the q is silent wrote:
[from the article]
> > The albums acquired begin with Costello's 1977 debut, "My Aim Is
True,"
> > and continue through "This Year's Model" (1978), "Armed Forces"
(1979),
> > "Get Happy!!" (1980), "Almost Blue" (1981), "Trust" (1981), "Imperial
> > Bedroom" (1982), "Punch the Clock" (1983), "Goodbye Cruel World"
> > (1986), "King of America" (1986) and "Blood and Chocolate" (1986).
GCW was '84, of course.
> This is just beyond ridiculous. First of all, I can't imagine either
> the Ryko or the Rhino reissues sold all that many copies.
Well...I'm sure they didn't sell comparably to a new release by a
popular artist, but they did do well enough to justify the completion
of the series both times.
> What could
> possibly be the financial incentive to keep re-releasing this stuff in
> different formats? At some point, it's got to be a whole lot more
> trouble than it's worth. Second, the Rhino reissue series started not
> even four years ago!
Five. Almost exactly five, because the first wave -- MAIT, SPIKE, and
ATUB -- hit stores in August 2001.
> Surely any and all demand for any kind of expanded
> Costello albums has been sated for years to come. Third, it's hard to
> imagine that any re-release of these albums could be more "deifnitive"
> than Rhino's versions, which were mostly stellar. "Armed Forces,"
> "Almost Blue" and "King Of America" in particular had a plethora of
> great bonus material - what more could Universal offer that anyone
> would want at this point?
I'm inclined to agree. In fact, as much as I was grateful to get the
Rhinos (they were beautifully presented in terms of the artwork and
notes; and every one of them had some music I had not heard before,
including some real gems), one could argue that some of *those* were a
bit padded with items that were right on the precipice of desirability,
if not over it. Maybe there were people out there, for example, who
were fascinated to learn that the TKO Horns' lines on "Let Them All
Talk" were already present in scatted form on EC's lo-fi demo of the
song, but once having learned that, how many wanted to hear that demo a
second time?
I'm trying to think of a way they could sweeten the pot enough to get
me to buy these again, so soon after the last series concluded, and I'm
coming up empty. And I'd have to imagine I'm firmly in the target
audience (I bought IL SOGNO the day it was released, for pete's [not
Pete Thomas's] sake!).
Todd K
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