Elvis Costello

Besides two versions of the title tune -- the overlong album version from Brutal Youth and a far superior single edit -- this European EP includes two otherwise unavailable tracks. "Idiophone" is the title track to a never-completed solo album Costello started in 1993, a manic instrumental that starts with a clattering drum track that fades out before being replaced with a loopy, Tom Waits-like melody that bears a striking resemblance to the "he knows when you've been sleeping" section of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," which itself stops abruptly in less than two minutes. It's one of Costello's stranger recordings, but it's got nothing on "A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety," which finds him singing the William Butler Yeats poem to a dramatic original melody, backed by acoustic guitar, Mellotron, and martial drums. The pair of experiments makes this a weird and wonderful EP. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide