Elvis Costello's King Of America and Other Realms

A reissue of Costello's seminal roots-rock record from 1986 prompts a six-disc exploration of his ongoing rambles through the byways of Americana

Elvis Costello—King of America and Other Realms [2024; 1985-2024]

Most box sets focused on a single album take a narrow view, concentrating on the creation of a record and perhaps the aftermath of its release. Not so King of America and Other Realms. That secondary phrase, "Other Realms," alludes to how this six-disc expansion of Costello's seminal 1986 set chronicles his ongoing rambles through the byways of Americana, treating the original record as something of a big bang that opened up other avenues for the singer/songwriter.

Certainly, King of America is where Costello blew up the notion that he was attached at the hip to the Attractions, the high-wire outfit that had been by his side since his second album. Shedding his alias along with his bandmates—every new composition on the record was credited to his birth name, Declan MacManus—Costello turned inward, writing quiet, direct songs rooted in country. Thanks to T Bone Burnett, the producer hired to helm King of America, he also looked outward, enlisting great American musicians of all stripes as support: guitarist James Burton, drummer Earl Palmer, bassist Ray Brown, drummer Jim Keltner, multi-instrumentalist T-Bone Wolk, bassist Jerry Scheff all shaped the sound of King of America.

Collaboration is a connective thread on King of America and Other Realms, as is Costello's enduring love of American music. It's difficult to separate the two threads, really, as the set teems with guests and co-conspirators, many of whom stick with Costello through the years. Chief among these is Burnett, a roots-rock maverick who forged a deep, lasting bond with Costello while working as his supporting act on his solo tours of 1984 and 1985. In his lengthy liner note essay, Elvis calls T Bone his "ally and associate in the mischief of music making" and that impishness was there from the start. The pair adopted the guise of the Coward Brothers, knocking out the riotous single "The People's Limousine" a few months before the King of America sessions. They've revived the Coward Brothers for a new project, a Christopher Guest-directed podcast telling "The True Story of the Coward Brothers" that's accompanied by a new soundtrack album that runs twenty tracks but somehow doesn't include "The People's Limousine" or its flip side, "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me." 

Thanks to his soundtrack for the Coen Brothers' caper O Brother, Where Art Thou? winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2002, Burnett became one of a handful of superstar record producers early in the 2000s, which is roughly when King of America and Other Realms resumes the story that started back in the mid-1980s. That initial narrative occupies the first half of the set, which runs through a remastered version of the '86 album, a collection of demos and ephemera from the era—many of which were released on two previous expansions of KOA, although there are some newly discovered demos, including early drafts of "Brilliant Mistake" and "Blue Chair"—and a cracking London concert from January 27, 1987 where Costello's Confederates of Burton, Keltner, Scheff and Wolk are augmented by a Benmont Tench on loan from the Heartbreakers. In his notes, Costello recalls how George Harrison attended the concert, receiving a special mix via headphones that boosted Burton's guitar way above the leader's voice.

With the fourth disc, Costello embarks on a voyage through his 21st Century, devoting a disc to the Mississippi Delta by pairing highlights from The Delivery Man—the 2004 debut from the Imposters, a reconstituted version of the Attractions with keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas—and The River In Reverse, his 2006 collaboration with Allen Toussaint, then adding associated stray recording as accents. A similar tactic on the following two discs, which feature selections from the paired Secret, Profane & Sugarcane and National Ransom—Americana records which mark where Burnett comes back into the picture—with a handful of cuts from Momofuku and Look Now. These are exceptionally loose concepts. The compilation will double-back to cherry pick "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" from Spike or a demo of "Complicated Shadows" then fast forward to the present, adding songs from soundtracks, one-off projects, live gigs and rehearsals along the way. There are unreleased tracks scattered through the proceedings, ranging from an raw, rangy alternate of "Quick Like a Flash" from The New Basement Tapes and an earthy, grinning version of "The Monkey" with Dave Bartholomew and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band to a recent live-in-the-studio version of "Indoor Fireworks" that adds weight to its poignance. 

Some of these excavated moments are undisputed highlights—hearing Costello and Toussaint tear through "Bedlam" at Montreal Jazz Fest is invigorating—but rarities function as accent and color on Kings of America and Other Realms, adding nuance and detail to an elliptical narrative where musicians reappear, melodies rhyme, and myths spun for new generations. The path from those early versions of "Brilliant Mistake" to this year's noir-ish night club reimagining of the tune isn't straight but it's evident that Costello needed to ramble in order to deliver a new interpretation where it so suits a night club, it veers into the Great American Songbook standard "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Listening to this box set emphasizes that what matters on a journey is not the destination but the detours, the offbeat places where you meet the characters and obsessions that bring life and meaning to the whole affair.