Release Calendar

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Elvis Costello is revisiting his debut album, My Aim Is True, as an expansive 5CD 49th (!) Anniversary Edition tracing Declan MacManus’ journey to becoming Elvis Costello.  The new set features, by our count, over 65 previously unreleased recordings.  The set opens with a new remaster of the original album sourced from the original Pathway Studios masters.  The second disc, The Blue Print, collects 17 recordings from 1975-1976, a full 13 of which are previously unreleased.  These encompass bedroom recordings, Pathway demos, and tracks from Hope and Anchor Studios. Also featured here is a recently-discovered recording preserved by singer-songwriter Charlie Dore, who taped Costello trying out his songs one hot London afternoon in 1976.  The third disc, The Stranger in the House, comprises 28 demos, outtakes, and early band recordings (15 of which are previously unheard), including every surviving outtake and demo from My Aim Is True. Disc Four, Becoming The Attractions, opens with a solo performance of “Alison” from Costello’s U.K. television debut in the What’s On segment of the Granada Reports program and continues with a potpourri of broadcast and live performances including many from American venues such as San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom and Old Waldorf, Cleveland’s Agora, and Washington, DC’s Warner Theater.  The final disc, Covered in Clover, jumps ahead to 2007 when Costello reunited with Clover at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall for a special concert in which they played the entirety of My Aim Is True in sequence – and more. Costello places everything in context in a 72-page essay contained within the booklet. Also available in 1CD and 1LP editions with the remastered album only.  (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)