All This Useless Beauty

Beauty was the third album Elvis Costello released between 1994 and '96. It's also one of his best collections of the '90s. Something of a hodgepodge, it finds Elvis one moment recalling the anglicized soul of Get Happy!, the next making like Grandpa Grunge. Do you prefer Elvis as Roger McGuinn or Marvin Gaye? He tries out a new songwriting partner in Aimee Mann, who cowrote the lovely waltz tempo opener, "The Other End of the Telescope," but he's also brought back Paul McCartney from his Spike days to cocompose "Shallow Grave." All of which implies Elvis is all over the board. And so what? As the years pass, it's more apparent than ever that Costello has survived because his love--yes, love!--of music. When you think about it, that's an odd notion. Who'd of thought back when Elvis was spewing bile to a new-wave beat, that love, not guilt and revenge, would keep him going. --Steven Stolder