Product Description
In 1986, {|Elvis Costello|} was nine years into a successful career as New Wave's Angry Young Man, and it was taking a heavy toll. 1984's {|Goodbye Cruel World|} had been a severe critical and commercial disappointment, he was not getting along with his bandmates in {|the Attractions|}, and he was chafing at the boundaries of the musical persona he'd imposed upon himself. {|Costello|} decided it was time for a severe reinvention, and 1986's {|King of America|} was meant to be a break from his recent past -- it saw him working with a new set of musicians, several of whom had been part of {|Elvis Presley|}'s TCB Band (guitarist {|James Burton|}, bassist {|Jerry Scheff|}, and drummer {|Ron Tutt|}), and with help from producer {|T-Bone Burnett|}, he began exploring the influences of American music that had long been part of his songwriting, but approached from a distance. While {|Costello|} had revealed his love for classic country on 1981's {|Almost Blue|}, {|King of America|} opened new doors for him as a songwriter and performer, and it was a gateway into the stylistic eclecticism that would become his hallmark in the '90s and onward. 2024's {|King of America and Other Realms|} is a six-disc box set that celebrates the {|King of America|} album and {|Costello|}'s ongoing exploration of country, blues, jazz, folk, gospel, and other American idioms. Along with a newly remastered edition of the original 1986 album, the set includes a disc of acoustic demos {|Costello|} recorded as he was mapping out the project (some of the songs would instead appear on {|Blood & Chocolate|}, released later the same year) and a live disc preserving a January 1987 concert in London featuring the Confederates, the touring unit {|Costello|} assembled that featured several participants from the {|King of America|} sessions. The remaining three discs offer a cross-section of material {|Costello|} recorded in the years that followed, including music he cut with {|Lucinda Williams|}, {|Emmylou Harris|}, and {|Allen Toussaint|}, highlights from the albums {|The Delivery Man|} (2004), {|The River in Reverse|} (2006), {|Secret, Profane & Sugarcane|} (2009), and {|National Ransom|} (2010), and tracks where he shares the vocal mike with {|Dr. Ralph Stanley|}, {|Rosanne Cash|}, and {|Kris Kristofferson|}. The first half of this set is a welcome expansion on {|King of America|}, one of {|Costello|}'s finest albums; the second half seems scattershot in comparison, but it's full of material that ranges from good to brilliant, and skillfully explores his loving embrace of America's musical legacy. (And if you want to observe {|Costello|}'s growth as a performer, compare the fine version of Indoor Fireworks on disc one with the dazzling live reading on disc six.) {|Costello|}'s lengthy and detailed liner essay is a marvelous achievement in itself, and it's a must read for anyone who cares about his music from this era. {|King of America and Other Realms|} sometimes feels almost like too much of a good thing, but it's consistently rewarding and a deep-focus study of one songwriter's ceaseless evolution. ~ Mark Deming
