Elvis Costello - Kojak Variety (Expanded 2-CD Edition) (2004)

With Almost Blue, Elvis Costello wanted to be a honky tonker. With Kojak Variety, he’s a crooner, picking forgotten tunes by both minor and major artists (anyone from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins to Bob Dylan). From his song selections to the pseudo-avant-rock/R&B band, Costello doesn’t make any obvious moves. Yet that doesn’t mean that the record is difficult—it just shows the depths of Costello’s affection for music and record collecting (which is also clear from his loving, detailed liner notes). Costello and his band (featuring guitarists James Burton and Marc Ribot, drummer Jim Keltner and Attraction Pete Thomas) play with gusto, tearing through the songs with the vigor of a bar band on a Friday night. Some of the rockers sound slightly forced, although there’s no denying the power of Costello’s passionate vocals, even if he stretches his range a little too much (Little Richard’s “Bama Lama Bama Loo”). What matters here are the performances, and the majority of Kojak Variety is filled with fine interpretations. Kojak Variety does what any good covers album should do—it makes you want to seek out the originals.
Elvis Costello recorded the 15 songs that comprised his covers album Kojak Variety in 1990, but the album sat in the vaults for five years, with some songs trickling out on soundtracks, with the entire album eventually leaking out as a bootleg prior to its release in 1995. Given this slow, steady crawl to release and the nature of bootlegs and B-sides, it’s reasonable to assume from its slow unveiling that the album was a collection of covers that he recorded with different bands over different years, when quite the opposite was true—all 15 songs were the cut with the same band, all sequestered away in Barbados. However, the bonus disc that accompanies Rhino’s 2004 expanded, double-CD reissue of Kojak Variety is indeed a crazy quilt of covers, taken from different sessions recorded during the ’90s. Many of these have been previously released, either as B-sides or more often as contributions to various-artists tribute albums (or, in the case of Dave Bartholomew’s “That’s How You Got Killed Before,” Costello sang it for an album by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band). While these aren’t exactly rare, it is nice to have them all collected in one place, but it’s even nicer to have all of the “George Jones Tape” finally see the light of day. These ten songs—running from track two (“My Resistance Is Low”) through track 11 (“How Long Has This Been Going On”) on the bonus disc—were a collection of covers Costello cut in one day in 1992 with Pete Thomas and Paul “Bassman” Riley, all recorded with the intention of sending them to Jones for possible inclusion on a forthcoming album by the country legend. Costello first hit upon this idea during an interview with Jones for Interview magazine, and in the published piece, he said he was going to send a mixtape to the singer, but that soon morphed into these 11 covers. They’re a mixed bag, sometimes bracing—Costello’s interpretation of Bruce Springsteen’s “Brilliant Disguise” is tremendous and would have made a great single for George—and sometimes bewildering (it’s hard to imagine the Possum winding his way through Tom Waits’ “Innocent When You Dream”), yet it’s always a fascinating listen, even if it’s just for hearing Elvis bungle a line on his excellent version of Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” This tape alone makes this reissue of Kojak Variety worthwhile, and while having it surrounded by the B-sides and tribute tunes gives the bonus disc an appearance of being a patchwork collection, it’s just as musically satisfying as the finished album. In fact, it could even be argued that the ramshackle vibe and freewheeling spirit on this bonus disc makes it more fun than the actual record. (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic)