(Adult Alternative Rock, Alternative Pop) [CD] Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve - Costello & Nieve (5-CD Box Set) - 1996, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

01. Temptation 03:49
02. Poor Fractured Atlas 04:58
03. I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself (Burt Bacharach / Hal David) 03:27
04. It’s Time 05:59
05. Man Out of Time 04:54
06. Shallow Grave (Paul McCartney / Elvis Costello) 02:55
All songs are written by Elvis Costello, except for those marked otherwise.

01. Just About Glad 03:59
02. Why Can’t a Man Stand Alone? 04:10
03. My Dark Life 07:13
04. All This Useless Beauty 05:59
05. Ship of Fools (Jerome J. Garcia / Robert C. Hunter) 06:12
All songs are written by Elvis Costello, except for those marked otherwise.

01. The Long Honeymoon 04:24
02. Starting to Come to Me 02:47
03. The Other End of the Telescope (Elvis Costello / Aimee Mann) 04:32
04. All the Rage 04:03
05. Watching the Detectives 06:09
All songs are written by Elvis Costello, except for those marked otherwise.

01. You Bowed Down 04:54
02. The Long Honeymoon 04:46
03. Distorted Angel 04:45
04. The Angel Want to Wear My Red Shoes 02:50
05. Little Atoms 05:39
06. My Funny Valentine (Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers) 03:01
All songs are written by Elvis Costello, except for those marked otherwise.

01. Black Sails in the Sunset 03:17
02. You'll Never Be a Man 03:16
03. Just a Memory 03:44
04. I Want to Vanish 03:22
05. Medley:
◊ Alison (Elvis Costello)
◊ Living a Little, Laughing a Little (Tom Bell / Linda Creed)
◊ Tracks of My Tears (Marvin Tarplin / Warren Moore / William Robinson, Jr.)
◊ Tears of a Clown (William Robinson, Jr. / Stevie Wonder / Henry Cosby)
◊ No More Tearstained Makeup (William Robinson, Jr.)
◊ Clowntime Is Over (Elvis Costello) 06:16
All songs are written by Elvis Costello, except for those marked otherwise.

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016
EAC extraction logfile from 2. January 2019, 16:30
Elvis Costello / Costello & Nieve [disc 3] Chicago
Used drive : ASUS BW-12D1S-U Adapter: 1 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
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Defeat audio cache : Yes
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Read offset correction : 667
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Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
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Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Genre=%genre%" -T "Artist=%artist%" -T "Title=%title%" -T "Album=%albumtitle%" -T "Date=%year%" -T "Tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "Comment=%comment%" %source%
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Accurately ripped (confidence 36) [FB082B39] (AR v2)
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Track quality 100.0 %
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Accurately ripped (confidence 37) [C0CC33DD] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 3
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Accurately ripped (confidence 36) [333CD5ED] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 4
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Peak level 99.3 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 28CE710A
Copy CRC 28CE710A
Accurately ripped (confidence 36) [D05AE349] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 5
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Peak level 99.3 %
Extraction speed 6.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Copy CRC 3D776598
Accurately ripped (confidence 37) [BC5E2A10] (AR v2)
Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
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End of status report
---- CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
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Track | CTDB Status
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==== Log checksum 1FCF907F53263FBE594A0CC46E8A558CD6B7F6AB831ACF1B5C154B2506BBDB8F ====[/pre]

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016
EAC extraction logfile from 2. January 2019, 16:51
Elvis Costello / Costello & Nieve [disc 4] Boston
Used drive : ASUS BW-12D1S-U Adapter: 1 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
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Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Genre=%genre%" -T "Artist=%artist%" -T "Title=%title%" -T "Album=%albumtitle%" -T "Date=%year%" -T "Tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "Comment=%comment%" %source%
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Accurately ripped (confidence 37) [89AAA048] (AR v2)
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Accurately ripped (confidence 37) [0EB59DEF] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 3
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Accurately ripped (confidence 37) [5AADCC77] (AR v2)
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Track 5
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Accurately ripped (confidence 37) [BB412AC9] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename E:\Torrents of Autumn\Costello, Elvis [1996] Costello & Nieve (5-CD set)\CD 4~ Boston\06. My Funny Valentine.wav
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Accurately ripped (confidence 37) [BEA31D5A] (AR v2)
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All tracks accurately ripped
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End of status report
---- CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
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Track | CTDB Status
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4 | (33/33) Accurately ripped
5 | (33/33) Accurately ripped
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==== Log checksum 816E42394CD36A4B7A076DEC324AD110B1DDED7CDF3994F608C85D6B9CD85399 ====[/pre]

