The Opinionated Diner

I'm a complete sucker for the early Elvis Costello albums and have happily acquired (for the second or third time) all the recent reissues, so I'm pleased to see Almost Blue, the much criticised plastic country disc, is about again. Did I need it again. Of course I did, if only for the bonus disc with his Johnny Cash duet and the always astounding live (at the Royal Albert Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra) take of "I'm Your Toy", a record that never fails to demolish me...been repeating it over and over in the car for a week now. But, not only for that-Almost Blue is simply a wonderful, slighty tongue in cheek, and very cheesey, album recorded before EC started taking himself too seriously and became dull. I met the man a few years back and really disliked him..shame Talking of reissues, John Lennon's Rock'n'Roll is a patchy affair-actually much of it is crap-but with 3 or 4 killers. The remaster adds "Angel Baby", another wonderful track left off the original. And I still think Jonno's cut of "Stand By Me" is the equal of Ben E King's.