40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

[cwr]

I will definitely add that link to the Il Sogno post when I get a chance later. It's amazing! Thank you!

[Deportee]

Feel well and truly ripped off with Deluxe Edition. The price difference (double the standard version) cannot be justified for the lyrics, a short essay housed in pathetic packaging that leaves glue on the CD. Glad that I bought it for the extra music, but £20 for a single CD? Photocopied the cd and cut it out to put in the slot to solve the glue problem. On a positive note it was good to see that FOPP Bristol stocked it, the very nice man found it for me as I could only find the standard version and I paid hard cash and walked out of a shop with it in my grubby mit.

[cwr]

Hmm.

£20 is pretty steep.

I will say that I disagree about it being "pathetic" packaging-- although it has me wondering if the US and UK versions are somehow different?

Mine feels like the nicest packaging for an EC record since the "deluxe" MLAR that came out in 1991. My deluxe copy of WUG is like a little book, the paper quality even matches the City Lights pocket poetry books it's patterned after. I not only had no issue with glue, I can't even figure out where there would be a glue issue-- the disc slides into a little fold on the back page.

Maybe I just got lucky with my particular copy of it?

[docinwestchester]

Hmm.

£20 is pretty steep.

I will say that I disagree about it being "pathetic" packaging-- although it has me wondering if the US and UK versions are somehow different?

Mine feels like the nicest packaging for an EC record since the "deluxe" MLAR that came out in 1991. My deluxe copy of WUG is like a little book, the paper quality even matches the City Lights pocket poetry books it's patterned after. I not only had no issue with glue, I can't even figure out where there would be a glue issue-- the disc slides into a little fold on the back page.

Maybe I just got lucky with my particular copy of it?

My copy is fine as well. And I too like the little book format with a nice big font so the lyrics can be read without a magnifying glass (yeah, I'm old).

[Deportee]

My gripe is that the most important thing in it - the CD - would keep getting glue on it had I not shoved another piece of paper in to protect it. Little Fool has had the same problem. The book bit is quite smart, just not value for money. I do agree about the large font - that's most welcome!! Probably wouldn't have had so much of a moan if I'd paid around £14 - the norm for deluxes. Still not as much as I paid for the Jap North, which just sits on the shelf nowadays!

[bronxapostle]

hey cwr! with all the LIVE goodies from this week...any chance we could cajole you into adding DAY 41 please? i'm sure you can throw it together nicely.

[bronxapostle]

hey cwr! with all the LIVE goodies from this week...any chance we could cajole you into adding DAY 41 please? i'm sure you can throw it together nicely.

forgive me...i just see a day forty one added already. YOU ARE THOROUGH!!!!

[cwr]

Yes, as you've seen-- my 40 days already ballooned to 41 with the inclusion of WUG&OS-- that wasn't part of the original design but since we had the album streaming over a week early, I had enough time to get to know the album and do a full post on it!

Yes, lots of awesome live stuff-- I might do a post with everything at some point, once I've recuperated! But it won't be this week, that's for sure! I'm exhausted!

(I am sad it's over, however! I miss doing it, though I would've fallen apart at some point if I'd had to do many more of them!)

[sheeptotheslaughter]

Could we change this to the 40 days of waiting for CDWOW to send out WUG to various members of the forum?

[cwr]

I'd say CDWOW deserves its own special thread. They've earned it.

[Poor Deportee]

I'm sort of amused by all the problems people are having acquiring their preferred packaging format. In fact I'm a bit disappointed that there seems to be less discussion of the album's splendid contents than of people's aggravation with delivery systems.

My own "solution" was to go to the dismally small HMV in my local suburban mall the day after the release, and seeing that they did not carry the deluxe edition, buy the regular edition for $12 Canadian; I then simply downloaded the missing three songs from iTunes. (Of these, only "Puppet" seems like a true must-have, but further listening may alter that assessment). I'm quite happy to keep the song bundles separate given my impression that the extra three tunes would cause the album to drag somewhat.

Who needs all the glossy packaging? It's generally a bunch of crap we can all live without.

[OnesnamedGus]

FINAL POST: A HANDY REFERENCE PAGE WITH LINKS TO ALL 41 OF THE 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO:

http://connorratliff.tumblr.com/post/61 ... to-wise-up

Just finished going through the text (daren't click on any links yet - I know addiction will swiftly follow) and would like to add to the general approbation for an outstanding piece of work - well done, Connor. The best compliment I can pay is to say I would never have guessed you weren't a Costellophile from the early days. A remarkable feat of biography for one so new to Elv (look, anyone who got on board post-Trust let alone Juliet Letters is a neophyte in my eyes ).

[Otis Westinghouse]

In fact I'm a bit disappointed that there seems to be less discussion of the album's splendid contents than of people's aggravation with delivery systems.

I and others would love to join in the discussion, if we had a CD to discuss!

