Suit Of Lights

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  Seven Songs for the Week #76 - 18th Sep 24

  Jason Carty

  Elvis Costello, a formative influence, and someone I will always love, has announced a box set this week for 1986's King Of America album. 20 years ago, before the ubiquity of every album getting a box set, Costello released a brilliantly curated set of double CDs for all his albums from 1977 - 1996. That's 17 albums, and each of the 17 bonus discs was crammed with mostly unreleased stuff, demos, live. For instance, Get Happy!!, already a 20 track album, had a 30-track bonus CD. In the parallel universe, Get Happy!! was now 50 tracks long. The essays with each reissue were about 10,000 words of Costello insight. It meant thought that when you come to the year 2024 and have the option to release box sets of individual albums, the 2002-2004 campaign emptied the vaults somewhat.

  That still leave live shows. When Costello moved his catalogue again to Universal circa 2008, all the 2CDs were discontinued and the core catalogue came out as single vanilla CDs. There was an attempt to issue live shows from the vaults and a 2CD This Year's Model came out, with a previously unissued gig, but who was still buying CDs in 2008?

  Three years ago EC released his first single album boxset, a hyperactive, vinyl-only monstrosity version of Armed Forces that cost €250 and had 10 inch records of edited gigs, and art prints. I assume it remained nailed to the shelves. A 2023 collection of Bacharach and Costello was more subtle and was able to collate their work, albeit with some performances still missing. And now we have this. The typography of the new box spoils the original artwork. Most of the demos, etc, were present on the 2CD version, but there are six new ones. The gig on the third CD is edited, and about a third of it is missing. CDs 4-5-6 contain mostly previously released material made up of what Elvis thinks are his most King of America-inspired songs from the past 38 years. Ummm, ok. The set ends with three new interpretations which confuses things more. Six CDs, $120, no hi-res/surround or what not. No video (EC was on The Session and Whistle Test at the time).

  What would I do if I were his archivist, I don't hear you ask? Why, a 1986 boxset. Four months after King of America came out, Elvis Costello and the Attractions put out Blood & Chocolate, another remarkable album, but the complete antithesis of KoA: Noisy, raucous and angry versus acoustic, thoughtful, human. To add to the madness, Costello went on tour with The Attractions and the KoA band, named "The Confederates" playing multiple nights in cities, an alternating band each night. On top of that, The Attractions shows saw the first appearance of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook, a giant wheel that would be spun to decide what the setlist should be. I would imagine a bonfire would have burned cash faster. So a 1986 box showing Costello at the height of his talents, two albums, two bands, four eyes, one vision, as they say.

  The original plan for King of America was for it to be half with The Attractions and half with US musicians. While he quickly ripped through his new material with the US players delivering all he needed, the waiting-in-the-wings Attractions grew tired of hanging around. Eventually they were summoned for one song, Suit of Lights, and maybe due to pent up feelings about having been left as hangers on, it's possibly the best ever Attractions performance and therefore it's the best song on the album, a song that provides a jaundiced look at the life of A Beloved Entertainer.