Elvis Costello - Brutal Youth (2002 Reissue with a Bonus Disc)

Perhaps realizing that The Juliet Letters was one step too far, especially after the willfully eclectic pair of Spike and Mighty Like a Rose, Elvis Costello set out to make a straight-ahead rock & roll record with Brutal Youth, reuniting with the Attractions (though Bruce Thomas appears on only five tracks) and Nick Lowe (who plays bass on most of the rest). Unfortunately, all this nostalgia and good intentions are cancelled by the retention of producer Mitchell Froom, whose junkyard, hazily cerebral productions stand in direct contrast to the Attractions’ best work. Likely, Froom’s self-conscious production appealed to Costello, since it makes Brutal Youth look less like a retreat, but it severely undercuts the effectiveness of the music, since it lacks guts, no matter how smugly secure it is in its tempered “experimentation.” Costello certainly had the raw elements for a dynamic little record here—the band, when they can be heard, sound good, and many songs (highlighted by “Pony St.,” “Kinder Murder,” “13 Steps Lead Down,” “You Tripped at Every Step,” and “20% Amnesia”) are fresh, effective evocations of his classic work—but it needed to be punchier to succeed. He needed to be produced by Lowe, instead of just having him sit in on bass.
Like the All This Useless Beauty bonus disc, the second disc for Rhino’s expanded reissue of Brutal Youth, Elvis Costello’s 1994 release for Warner, does not contain every B-side from the album’s accompanying singles (covers of Lennon/McCartney’s “Step Inside Love” and “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” have been left behind, for instance, and his brilliant version of Springsteen’s “Brilliant Disguise” remains isolated on a B-side, appearing neither here or on Beauty). Instead, Costello & Co. pile on the demos and alternate versions, with ten of the album’s 15 songs. Since the bonus disc runs 15 songs as well, this leaves just five new unique songs, the best of which is the opener “Life Shrinks,” since “Abandon Words” and “Poisoned Letter” are admitted works-in-progress (deemed so in Costello’s typically excellent, informative liner notes), and “Idiophone” and “A Drunken Man’s Praise of Sobriety” too deliberately experimental to truly catch hold. Not a great haul in regards to new material, but the demos, early takes, and alternate versions that populate this second disc are welcome, since the songs shine through when stripped of the muddled production that sank the proper album. The songs are still a mixed batch even in this setting, ranging from the excellent (“Sulky Girl,” “Favourite Hour”), the very good (“You Tripped at Every Step,” “This Is Hell,” “London’s Brilliant Parade,” “13 Steps Lead Down”), the good (“Pony St.,” “Just About Glad,” “Kinder Murder,” “All the Rage”), and the ones so misdirected, they’re positively bewildering (“Clown Strike,” “My Science Fiction Twin”). The main difference is, they’re often better to hear here, even when it’s just a raw acoustic demo, than the anti-polish of the album. It’s still a record that’s just for the dedicated, of course, but only the dedicated would buy a double-disc reissue, anyway. (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic)