Barney Bubbles’ Labours of Love
The brilliant and troubled Barney Bubbles wanted to inspire and did so through his remarkable litany of album covers. A new retrospective tells his tale.
elvis costello
New Weds and Nearly-Deads: 10 Under-Appreciated Elvis Costello Albums
While many of Elvis Costello’s albums are regularly heralded as masterpieces, these ten albums don’t get nearly the love they deserve.
Love and Unhappiness Go Arm in Arm: Elvis Costello’s ‘Imperial Bedroom’ at 40
Elvis Costello’s Imperial Bedroom is a shape-shifting masterpiece of chamber-pop, folk, bursts of punk rage, Beatlesesque earworms, jazz-leaning future standards, and bits of pysch rock.
41 Essential Pop/Rock Songs with Accordion
No popular musical instrument has been more frequently maligned than the accordion. Despite gaining hipster cred in the 1990s, its role in pop remains underappreciated.
Elvis Costello Remakes His Classic ‘This Year’s Model’ in Spanish
Elvis Costello re-imagines his second album This Year’s Model by having Latinx rockers sing his classic songs on Spanish Model.
The Foaming Breakers of the Poisonous Surf: Elvis Costello’s ‘Mighty Like a Rose’ at 30
Elvis Costello’s Mighty Like a Rose is among his most unjustly maligned albums, making it ripe for reexamination.
The 100 Best Alternative Singles of the 1980s: 40 – 21
We present the best punk, post-punk, new wave, college rock, goth, industrial, new romantic, ska, power pop, hardcore, and indie rock singles of the 1980s.
Cowpunk: A Brief Y’alternative History
Cowpunk is a reaction against conventional country music, yet embodies some of its distant and deepest traits. Likewise, it's also a reaction against punk, yet manifests as one of its purest expressions.
Elvis Costello Gets Dark and Brooding on ‘Hey Clockface’
Elvis Costello is a complex man of dark humor and flashes of anger as he keeps fighting the good fight armed with a razor wit.
Between the Grooves: Elvis Costello – ‘This Year’s Model’
The latest Between the Grooves is a track-by-track deconstruction of Elvis Costello's malicious 1978 masterpiece, This Year's Model.
Elvis Costello Gets Dark and Brooding on ‘Hey Clockface’
Elvis Costello is a complex man of dark humor and flashes of anger as he keeps fighting the good fight armed with a razor wit.
New Wave: Turning Rebellion into Money
If 1977 was New Wave's breakout year, by 1979 it had become an industry force, all but replacing punk as a viable vehicle or term of currency.