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Elvis Costello - All This Useless Beauty (1996) Cover Front Album Artist/Composer Elvis Costello Length 48:15 Format CD Genre Rock Label Warner Brothers Index 68 Collection Status In Collection Track List 01 The Other End Of The Telescope 04:07 02 Little Atoms 03:58 03 All This Useless Beauty 04:39 04 Complicated Shadows 04:43 05 Why Can't A Man Stand Alone 03:14 06 Distorted Angel 04:31 07 Shallow Grave 02:07 08 Poor Fractured Atlas 04:02 09 Starting To Come To Me 02:43 10 You Bowed Down 04:55 11 It's Time 06:00 12 I Want To Vanish 03:16 Personal Rating 70% Details Spars DDD Rare No Sound Stereo UPC 093624619826 Notes Costello puts his own contrary spin on the greatest-misses idea, covering songs that he originally wrote for artists as disparate as Byrd man Roger McGuinn, British folk singer June Tabor and former New Wave pinup Wendy James. In fact, this is Costello's finest record in years; the hearty melodies and the Attractions' taut accompaniment give weight and frame to Costello's strong, confident singing. And because he crafted these songs for other voices, Costello works his favorite turf - emotional treachery ("It's Time"), hard falls for big phonies ("Starting to Come to Me," "You Bowed Down") - with wordplay that rides easy, not heavy, on the tongue.Speaking of covers, "Why Can't a Man Stand Alone?" is just waiting for aveteran R&B belter to come along and turn the song's waltz-time soul into real bonfire time.