The Costello Show - King Of America (Limited Edition 1995)

Seeking to exorcise the demons of 1981's ill-fated country album Almost Blue, Elvis Costello had another go with 1985's exquisite 15-song exploration of American life, King Of America. "Little Palaces" and "Indoor Fireworks" exert that magical knack of making you feel like you've lived with them all your life--which might sound easy, but then that's the way with songwriting at its very best. Sometimes, as with "Our Little Angel", you might convince yourself you're listening to a lost Hank Williams classic, before realising there's only one person alive capable of a couplet like "You try to love but you're so contrary/Like a chainsaw running through a dictionary". It's not all slide guitars and domestic discord, though. "Lovable" is as pure a moment of joyful abandon as Costello's ever allowed himself and "Eisenhower Blues" does exactly what it says on the tin. Six months later, he was kicking up an unholy racket with Blood And Chocolate--the album which inadvertently invented Radiohead. Costello fans have never seen a year like it, before or since. --Peter Paphides