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016
EAC extraction logfile from 2. January 2019, 17:16
Elvis Costello / Costello & Nieve [disc 5] New York
Used drive : ASUS BW-12D1S-U Adapter: 1 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Genre=%genre%" -T "Artist=%artist%" -T "Title=%title%" -T "Album=%albumtitle%" -T "Date=%year%" -T "Tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "Comment=%comment%" %source%
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Accurately ripped (confidence 37) [0F416700] (AR v2)
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Accurately ripped (confidence 37) [564E8964] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 3
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Accurately ripped (confidence 38) [64965854] (AR v2)
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Accurately ripped (confidence 37) [F57B7AD6] (AR v2)
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Track 5
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All tracks accurately ripped
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End of status report
---- CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
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Track | CTDB Status
1 | (32/33) Accurately ripped
2 | (33/33) Accurately ripped
3 | (33/33) Accurately ripped
4 | (33/33) Accurately ripped
5 | (33/33) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum 249AA0D15882E68CE6D092216C3E5413DE9769FBD6D029471833B28B9F693660 ====[/pre]

When Elvis Costello’s first record was released in 1977, his bristling cynicism and anger linked him with the punk and new wave explosion. A cursory listen to My Aim Is True proves that the main connection that Costello had with the punks was his unbridled passion; he tore through rock’s back pages taking whatever he wanted, as well as borrowing from country, Tin Pan Alley pop, reggae, and many other musical genres. Over his career, that musical eclecticism distinguished his records as much as his fiercely literate lyrics. Because he supported his lyrics with his richly diverse music, Costello emerged as one of the most innovative, influential, and best songwriters since Bob
Dylan.
The son of British bandleader Ross McManus, Costello (born Declan McManus) worked as a computer programmer during the early ’70s, performing under the name D.P. Costello in various folk clubs. In 1976, he became the leader of country-rock group Flip City. During this time, he recorded several demo tapes of his original material with the intention of landing a record contract. A copy of these tapes made its way to Jake Riviera, one of the heads of the fledgling independent record label Stiff. Riviera signed Costello to Stiff as a solo artist in 1977; the singer/songwriter adopted the name Elvis Costello at this time, taking his first name from Elvis Presley and his last name from his mother’s maiden name.
With former Brinsley Schwarz bassist Nick Lowe producing, Costello began recording his debut album with the American band Clover providing support. “Less Than Zero,” the first single released from these sessions, appeared in April of 1977. The single failed to chart, as did its follow-up, “Alison,” which was released the following month. By the summer of 1977, Costello’s permanent backing band had been assembled. Featuring bassist Bruce Thomas, keyboardist Steve Nieve, and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation to Bruce), the group was named the Attractions; they made their live debut in July of 1977.
Costello’s debut album, My Aim Is True, was released in the summer of 1977 to positive reviews; the album climbed to number 14 on the British charts but it wasn’t released on his American label, Columbia Records, until later in the year. Along with Nick Lowe, Ian Dury, and Wreckless Eric, Costello participated in the Stiffs Live package tour in the fall. At the end of the year, Jake Riviera split from Stiff Records to form Radar Records, taking Costello and Lowe with him. Costello’s last single for Stiff, the reggae-inflected “Watching the Detectives,” became his first hit, climbing to number 15 at the end of the year.
This Year’s Model, Costello’s first album recorded with the Attractions, was released in the spring of 1978. A rawer, harder-rocking record than My Aim Is True, This Year’s Model was also a bigger hit, reaching number four in Britain and number 30 in America. Released the following year, Armed Forces was a more ambitious and musically diverse album than either of his previous records. It was another hit, reaching number two in the U.K. and cracking the Top Ten in the U.S. “Oliver's Army,” the first single from the album, also peaked at number two in Britain; none of the singles from Armed Forces charted in America. In the summer of 1979, he produced the self-titled debut album by the Specials, the leaders of the ska revival movement.
In February of 1980, the soul-influenced Get Happy!! was released; it was the first record on Riviera’s new record label, F-Beat. Get Happy!! was another hit, peaking at number two in Britain and number 11 in America. Later that year, a collection of B-sides, singles, and outtakes called Taking Liberties was released in America; in Britain, a similar album called Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How’s Your Fathers appeared as a cassette-only release, complete with different tracks than the American version.
Costello and the Attractions released Trust in early 1981; it was Costello’s fifth album in a row produced by Nick Lowe. Trust debuted at number nine in the British charts and worked its way into the Top 30 in the U.S. During the spring of 1981, Costello and the Attractions began recording an album of country covers with famed Nashville producer Billy Sherrill, who recorded hit records for George Jones and Charlie Rich, among others. The resulting album, Almost Blue, was released at the end of the year to mixed reviews, although the single “A Good Year for the Roses” was a British Top Ten hit.
Costello’s next album, Imperial Bedroom (1982), was an ambitious set of lushly arranged pop produced by Geoff Emerick, who engineered several of the Beatles’ most acclaimed albums. Imperial Bedroom received some of his best reviews, yet it failed to yield a Top 40 hit in either England or America; the album did debut at number six in the U.K. For 1983’s Punch the Clock, Costello worked with Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, who were responsible for several of the biggest British hits in the early ’80s. The collaboration proved commercially successful, as the album peaked at number three in the U.K. (number 24 in the U.S.) and the single “Everyday I Write the Book” cracked the Top 40 in both Britain and America. Costello tried to replicate the success of Punch the Clock with his next record, 1984’s Goodbye Cruel World, but the album was a commercial and critical failure.