Who needs all the glossy packaging? It's generally a bunch of crap we can all live without.

I had the option on Tuesday to follow your example with the £10 CD there before me, or to hold out for the Deluxe. I couldn't go through with it. I only ever buy the deluxe ed when it comes to my hallowed list of Costello, Bowie, Sexsmith, et al. Lesser artists I can do without (and in fact because Sexsmith always now releases different versions for different territories, I only get the UK one, there's only so much completism one can afford in life). Call me a saddo consumerist, but I wouldn't love the regular version enough if I knew that I was missing out on a deluxe one with extra tracks and a lovely booklet. It just has to be done. The way people seem to be contented to settle for MP3s in this day and age as if equivalent to CD files is absurd. The way people think purchasing a download is equivalent to a CD is outrageous, as if a c.256 bit rate can compete in any way with 1411 for sonic information. I can understand how the bonus tracks are unlikely to be as good, and so settling for MP3 is less of a deal, but if you can easily get them at CD standard for a few $/£ more, then why not? Verbal, Sulky and others express their fandom by getting to 6 shows on a tour. I can't contemplate that, but I can express my fandom through deluxe editions. I have to have them.

It's a hilarious but also sad sign of the times that appreciation of the new release degenerates into whining about the lack of CD arrivals. The pricing strategy over here to make it double is absurd, no-one does that normally. Then the glue and the lack of stock issues. Life was so much easier when you just had record stores with records in them...

At least I've had the email to tell me mine has been despatched, but with the lunatic delivery date span of today-Oct 17.

[Kevin Davis]

(Of these, only "Puppet" seems like a true must-have, but further listening may alter that assessment).

I absolutely adore "Puppet," as much as anything on the album itself. What a beautiful song.

[docinwestchester]

(Of these, only "Puppet" seems like a true must-have, but further listening may alter that assessment).

I absolutely adore "Puppet," as much as anything on the album itself. What a beautiful song.

My New Haunt is a pretty cool listen as well.

[Kevin Davis]

They're all three good, and they all fit in perfectly with the rest of the songs. "Puppet" rises to another level I think, though.

[Poor Deportee]

"Puppet" is stellar - another extension of EC in that semi-new and dazzling mode of empathetic sadness.

"Haunt" hasn't yet moved me, but it's all early going.

Otis, I didn't mean to say the extra songs are "crap" - it was more the booklets, etc., which typically we pay quite a bit to get, and which typically I scan once or twice and never look at again. THAT stuff I rate as extraneous crap.

The songs, sometimes yes and sometimes no. On Sexmith's last disc, I bought the deluxe version and felt the album would have been seriously compromised without the bonus tracks, the exquisite "Autumn Light" in particular. On this album, the "regular" CD is perfect as is: just enough, mais pas trop, trop.

As for MP3s vs CD, etc., well...you're talking three songs (and, as I say, only one to this point strikes me as essential). But I must confess that my stereo equipment isn't very good and that I scarcely qualify as an "audiophile," so the quality differential doesn't move me all that much. I know I'm in a minority there, however.

[Otis Westinghouse]

I'm not rich enough to be an audiophile, though I'd gladly go down that route if I won the lottery. I have a relatively 'budget' but pretty decent hifi system and find I almost never play the iPod through it. The difference between it and CD quality is huge. I'm a total sucker for the booklets, I love every last detail. I think it's a way to try and get back somewhere near the magic of 12" and poring over every last bit.

Was forgetting 'Autumn Light' was a bonus track. I just think of it as a 14 track CD. It's one of the best things on it, and was one of the highlights of his Royal Albert Hall show (you would have choked up!). The 'certain territory' only tracks, not sure which, but I got them from Amazon's MP3 store, were Least of My Worries and Real Pandora, both of which were annoyingly slight. Those I can happily just have on MP3.

Am v excited about hearing some of these bonus tracks, especially Puppet. It doesn't reference Puppet Girl, does it?

[Neil.]

Am v excited about hearing some of these bonus tracks, especially Puppet. It doesn't reference Puppet Girl, does it?

I didn't notice any Puppet Girl references - though I've only listened to the bonus tracks once so far (yes, my deluxe hasn't arrived yet - yes, I used CDWOW! - so I listened on Spotify).

First listen, all the bonus tracks struck me as excellent. Didn't Elvis say in one of the current interviews that 'Puppet' is something to do with the death of his father? A puppet without strings is effectively dead - so it's quite a creepy song, if that's what he means. I gasped at the image of being stared at by a glass eye.

'My New Haunt' also had a big impact on me - very rich lyrics, with a sense of humour that seems to be lacking in the rest of the album (though I've only listened to the album once through).

[And No Coffee Table]

Didn't Elvis say in one of the current interviews that 'Puppet' is something to do with the death of his father?

Questlove said "Puppet" is about Elvis' "father who passed away." I don't think Elvis has commented publicly on the song.