Additional information
BRUTAL YOUTH is packaged with a 28-page booklet that includes rare photos and printed song lyrics. Personnel includes: Elvis Costello (vocals, guitar, piano, bass); Steve Donnelly (guitar); Andy Findon (piccolo); Steve Nieve (piano, harmonium, organ, keyboards); Bruce Thomas, Matt MacManus, Nick Lowe (bass); Pete Thomas (drums, percussion). Recorded between 1992 and 1996. Originally released on Warner Brothers Records (45535). Includes liner notes by Elvis Costello. After the rococo indulgences of MIGHTY LIKE A ROSE, Costello decided to return to his roots with BRUTAL YOUTH. Re-uniting with the Attractions, whose quirky, angular sound powered his finest albums, Elvis scaled down the arrangements to a more manageable level and brought his songwriting back to basics as well. The tunes here were the closest he'd come to rock & roll in several years, and there's a feeling of abandon that energizes the proceedings. As in the glory days, Steve Nieve's spindly keyboards provide most of the instrumental color as Elvis sings his spleen out on hard-hitting tunes like "Kinder Murder" and "13 Steps Lead Down." The black humor of "This is Hell" recalls the career-peak songwriting of Costello's SPIKE days, and the British Invasion-style raveup "Just About Glad" steals the show while exposing Costello's '60s influences. This is a bracing set, picking up as if eight years hadn't even passed since their previous outing (BLOOD & CHOCOLATE). Now expanded to a two- disc set, it's rich with alternate or early versions, a couple previously released B-sides (including the brilliant "Life Shrinks"). The version of "Favourite Hour" (the song from which came the album's title) recorded at an earlier session shows it to be brilliantly close to Procol Harum. While the formative takes offer some potent glimpses of the arrangement process, the officially released versions are a testament to Costello knowing what he was after. In addition, his liner notes are revealing and--not surprisingly--very well written.
Reviews
Rolling Stone (3/24/94, p.96) - 3 Stars - Good - "...yet another avalanche of wordplay and woodshedding, of lyrics rushing into each other and instruments vying for musical space...." Entertainment Weekly (2/22/02, p.149) - "...For those alienated by his C&W and classical forays, this is a reminder of the black-hearted virtuoisty they fell for in the forst place." - Rating: A- Alternative Press (4/94, p.74) - "...[Elvis] alone can answer whether it was the return of the Attractions which got his bark biting again, or simply their proximity. Either way, it reminds us why we loved him in the first place and he still hates us in return...." Melody Maker (2/26/94, p.31) - "...this is an emotional whirlwind, a disciplined stab at perfection of form, a jaded howl of unabated anguish and a bloody good beat record...." Village Voice (2/28/95) - Ranked #31 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Stereo Review (7/94, p.77) - "...he refines and clarifies his art by focusing sharply on what he does best--boring through the thicket of human interactions with lacerating wit and a musical attack to match...From start to finish, BRUTAL YOUTH reveals an artist fully in control....This Elvis, I'm pleased to note, has not left the building..." Audio Magazine (6/94, p.91) - "...a long hoped-for return to form..." New York Times (Publisher) (3/13/94, p.33) - "...a return to Mr. Costello's earliest, rawest method of record making....Brutal Youth consists of skillful, enjoyable songs...what increases their worth is the slashing interplay between his vocal performances and the blasting noise of the Attractions..."
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