After the release of Goodbye Cruel World, Costello embarked on his first solo tour in the summer of 1984. Costello was relatively inactive during 1985, releasing only one new single (“The People’s Limousine,” a collaboration with singer/songwriter T-Bone Burnett released under the name the Coward Brothers) and producing Rum Sodomy and the Lash, the second album by the punk-folk band the Pogues. Both projects were indications that he was moving toward a stripped-down, folky approach, and 1986’s King of America confirmed that suspicion. Recorded without the Attractions and released under the name the Costello Show, King of America was essentially a country-folk album and it received the best reviews of any album he had recorded since Imperial Bedroom. It was followed at the end of the year by the edgy Blood and Chocolate, a reunion with the Attractions and producer Nick Lowe. Costello would not record another album with the Attractions until 1994.
During 1987, Costello negotiated a new worldwide record contract with Warner Bros. and began a songwriting collaboration with Paul McCartney. Two years later, he released Spike, the most musically diverse collection he had ever recorded. Spike featured the first appearance of songs written by Costello and McCartney, including the single “Veronica.” “Veronica” became his biggest American hit, peaking at number 19. Two years later, he released Mighty Like a Rose, which echoed Spike in its diversity, yet it was a darker, more challenging record. In 1993, Costello collaborated with the Brodsky Quartet on The Juliet Letters, a song cycle that was the songwriter’s first attempt at classical music; he also wrote an entire album for former Transvision Vamp singer Wendy James called Now Ain’t the Time for Your Tears. That same year, Costello licensed the rights to his pre-1987 catalog (My Aim Is True to Blood and Chocolate) to Rykodisc in America.
Costello reunited with the Attractions to record the majority of 1994’s Brutal Youth, the most straightforward and pop-oriented album he had recorded since Goodbye Cruel World. The Attractions backed Costello on a worldwide tour in 1994 and played concerts with him throughout 1995. In 1995, he released his long-shelved collection of covers, Kojak Variety. In the spring of 1996, Costello released All This Useless Beauty, which featured a number of original songs he had given to other artists but never recorded himself. Painted from Memory, a collaboration with the legendary Burt Bacharach, followed in 1998. The album was a success critically, but it only succeeded in foreign markets, outside of their home countries of the United States and Britain. A jazz version of the record made with Bill Frisell was put on hold when Costello’s label began to freeze up due to political maneuvering. Undaunted, Costello and Bacharach hit the road and performed in the States and Europe. Then, after Bacharach left, Costello added Steve Nieve to the tour and traveled around the world on what they dubbed the Lonely World Tour. This took them into 1999, when both Notting Hill and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me featured significant contributions from Costello. In fact, he appeared with Bacharach in the latter as one of a pair of Carnaby Street musicians, albeit street musicians with a gorgeous grand piano at their disposal.
Continuing his tour with Nieve, he began singing the last song without a microphone, forcing the audience to sit in complete silence as he usually performed “Couldn’t Call It Unexpected, No. 4” with nothing but his dulcet baritone filling the auditorium. After the record company’s various mergers ended, Costello found himself on Universal Records and tested their promotional abilities with a second greatest-hits record (The Very Best of Elvis Costello). The label promoted the album strongly, making it a hit in his native Britain. Unfortunately, they also made it clear that they had no intention of giving a new album the same promotional push, leaving him to venture into other fields as he awaited the end of his record contract. His first project was an album of pop standards performed with Anne Sofie Von Otter, which included a few songs originally written by Costello. The album was released in March 2001 on the Deutsche Grammophon label, neatly coinciding with the extensive re-release of his entire catalog up to 1996 under Rhino Records. Each disc included an extra CD of rare material and liner notes written by Costello himself, making them incredible treats for fans.
In 2001, he found himself with a residency at UCLA, where he performed several concerts and was instrumental in teaching music during the year. He also began work on a self-produced album that featured Pete Thomas and Nieve—now billed as a band called the Imposters—entitled When I Was Cruel, and the album finally found release via Island Records in the spring of 2002; at the end of the year, he released a collection of B-sides and leftovers from the album’s sessions entitled Cruel Smile.
When I Was Cruel kicked off another productive era for the ever prolific Costello. In 2003, he returned with North, a collection of classically styled pop songs pitched halfway between Gershwin and Sondheim. The next year, he collaborated with his new wife, Diana Krall, on her first collection of original material, The Girl in the Other Room. That fall, Costello released two albums of his own original material: a classical work entitled Il Sogno and the concept album The Delivery Man, a rock & roll record cut with the Imposters. Issued in 2006, My Flame Burns Blue was a live album with Costello fronting the 52-piece jazz orchestra the Metropole Orkest; the release featured classic Costello songs (with new orchestral arrangements) alongside new compositions and a performance of the entire Il Sogno.
The River in Reverse, a collaboration with R&B legend Allen Toussaint, arrived in 2006, followed by Momofuku, another effort credited to Elvis Costello & the Imposters, in 2008. That same year, Costello teamed up with veteran producer T-Bone Burnett for a series of recording sessions, the results of which were compiled into Secret, Profane & Sugar Cane and readied for release in early 2009. The pair also recorded a second album, National Ransom, which appeared the following year. In 2011, Costello & the Imposters released The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook!!!, which was recorded live over a two-day stint at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. The next year or so was relatively quiet for Costello, but at the end of 2012 he did release a new compilation called In Motion Pictures, which rounded up songs he contributed to films.
Costello devoted himself to working with hip-hop band the Roots in 2013. Originally planned as a re-interpretation of songs from his vast catalog, the album Wise Up Ghost turned into a full-fledged collaboration and was greeted by positive reviews upon its September 2013 release on Blue Note. In 2015, Costello announced that he was completing work on his memoirs, and that the book, titled Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, was scheduled for publication in October 2015. Costello also compiled a companion album, Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album, which featured a career-spanning selection of songs from his catalog, as well as two previously unreleased selections. (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic)

