Short Cuts

I didn’t have a new album from Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett on my 2024 checklist — but here we are enjoying an unexpected yet long overdue — and overall wonderful — brand-new self-titled 2LP set on New West by their alter-ego personas known as The Coward Brothers, as iconic a band-on-the-run (if you will) as there ever was. And if that wasn’t enough, UMe has also just released a newly remastered edition of The Costello Show’s King of America, the album these two musical icons first collaborated on back in 1985-86. Considering they were released only weeks apart, we here at AP figured it would be best to review both of these Costello/Burnett collab LPs together — so read on!

THE COWARD BROTHERS
THE COWARD BROTHERS
2LP (New West)
MUSIC: 9
SOUND: 8

For those not in the know, this long-standing, in-joke-of-a-sort by these two musicians has wonderful and magical roots which stretches back to 1984, when T Bone Burnett was the opening act for an Elvis Costello solo tour. They became fast friends, and soon an alliance was born under the name, The Coward Brothers. Their not-so-veiled identities quickly spread among fans like me who were collecting all of Elvis’ imported singles back in the day. When I first heard “The People’s Limousine” (initially released on Elvis’ short-lived indie label Imp Records in 1985), I knew immediately this was going to be a fruitful partnership. Oh, and in case you are still wondering which brother is which, Elvis is “Howard Coward,” and T Bone is “Henry Coward.”

Their new, self-titled 2LP set on New West (which was released on November 21, 2024) is technically the soundtrack to an Audible audio satire radio play (if you will) titled The True Story of The Coward Brothers, which you can check out via this link. True Story is a self-described, quote, “epic tale of smash hits and broken dreams told in three acts [. . .] follows two musical brothers — one English, one American, both the illegitimate sons of dubious parentage who may, as they claim to be, ‘one and half-brothers’ — perhaps a reference to the disparity in their height and relative talents.” Me, I can’t wait to listen to all of it — but, for now, let’s get back to the music.

Before we get into the nitty-gritties behind just how great The Coward Brothers album itself is, let’s try to decipher some of the available DNA for this quite global production. Recorded by Rachel Moore and Michael Piersante across at least seven different locales — ranging from New York’s Electric Lady Studios to the Presidential Suite at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, to the Musikhuset Dressing Room at Brown’s Hotel in London (!) — we can make a fair assumption that the album was recorded at least in part in the digital domain. This likely reality is underscored by the fact that The Coward Brothers was mastered by Gavin Lurssen and Reuben Cohen at Lurssen Mastering in Burbank, California, while the vinyl mastering was handled by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl in Memphis, Tennessee. Given that parent label New West Records is based in the south (also in Memphis, as well as in Athens, Georgia) and the album was made in America, it feels like a pretty safe bet to say it may very well likely have been manufactured at Memphis Record Pressing (which is now part of GZ).

The standard-weight (140g) black vinyl on my copy of this 2LP set is dark, mostly quiet, and well-centered, so there are no problems on that front (and AP editor Mike Mettler reports the same with his own online-purchased copy). The SRP for The Coward Brothers is $36.99 via Music Direct (which you can order here, as well as via the MD link graphic at the end of this part of the review). If you want the exclusive bubblegum pink pressing, you’ll have to get it at Barnes & Noble here, where it goes for $34.99 (curiously, the regular black vinyl is $38.99 there!). You can also find a licorice red edition at The Coward Brothers’ own Bandcamp page here, for $35.

While there are notable guest musicians on The Coward Brothers — including Christopher Guest (Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind), who’s credited here as “Christopher Guest-Coward” on “vocals, acoustic guitars, missiles” — most of the music was performed by The Coward Brothers themselves. A remarkable array of instruments were championed by Howard Coward himself, including acoustic and electric guitars, piano, organ bass, drums, and drum machines, as well as a Moog synthesizer. A quick look at the album credits reveal numerous exotic textures created by electric sitar, pedal steel, arco bass, and gunshots (!). It is fair to say that this album is, in many ways, far from a traditional album of country-fried Americana music.

The Coward Brothers is an immediately likable fun spin, start to finish. Favorite tracks so far include the immediately earworm of “Always” (LP1, Side A, Track 1) and “Tipsy Woman” (LP1, Side A, Track 5), the latter of which I saw Elvis Costello perform in September 2022 at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, California. “World Serious” (LP1, Side B, Track 3) is a haunting tune featuring Henry Coward on lead vocals. I also get a real kick out of Howard Coward’s “Yesterday Is Near” (LP1, Side B, Track 5), which is sung in a pure, old school Cockneyesque British accent — sounding not all that far removed from Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd or Julie Andrews’ Eliza Doolittle character in My Fair Lady, in fact.

“Birkenhead Girl” (LP2, Side C, Track 1) is a raucous rocker that would not be out of place on a 1980s Tom Waits album. And I love the clever woody wordplay of “Wooden Woman” (LP2, Side C, Track 3) that leads to the enduring plea, “I wish you wouldn’t break my heart to splinters,” its melody buoyed by vibrato rhythm guitar and some neat psychedelic backwards guitar soloing (probably played by day-tripper Howard). By now, I think you get the idea that The Coward Brothers is a fascinating listen.

Overall, despite the varied production aesthetics — which, again, range from some of the finest studios in the world to backstage dressing rooms — The Coward Brothers sounds pretty wonderful. Ratings-wise, we’re happy to give it a solid 9 for Music, and a perfectly enjoyable 8 for Sound. Yes, it is probably a digital recording at its root, but given that The Coward Brothers was produced by the steady hands of Henry and Howard Coward, it's quite warm and rich. The Coward Brothers is a keeper for sure, and may wind up on my list of favorite new LPs of the year. [Mike Mettler adds: Keep an eye (or two) peeled for our respective Top LPs of 2024 feature, coming to AP this Friday, December 20, 2024.]

