Elvis Costello & The Attractions-Almost Blue (1981)


 
Artist: Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Title: Almost Blue

Label: Columbia

Format: 8-Track

Catalog Number: FCA 37562

Year of Release: 1981

Country and Year of Edition: US 1981 gray shell

Sell Price: $39.15

Sell Date: 6/7/26

Condition: VG+/VG tested sounds great start to finish

Discogs Last Sold: 6/5/26 VG+/VG+ $8.00

Low: $2.67

Median: $7.01

Average: $9.01

High: $39.95

Current low price: n/a

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 0

Have/Want: 7/24

Where Sold: Buffalo, MN

Time It Took To Sell:  3 years

Where and When Bought: Ebay lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go: No

Generally I've always felt Elvis Costello "genre excursion records" were something to ignore whether bloated Bacharach or classical dickering.  Unfortunately this meant I always psychologically pointed to this record as one I've not only ignored, but a turning point in the devalument of the rest of his entire recorded output.  I've always thought of everything after Armed Forces "lesser" in some way, regardless of whether I bought it, liked it, loved it, hated it, whatever.  

The only reason I paid attention to Almost Blue this week for the first time was that I sold an 8-track of it for nearly $40.  80's 8-tracks outside of the mainstream tend to rise in value as the decade progresses, particularly record collector genres like commercial alternative rock.  

This album is a musicologists wet dream of a roughly two decade history of "good country."  That takes us from Hank Williams and George Jones to Merle Haggard and Gram Parsons.  Early 50's Honkytonk to Countrypolitan to Country-Rock done by hippies at the end of the 60's.  This album was hot off the heals of Costello's own barroom troubles and perhaps was done as a defiant sick humor retort.  This music is seemingly far removed from James Brown, Delaney and Bonnie and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.  However, the influence of Ray Charles on Countrypolitan and the related musical tree that is The Byrds to Costello's revered Gram Parsons are ironclad.  Stephen Stills and his associates are not without connection on that extended family feud that earned Costello physical retalliation and bad press.   The resulting album is fantastic.

My favorites here are many.  Parsons' "How Much I Lied" from which Blue is absolute (unlike the albums namesake).  Merle Haggard's 'Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down" gets to the crux of the matter.  Charlie Rich's "Sittin' and Thinkin'" is the result and the words of the genre God that shines over it, Hank Williams,  kicks off the record with "Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used To Do" in the Attractions style that made me like Elvis Costello in the first place.

The limey takes the fools to their own damn school here.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Armed Forces (1979)

Imperial Bedroom (1982)

Elvis Costello-North (2003)

Elvis Costello & The Imposters-The Delivery Man (2004)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bob Dylan-Masterpieces (1978)

Image
  Artist:  Bob Dylan Title: Masterpieces Label: Columbia Format: 3xCD Catalog Number: 462448 9 Year of Release: 1978 Country and Year  of Edition: Australia 1991 (sticker has 30 year anniversary) Sell Price: $26.69 Sell Date: 4/19/26 Condition: VG+/VG+  Discogs Last Sold: 2/27/26 NM/NM $16.22 Low: $7.19 Median: $20.00 Average: $26.50 High: $64.59 Current  low price:  $7.17 Current Number on  Sale at Discogs: 29 Have/Want: 539/41 Where Sold: Middlebury, VT Time It Took  To Sell:  2 years  Where and When  Bought: Facebook marketplace lot Gwiz-gau Grade:  A Sad To See  It Go: No Of the many Bob Dylan compilations, I never had Masterpieces until fairly recently in a lot purchase.  It was always in the store bin at a triple CD import price when my fingers would flip over it in the early 90's Dylan section.  In that time period it meant over $50 easy whether it was from Australia, New Zealand or Japan where is was...
Read more

Blur-13 (1999)

Image
  Artist: Blur Title: 13 Label: Food/Virgin Format: CD Cat #: 7243 4 99129 2 2 Year of Release: 1999 Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1999 Listed Condition: VG+/VG+  Sell Date: 3/9/25 Sell Price: $2.84 Discogs Last Sold: 2/19/25 NM/NM $5.50 Low: $0.49 Median: $3.12 Average: $3.61 High: $8.68 Current low price: $2.83 Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 34 Have/Want: 1960/168 Where Sold: Columbia, SC Time it took to sell: 14 years Where and When Bought: internet mail order circa time of release used guessing CD Warehouse Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+ Sad To See It Go: No Another "critics" record I bought at the end of the year in 1999 that I maybe listened to once, dropped it into the CD carousel and let it pop up on random shuffle for most of 2000.  This 13 track album called 13 is the 6th full length Blur album and I would say the second one I bought after their eponymously titled 5th album. I'm going to say this one is quality start to finish.  My favorite cut is th...
Read more

Big Black-The Incredibly Corporate Whorish Big Black Interview Album (1987)

Image
  Artist: Big Black Title: The Incredibly Corporate Whorish Big Black Interview Album Side One     Side Two Label: Touch 'n' Go Format: LP Cat #:  TG-LP-INT-1 Year of Release: 1987 Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1987 Promo only Listed Condition: VG+/VG Sell Date: 7/18/25 Sell Price: $15.57 Discogs Last Sold: 5/17/25 NM/NM $23.26   Low: $14.95 NM/NM 1/14/20 Median: $25.00 Average: $26.78 High: $40.00 NM/NM like new Current low price: $17.44 VG+/VG Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 5 Have/Want: 128/147 Where: Chicago, IL Time it took to sell: 10 years Where and When Bought: promo Gwiz-gau Letter Grade:  A- Sad To See It Go: No One of those collection crown jewels that somehow dropped to 15 bucks over the years.  I'm sure I opened up at 40 many years ago, but a dreaded 2" seam split in my notes made other people that actually wanted the record opt for "NM/NM" copies in the 25-40 range. This was a promo that came before the "He's A Whore" si...
Read more