Steve Nieve was the longtime keyboardist/pianist/organist for Elvis Costello’s backing band the Attractions, and his versatility and extensive training made him an excellent fit for much of Costello’s increasingly ambitious post-Attractions music. Born Steven Nason, Nieve attended the Royal College of Music and successfully auditioned for the Attractions in 1977 when he was 19. In 1980, Nieve released his first solo venture, the EP Theme Music from Outline of a Hairdo, which appeared on Jake Riviera’s F-Beat label (to which Costello was signed at the time). Nieve went on to release two proper full-length solo albums, 1983’s Keyboard Jungle and 1987’s Playboy, both for the U.K. Demon label. In between touring and recording commitments with the Attractions (which grew less and less by the latter half of the decade), Nieve did session work with numerous other fellow new-wavers, including Nick Lowe, Kirsty MacColl, Madness, the Damned, Tim Finn, Nick Heyward, Hothouse Flowers, Graham Parker, and Squeeze (who hired Nieve as their touring keyboardist in the early ’90s). Nieve also teamed with ex-Attractions drummer Pete Thomas in the house band for Jonathan Ross’ BBC talk show. Through it all, Nieve continued to work off and on with Costello, more frequently than most of Costello’s old associates. During the latter half of the ’90s, their continued compatibility reached a new level on a series of acclaimed duo concert tours; Costello revisited the breadth of his enormous catalog with only Nieve’s elegant, multi-hued playing for accompaniment. During this period, Nieve also gave solo concerts on occasion, as documented on his Knitting Factory live EP It’s Raining Somewhere (recorded in 1995, released in 1999). He also composed two classical operas, Parasite and Welcome to the Voice; the former was co-written with French cinematographer Muriel Téodori and premiered in Paris, and the latter was performed at the 2000 Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival in New York, featuring Costello and the Brodsky Quartet. In 2004, Nieve released his fifth solo disc, Windows, inspired by his experiences in his years of touring. In 2007, a recording of Welcome to the Voice was released. Nieve returned to solo recording in 2011 with a series of piano variations entitled Lazy Point. He followed this in 2013 with ToGetHer, a collection of original songs and collaborations that featured an all-star cast, with guests including, Costello, Robert Wyatt, Laurie Anderson, Ron Sexsmith, Vanessa Paradis, and more. (Steve Huey, AllMusic)