THE COWARD BROTHERS
THE COWARD BROTHERS
2LP (New West)

LP1, Side A
1. Always
2. Like Licorice
3. My Baby Just Squeals (You Heel)
4. The Devil’s Wife
5. Tipsy Woman

LP1, Side B
1. My Baby Just Purrs (You’re Mine, Not Hers)
2. My Baby Just Whistles (Here Come The Missiles)
3. World Serious
4. Early Shirley
5. Yesteryear Is Near

LP2, Side C
1. Birkenhead Girl
2. Smoke Ring Angel
3. Wooden Woman
4. (I Don’t Want Your) Lyndon Johnson
5. Lotta Money

LP2, Side D
1. Pure Bubblegum
2. Cathy Come Home
3. Bygones
4. Row Me Once
5. Clown Around Town

THE COSTELLO SHOW (FEATURING ELVIS COSTELLO)
KING OF AMERICA
1LP (UMe)
MUSIC: 10
SOUND: 9

I had a little bit of trepidation approaching UMe’s new remastered edition of Elvis Costello’s brilliant February 1986 line-drawn-in-the-sand LP King of America (originally on Columbia) for multiple reasons. It was always a great-sounding album, with the artist being credited as The Costello Show (Featuring Elvis Costello), as produced by Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus (a.k.a. Costello) and J. Henry (T-Bone) Burnett (this time with the hyphen intact), and recorded in live takes at several legendary Los Angeles recording studios. Fortunately, this new reissue (which was released on November 1, 2024) is quite excellent, and an improvement over my original U.S. pressing.

Before we get into the music, let’s try to decode the DNA strands woven into this fine release. I’ll be upfront with you, folks: King of America has always been an album I wanted to see spread out as a 2LP set, and I do think that it could make for a stunning demo disc. Unfortunately, until we get that ultimate-dream edition, this overall very nice-sounding pressing may be as good as we might hope for an affordably priced, standard weight, 140g release that was most likely pressed in the Czech Republic at GZ. As past Costello reissue LPs are confirmed to have been remastered from original tapes, we are semi-educatedly assuming that is also the case here. This King of America edition was mastered at Sterling Sound by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone, with supervision from Steve Berkowitz. I very much love the new custom label design as shown below, which features a sort of gothic font that complements the wry royalty statement Costello made with the cover shot, which shows him wearing a bejeweled ridiculous crown.

The SRP for the standard black vinyl edition of King of America is $27.99, available at Music Direct here, or via the MD link graphic down near the tracklisting section. You can also find a special “gold nugget” color vinyl version exclusive to Costello’s official site here, for $29.99.

The new edition of King of America is mastered more quietly than my original U.S. pressing — arguably the benchmark to judge against, given the album was recorded in classic L.A. studios and thus likely a home for the master tapes, vs. earlier albums where the masters were clearly in England. As I turned up the volume on my amp, the music opened up quite nicely. Along the way, however, I did detect a wee bit of low-level surface noise during the quietest between-track moments (as AP editor Mike Mettler also experienced on his copy of the LP), but overall, I found this new remastering so enjoyable that it over-rode this relatively minor concern.

Costello’s voice seems to have additional clarity on this new pressing, allowing you to better appreciate his every phrase, even on faster paced tunes like “Suit of Lights” (Face Two, Track 6). “Little Palaces” (Face One, Track 7) sounds absolutely wonderful here, a song that often had problems with off-center pressings I’ve had in the past. “I’ll Wear It Proudly” (Face One, Track 8) also sounds glorious, even though it is a dense track with extreme dynamics between quiet acoustic guitar-and-vocal introspection and full band build-out — a structure that could easily become murky-sounding, given the packed album playlist here and the rack position at the end of a side, which can often get more compressed in mastering.

The soundstage on King of America has always been really lovely, and on this new edition, the cymbals, percussion, and guitars percolate in a sweet stereo spread that is wide and warm. All the instruments sound rich and round, such as the acoustic guitars and organ at the start of “Jack of All Parades” (Face Two, Track 5), as well as some stellar drumming — listen for those explosive tom-tom bombs at the transition between the first and second verses! They also seem to have reined in the wobbly feel on the always-surprising, McCartney-esque bridge that has a very intense flanging effect applied to the vocals. It’s still there, but it doesn’t jump out quite as wildly as in the past. (Probably a good thing, ultimately.) Kudos to Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound for having a sensitive touch here (and to mastering supervisor Steve Berkowitz for making sure it all came together so nicely).

Ratings-wise, we give King of America a 10 for the Music, and a 9 for the Sound. In general, if you have been hoping for a nice upgrade of King of America without having to fork over hefty collector’s prices for that (quite possibly digital) 2013 MoFi edition, this new UMe reissue might be just the king’s ticket without breaking the royal bank.

THE COSTELLO SHOW (FEATURING ELVIS COSTELLO)
KING OF AMERICA
1LP (UMe)

Face One
1. Brilliant Mistake
2. Lovable
3. Our Little Angel
4. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
5. Glitter Gulch
6. Indoor Fireworks
7. Little Palaces
8. I’ll Wear It Proudly

Face Two
1. American Without Tears
2. Eisenhower Blues
3. Poisoned Rose
4. The Big Light
5. Jack Of All Parades
6. Suit Of Lights
7. Sleep Of The Just

Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.