CD — Elvis Costello reissues: Costello’s illustrious back catalog has switched hands once again. Prepping for re-release of his first 11 albums, his new record company has put together two new compilations: The Best of Elvis Costello: The First 10 Years and Rock and Roll Music. The latter pulls together plugged-in album tracks. The superlative Best Of includes 22 classics — from “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” to “I Want You.”
TV — The Closer: TNT’s best show returns for its third season at 9 p.m. Monday with a commercial-free episode. Golden Globe-winner Kyra Sedgwick anchors the series as a ball-busting interrogator, but its supporting characters (including Spider-Man‘s J. Jonah Jameson, J.K. Simmons) are becoming television’s most reliable detective crew.
VIDEO GAME: Shrek the Third: This tie-in to the big green ogre’s latest adventure can be as overblown and predictable as the movie at times. But it’s also as fast-moving. It’s available for almost every console, but we prefer the Nintendo DS version, which features cool cooperative multiplayer play in wireless mode — so you and three pals can save Far Far Away as your favorite talking donkey or cat.
BOOK: Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector: The centerpiece of this insightful bio is the kooky music mogul’s last interview before he was charged with murder four years ago. Writer Mick Brown touches on all the usual subjects — Spector’s troubled childhood, his teenage genius, and his penchant for pulling guns on the artists he worked with. The book is the first to truly probe Spector’s fractured mind, which eventually shattered.
COURTESY FLUSH, PLEASE — The Best of Acoustic Jethro Tull: The flute-lovin’ prog-rockers are barely tolerable plugged in, so imagine how insufferable they are when the amps are turned off. This 24-song CD spans the band’s career, pulling cuts from albums like Living in the Past, Aqualung, and Thick as a Brick. Too bad they’re not the ones you want to hear.
This article appears in Jun 13-19, 2007.
The comment about Jethro Tull is ridiculous, they are loved for thier acoustic music as much as anything else, they’ve been around a long time, and will still be popular long after the one hit wonders of today are resigned to running a Hot Dog stand on the side of the road. apparently it takes some intelligence to enjoy ‘Prog Rock’ too bad they dont give journalists an IQ test.
I’ve little doubt that you’ve listened to this and other Tull releases front to back. But hey that Black Sabbath is mighty impressive aren’t they..May I prepare you a heeping bowl of Rob Zombie. Long live the Tull, indeed next year makes 40/that you would trivialize their output as Prog shows a company line, tired, and invariably incorrect appraisal of a musical organization would share better comparison to the Duke Ellington Orchestra or the Academy of St Martins in the Field than Emerson Lake and Palmer, talk about what you know, and humble yourself before your overlord, his Lairdship, Ian Scott Anderson.