My Amazon Reviews: Elvis Costello "Extreme Honey"

Honeyfied, Extemely Honeyfied.
4 Out of 5 Stars

AKA The Best of the Warner Years. Elvis Costello managed to crank out 6 albums of unnerving diversity (even for his fans) during his tenure at the home of Bugs Bunny. From the angry Elvis we all love of "Brutal Youth" to the chamber music experiments of "The Juliet Letters" to his pondering thoughtfulness of "All This Useless Beauty," Elvis took on so many tangents that I am sure his label could only scratch their collective heads and wonder (not to mention withhold "Kojak Variety" for five years).

Since confounding our expectations has always been a hallmark of getting a new EC record, "Extreme Honey" is given the responsibility of collecting the better of those discs. It does so fairly well, and throws in a haunting new song, "The Bridge I Burned," which even features a semi-rapped part. The X-Files obscurity with Brian Eno, "My Dark Life," is better. In Eno's usual minimalist but spooky manner, "My Dark Life" is the kind of song you would have expected from the X-Files. That is said as a compliment.

"Extreme Honey" also provides proof that Elvis still has his moments of genius. "I Want To Vanish" is the obvious precursor to his collaborations with Burt Bacharach. "The Other Side Of Summer" has a deceptively cynical lyric riding a wave of Beach Boys harmony. "Veronica" and "So Like Candy" gave some spunk to a moribund Paul McCartney. "Hurry Down Doomsday" roars with all the weirdness that "The Birds Will Still be Singing" carried on the lopsided opposite of the scale. "Tramp The Dirt Down" is probably the angriest song Elvis has ever written, with one of the most gorgeous arrangements. And if you want the blood and guts Elvis, "13 Steps Lead Down" has all the snarling ferocity of his earliest work.

I won't bemoan the lack of a few personal favorites. I will say a wish a track or two from "Kojak Variety" had snuck in, though. What "Extreme Honey" does present us with is that, even in his third decade, Elvis Costello remains one of the premiere songwriters of our times. Worth the price if you don't already have the originals.