
One of the UK's most profile songwriters returns with a compilation of his greatest hits. This comprehensive collection includes classics like "Ship Building", "Oliver's Army", "Watching the Detectives", "Alison", "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" and "She", the hit from the film Notting Hill.

CD Description
Covering punk, new wave, post-punk and straight up rock 'n'roll all with a distinctive British touch, the tracks here show Costello's eclectic mix of styles. This collection takes in tracks from all areas of Costello's career from his first album 'My Aim Is True' (1977) onwards, but focusing mainly on his 1980's hit anthems for which he is best known.

Customer Reviews

Essential Elvis
This album serves as one of the best 'career-encompassing' compilations of them all. As such, it's the perfect album to buy if you don't want to commit yourself to buying his entire back catalogue. You will be treated to the highlights of Elvis Costello's wildly varied and brilliant musical career, even if many other lesser known highlights are omitted in favour of his most successful and popular tunes.

Ranging from the punk-spirited classics from the late 70's such as the seemingly omnipresent 'Oliver's Army', and 'Watching The Detectives', we then follow Elvis through the slightly less energetic early eighties, with laid-back ballads like 'Good Year For The Roses' and the absolutely outstanding 'New Amsterdam' and the anti-Falklands protest song 'Shipbuilding'.

Then comes the late-80's, early 90's era, (known as 'The Beard Years') where Elvis gets a bit arty on us, but yet still managed to produce music of the highest calibre, even if he was possibly taking himself a bit seriously at the time. A good example of a lesser known track from this era is present here, namely 'Tramp The Dirt Down' (from 'Spike'), with it's celtic instrumentation and scathingly brutal lyric (aimed at Margaret Thatcher), it's a brilliant song that proved that the angry young man inside him was still very much alive and able to express himself most eloquently. Another song from Spike to appear on this album is 'Veronica', a brilliantly lively song that deals with the issue of dementia in a way that no other artist could possibly have achieved. Co-written by fellow scouser Sir Paul McCartney, this is pop musicality of the highest order, and if you remember it as a single that you might have not paid much attention to at the time, now is your chance to have a second listen.

We're brought (nearly) up to date with Elvis's return to his 'back-to-basics' rock ensemble with the track 'Sulky Girl', recorded with The Attractions. Also included is his hit single 'She' from the Notting Hill soundtrack, which is one of the less 'essential' tracks on the album (and possibly shouldn't be here at all).

For me, the joy of this album is the sheer brilliance of Elvis Costello's songcraft, rivalled only by the very best in the business. His lyrics are always meaningful, fascinating, intellegent, thought-provoking, at times controversial, and always extremely entertaining. If you don't like this album, you don't like music, period.

Too catchy by half
I've just bought this double CD from Amazon on the grounds that I haven't heard any better song writing on the radio, ever, than those in Mr Costello's collection - and I was not disappointed. He's got the knack of combining a good tune and exactly-the-right-word-in-exactly-the-right-place lyric-writing, if you see what I mean. Notwithstanding one or two of the best songs are older than I am (and let's face it plenty of good music is a lot older than my tender 24 years), this is a worthy, worthy purchase. Except I have not been able to stop singing Oliver's Army for the best part of 48 hours, that's the price you pay I guess!

Pure class!
What can you say about Elvis Costello that hasn't already been said? This man is pure class. His songwriting genius is all too evident on this well structured compilation. Elvis Costello is undoubtedly one of the finest (though sadly under-rated) songwriters to come out of Britain. In my humble opinion, his songwriting skills rank up there with Britain's finest - Beatles, Bowie, Sting et al. If you're new to the man and his music, this is an excellent starting point as you get all the classic hits plus a few other gems and lesser-known (but still superb) tracks too. If you like this CD, do yourself a favour and visit the US Amazon site (Amazon.com) and order yourself a copy of the 4 x CD box set, 2 1/2 Years. This box set is now (sadly) deleted in the UK - it features Elvis's first three albums plus a great live CD. Well worth every penny. If you're a Costello fan and you don't already own the box set, get on and order it! The not-available-elsewhere Live At El Mocambo CD is worth the price alone. Also, hats off to whoever handled the digital remastering of Elvis's back catalogue - the sound is really vibrant and warm, unlike a lot of cold, tiresome digital remasters.