Elvis Costello - Trust

Agreed re Trust. Before even flipping side 1 over, I felt a wave of gratefulness at the quality of lyrics, wordplay, melodies, sound, band interplay, etc, everything, and a cohesiveness, of sound, energy, delight, fascination, which continued through New Lace Sleeves. After that, it lost me a bit or some, though individual tracks stand out as most welcome eccentrics such as Big Sister's Clothes and Fish and Chip Paper.

White Knuckles & Shot With his Own Gun are a pretty dark and disturbing pairing. Both amazingly constructed melodies, a little difficult for me to let my guard down or enjoy or wrap my head quite around.

Luxembourg was the only song on side 1 that sort of went in one ear and out the other and mostly due to it doesn't 'sound as good' as the other songs on that side, and it's already been done better imo by Strict Time and Lover's Walk. But Side 1 through Sleeves to open side 2, is like a band and songwriting tour de force, imo. After that, it's a side of largely unrelated songs, or at least sounds and styles, which is fine, but it becomes to feel too disjointed. It ends with a pair of quirky winners too though.

The vocal pairing on the otherwise solid or strong From a Whisper To A Scream is 'painful' to listen to. One artist, at least in that song, is a rock and roll singer, or vocal-appropriate for that song, the other, is not, in that particular song. The bonus track on cd2 of the Rhino is a more convincing listen with just the one singer.

 

FWIW I gave the UK F Beat label pressing another listen and the bass guitar is a killer as well as the drums, piano, and vocals. Had a little vocal sibilance on the 's' on the last track of side 2, but not too bad, otherwise was an immense sonic and songwriting pleasure to hear and listen to.

 

Nick Lowe not to be blamed for that one.

I think my LP is F-Beat. It's one of the few LPs I kept when dumping most of the collection. No comment on sound quality as my turntable was beginner grade (not Crosley). It probably sounded good.

 

Hip-O = Ryko ?

 

No, Hip-O is Universal's version of Rhino. Focusing on back catalog reissues, although usually not as in-depth as Rhino. They reissued the 11 core studio albums as standalone CDs with no bonus tracks in 2007, using the same mastering as the Rhino CDs. More interestingly, they started a campaign called "The Costello Show", which was to release full concerts from EC and the Attractions' history. They released four of them before the project suddenly went silent.

2008 - Live At The Nashville Rooms (with soundcheck included) - included as the second CD of the deluxe My Aim Is True, which also included some previously unreleased demos

2009 - Live At El Mocambo - remastered reissue of the same album, still lacking the Nick Lowe tracks unfortunately

2009 - Live At The Warner Theater - included with the deluxe edition of This Year's Model. A few songs were released on the Rhino CD, but not the whole show.

2010 - Live At Hollywood High - incredible show! Highly recommended. Full version of the show that the original bonus 7" came from. About half of it was included on the Armed Forces Rhino reissue.

The recent Armed Forces super deluxe edition more or less picks up where this series left off ten years ago, although IIRC it has Hollywood High included as well, making it a little redundant. I've heard the mastering on the super deluxe is really good - perhaps skip the Hip-O Hollywood High CD and just get the download for better quality.

 

Well said! I listened to side 1 of Trust (MFSL LP) over the weekend. What an incredible album side. The Attractions just light up every song with their brilliant playing. Nick Lowe's production really captured the heart of those songs. I love the second side too, but just play the first side very loudly and sit between the speakers and listen. It's an amazing listening experience.

 

My go to vinyl is the MFSL LP. After that, I'd go for the UK F Beat with the picture labels (first pressing before the generic F Beat logo label).

 

I bought a German copy on F Beat. Sounds good to me.

 

Haven't heard a German pressing of Trust but I'm sure it's worth checking out. German pressings are generally Trustworthy.

 

Yes, the Squeeze singer (Chris or Glenn? Difford co-wrote the lyrics to "Kid About It" from the next years IbMePdErRoIoAmL) 's voice always sounded mismatched to the rest of the vocals/music. And "from a whisper to a scream", although highlighted on the jacket's back cover, is not one of the stronger songs on Trust.

 

I always loved that duet. I'd call it a highlight on the album, but I'd also call every other song a highlight, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

"Luxembourg was the only song on side 1 that sort of went in one ear and out the other and mostly due to it doesn't 'sound as good' as the other songs on that side, and it's already been done better imo by Strict Time and Lover's Walk. But Side 1 through Sleeves to open side 2, is like a band and songwriting tour de force, imo."

Much agreed. "Luxembourg" is the [relative] throwaway tune of side 1.

 

Ha, and "Luxembourg" is probably second only to "New Lace Sleeves" for me! I love how we all agree that this album is great, yet we still don't agree on individual songs.

 

Trust may be my favorite EC record. It has a smoky, jazzy feel (probably due to Steve Nieve mostly playing acoustic piano) that he never quite replicated again. And the lyrics are some of his best wordplay.

 

I disagree. It’s a terrific track and Chris does a great job digging into the song for a nice c0ntrast to Elvis’s.

 

Ranking the first ten years for me:
Imperial Bedroom
Get Happy!!
Trust
This Year's Model
King Of America
My Aim Is True
Punch The Clock
Blood And Chocolate
Armed Forces
Almost Blue
Goodbye Cruel World

and then Juliet letters, brutal youth & painted from memory would round out my Elvis desert island discs

 

From A Whisper should’ve been a big hit!

We played this album, and Taking Liberties, to death in college.

Still my two favorite EC albums! Armed Forces just behind!

 

Glenn Tilbrook is the singer on "From a Whisper to a Scream." Chris Difford wrote most of the lyrics for "Boy with a Problem," not "Kid About It."

 

I've probably already posted this in this very thread, but Trust is an excellent example of a "sleeper album". I wasn't bowled over by it on first listen; now, it ranks in my top three (behind Get Happy!! and My Aim Is True, and ahead of Taking Liberties, This Year's Model, and all the others - that's my top five). There's something about this album that just gets better each time I listen to it.