Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach

4CD/2LP: ElvisCostello.com
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP with Lithograph: ElvisCostello.com

Elvis Costello is looking back at his 25 years of music with Burt Bacharach on this lavish new 4-CD/2-LP box set (also available in smaller formats).  The Songs of Bacharach and Costello features four distinctive albums:

• A newly remastered version of the duo's acclaimed, Grammy Award-winning 1998 album Painted from Memory;
• Taken from Life, an all-new anthology that reflects the development of Painted from Memory into a (sadly abortive) Broadway musical shepherded by television's Chuck Lorre (The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men) and Tony Award winning playwright and Bacharach collaborator Steven Sater (Some Lovers, Spring Awakening);
• Because It's a Lonely World - Live, a collection of concert performances, mostly piano-and-vocal from Costello and Steve Nieve; and
• Costello Sings Bacharach and David, a through-the-years collection of Elvis paying tribute to Burt's timeless songbook.

The vinyl component features the remastered Painted from Memory and a six-song highlights version of Taken from Life, with all five of the previously unrecorded compositions for the stage musical plus a live version of "What's Her Name Today?"  The box set has been produced by Costello and Steve Berkowitz and remastered by Bob Ludwig from the original tapes.  Its 20-page book includes photos by William Claxton and Rankin, memorabilia, and a 10,000-word essay from Costello.

In total, the box set premieres 19 previously unreleased tracks, of which five are previously unreleased compositions from the duo and a sixth is heard with lyrics for the very first time.