Costello, Elvis & The Imposters / Cruel Smile
Album: Cruel Smile   Collection:General
Artist:Costello, Elvis & The Imposters   Added:Nov 2002
Label:Island Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2002-12-30 Pull Date: 2003-03-03
Week Ending: Feb 9 Feb 2 Jan 26 Jan 19 Jan 5
Airplays: 2 1 1 3 3

Recent Airplay
1. Feb 07, 2003: Input/Output
Uncomplicated
4. Jan 20, 2003: The Back Of The Class
When I Was Cruel
2. Feb 03, 2003: The Back Of The Class
Watching the Detectives/My F
5. Jan 15, 2003: Strange Attractors
Smile
3. Jan 26, 2003: The Weekend Effect
When I Was Cruel
6. Jan 14, 2003: In The Leaves
Smile

Album Review
Guest DJ Account
Reviewed 2002-12-08
This collection of alternate takes and live tracks is light-hearted and often fun though rarely essential. Many of the live tracks combine
Bacharach-influenced classic pop vocals with dub experiments. Occasionally the results are enjoyable (track 11), but often they are just weird. Other tracks are badly-conceived tape-loop experiments. Many tracks go on WAY TOO LONG. I would seriously recommend checking the length of the tracks before playing.
Highlights: 1,2,5,11,13

1. Classic pop song with vibes, sax, and goofy string orchestration 2. Bittersweet, scathing, reminiscent of Elvis's best 3. Harrowingly
spare with piano accomp 4. Horn-driven with lyrics, bouncy, buried ominous-sounding vocals, reminds me of TYM, too long 5. Catchy with
tape-loop sounding backing, goofy outro 6. creepy dub-flavored remix of "When I was Cruel", kinda annoying 7. Dominated by loops, buried vocals, tuneless 8. Tape-loopy, attempt to be funky, is Costello trying to rap? 9. Spare, acoustic, despairing. 10. Tape-loopy, features guitar with dubby effects, creepy, buried vocal, horns at end 11. WTD: ragged, noisy featuring distorted guitars and very campy organ, great dub-flavored instrumental solos; MFV: reverberant vocals are spare, affectless 12. same song as 10, garagey, dub ending follows wanky bridge, way too long 13. Tape-loopy, garagey, organ-dominated, catchy. More song-like than other experimental tracks 14. same as 1 but with just piano accomp 15. Hidden track: Soul for Hire, vocals and dub backing, particularly incongruous, too long

Eric K.

Track Listing
1. Smile   8. Peroxide Side
2. When I Was Cruel   9. Oh Well
3. Almost Blue   10. The Imposter Vs. the Floodte
4. 15 Petals   11. Watching the Detectives/My F
5. Spooky Girlfriend   12. Dust
6. Honeyhouse   13. Uncomplicated
7. Revolution Doll   14. Smile