Get Happy!! [Rhino Bonus Disc] - Elvis Costello

In its original release, Get Happy!! was an overstuffed album, bursting at the seams with 20 tracks on a single vinyl LP. Fourteen years later, it was reissued as an expanded single disc on Rykodisc/Demon, adding 11 bonus tracks to the original album. Nine years after that, Rhino/Demon re-reissued Get Happy!! as a double-disc set, containing a second disc of 30 non-LP tracks, bringing the grand total of the package up to 50 tracks -- an absurdly high number by any measure. Where the 26 bonus tracks on the Rhino/Demon reissue of Punch the Clock feel like gilding the lily, here the 30-track second disc feels like a blessing, since it not only contains a bunch of great music, it feels as if it's in the spirit of the album itself. Elvis Costello wrote and the Attractions recorded an astonishing amount of music within one year. It wasn't just the finished album -- nearly every song on Get Happy!! had a notably different alternate version or demo, and then there were outtakes, B-sides, and even songs that would later show up on the following year's Trust. This makes for an excellent disc, since it's not merely a useful archival clearing-house for collectors, but it's also a dynamic, entertaining listen. Much of this is due to Costello's remarkable songwriting streak -- not only do the 20 songs on the proper album capture him at his melodic and lyrical prime, proving quite versatile in their different incarnations and alternate takes, but the songs that didn't make the cut contain such highlights as the peerless pop of "Girls Talk," his first attempt at Bacharach balladry in "Just a Memory," the endearingly lumbering "Dr. Luther's Assistant," the appealing lite soul of the outtake "So Young," a stomping cover of "Getting Mighty Crowded," and "Ghost Train" and "Hoover Factory," two of his better B-sides. These, of course, were heard on the previous reissue, where they kept the party going, but here they act as the backbone for a cavalcade of alternate takes, including four fine live cuts, radically different versions of Trust's "From a Whisper to a Scream" and "New Lace Sleeves," a harder-rocking and uneasy version of "Girls Talk," and energetic, interesting demos. Song for song, this is bonus disc is the most fun out of all the deluxe double-disc reissues from Rhino/Demon, and a fitting compliment to an album already packed with hits. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide