Brutal Youth

He's gotta be the most disappointing artist ever.

There’s something about how he writes melody that is very satisfying to me.
3.5 but I’ll round up.

Un poco sin más, rollo no está mal pero pop rock noventero no?

🤓/ 5

I enjoyed this. 4/5

I had never heard anything from this album previously, but it's certainly not a departure from what I already know of Costello. Great songwriting with solid hooks and thought-provoking lyrics. As usual I enjoy the upbeat overdriven guitar-based tracks more so than the piano driven ballads, but even the latter is pretty great here. Something about Costello's distinctive voice ties it all together.

I’ve tried to give the benefit of the doubt to the other couple Costello albums I’ve gotten so far. Ya he has too many albums on the list but I generally don’t think he makes bad music by any means. This album is an exception to that though. It sounds like Costello doesn’t even care about making this music and is just going through the motions

Jamais écouté avant.

Un album de power pop sophistiquée, bavarde et érudite à la Elvis Costello (ça tombe bien), sorti au sommet de la vague britpop, comme pour rappeler aux petits jeunes que l'ancêtre en a encore sous le pied. C'est plutôt très bon, même si le tout est un peu long, assez safe et sans réel morceau de bravoure.

Top : Kinder Murder
Flop : Clown Strike

2.5
Not terrible, and there are a couple of songs I really enjoyed, but disappointing considering some of his previous stuff

Elvis Costello is usually good, but for some reason this was kind of really good.

This could’ve been a four star for me but it really dragged towards the end. I don’t think it needed to have 15 songs on it. A pity because it started off brilliantly with Pony St. and there are a few other great tracks on here.

Top Track - This Is Hell

This is some 15 years after his cultural peak so I expected it to be some late career renaissance. Not really the case though, it kind of sounds exactly the same as all the other Elvis Costello albums on here. It's just another album of exactly what you'd expect with him. Worthwile inclusion? Not really, but at least all my Elvis Costello albums are done now. Sure is a lot that's worse that you could listen to.

If this list were extended to be the 1,111 AYMHBYD, I'm sure we'd get at least 3 more Elvis Costello albums. We certainly don't need all SIX we already have on the list, but I don't think that would stop Dimery & Company from packing a few more into the list if they could - extra impressive since Costello isn't even British.

This is my fourth attempt at connecting with an Elvis Costello record, and it's gone about as well as the other three. In theory, I should like his music. In reality, his vocal delivery is annoying, bordering on obnoxious, and I cannot get past that to enjoy anything else going on. I was briefly excited about the blues guitar work on "All The Rage" but it was too little too late for this record; my opinion was already set.

I like a lot of other Elvis Costello albums, but this one was fairly forgettable. Sort of like if someone made an album trying to be Elvis Costello

Nervsack

The Good: Finally, we are told the truth about Elvis’s youth!
The Bad: It wasn’t brutal enough…
The Ugly: The above was un-called for…

I had a lovely chat with a buddy of mine about 2 years ago about Elvis Costello, mainly due to the fact that I really knew little of his music, yet the first album that I was presented with on this list was a pleasant surprise for me: This Year’s Model. I gave it a 4* rating…

His next album presented to me, My Aim Is True, was praised with a 5* rating!

Since those two albums I’ve started to fear seeing his name pop up on the list as all consecutive albums have received 1-2* ratings. Why? Because, aside from the first two albums mentioned, he stopped being punky, and tried to be more chanconier (that’s French…) and he sucks at that.

So, do I care about his Brutal Youth? No. Why? Because he doesn’t seem to care about the effect a shit record has on my day…

1*

Oh fuck, I thought I was free of Declan's gravity, apparently not... Brutal Youth felt like an absolute slog. At nearly an hour long, it’s a tedious, overlong collection of bland 90s alt-pop that just drags on and on. Like so many others going through this 1001 Albums list, I am completely exhausted by the sheer number of Elvis Costello records we're forced to endure, seriously, six albums is absurd. His signature sneering, pitchy vocals are incredibly grating here, making all the tracks blend together into one unremarkable mush. And honestly, this is boring as hell. Why couldn't they pick Spike instead? At least that had "Veronica" and "Tramp The Dirt Down".

2.4

Bit of a one trick pony isn’t he?

Nothing original going on here compared to his previous work and puzzled why this is on the list.

2

Never listened to Elvis Costello before. Unsure if this was the best candidate for a first timer