Lyrically, it was a more affectionate look at the city in which I was born than I could ever have managed when I was actually living there. I've never thought to use the term hometown, but there is a very personal route map in the final verse.

Handing the song over for Steve Nieve to play meant that it could be realised beyond my extreme limitations at the piano.

Adding the rhythm section brought it closer to the darker domestic ballads, "You tripped at every step" and "Still too soon to know. Of the two versions contained in this edition I think I now favour the more spontaneous take from the Church Studios session.

I hope the song justifies its existence with the notion that "in hell" you can hear Richard Rodgers' "My Favourite Things," but it is always performed by Julie Andrews and never by John Coltrane. Although Steve played it very grandly, with drum accompaniment, on the version heard on CD 2, I was determined to rerecord it with a live vocal and piano performance of my own in order to concentrate the attention totally on the melody.

I believe it is among the very best songs that I have been fortunate enough to write. Whether it should have received a more expansive treatment is something that I will leave to the listener or for another performer to resolve. The details in the other songs were collected during periods of travel.

Not that the song continues much with that theme — it was more for those who could not subscribe to the new fashion of sobriety. It was one of those lovely suburban neighbourhoods that was, at once, utterly benign and filled with reminders of a claustrophobic life from which a career in music and emotional cowardice once offered an escape.

As the album was mixed and assembled at Sound Factory Studios in Hollywood, it seemed that there was some sort of thread running through these songs. However, I could not pretend that I had planned this in advance. The preceding story of these sessions would make nonsense of that conceit. The title, Brutal Youth , was suggested by a friend after he heard "Favourite Hour," musically, the gentlest song on the record.

The phrase was extracted from the line: "Now, there's a tragic waste of brutal youth. The only song contained in this edition that is about youths that are brutal is "Life Shrinks. It was later issued as a B-side. The other songs contained on CD 2 are either the studio demos and experiments from the Napoleon Rooms, Pathway, and Church Studios or fuzzy 4-track home demos that were cut just after the songs were completed.

The record IS backward looking, but I do not mean that in a musical sense. I had spent the previous nine years exploring other ways to play songs, and in the 12 months prior to recording this album, I had learned how to write songs of a completely different shape and feeling.

Now came the question of whether there was still a loud song worth singing. So, if this record does look back, it is with affection and amusement to disastrous and bungled affairs of "Just about glad," "Clown Strike," and "My Science Fiction Twin" or with the regret and remorse of "You tripped at every step" and "Rocking Horse Road. I started out to make something violent and undone in the wake of the most disciplined work of my career.

Aggressive Bittersweet Druggy. Energetic Happy Hypnotic. Romantic Sad Sentimental. Sexy Trippy All Moods. Drinking Hanging Out In Love. Introspection Late Night Partying. Rainy Day Relaxation Road Trip. Romantic Evening Sex All Themes. Features Interviews Lists. Streams Videos All Posts. Main Album Brutal Youth Release Date February 19, Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Elvis Costello. Retrieved 9 May Archived from the original on 4 February Retrieved 18 March Chicago Tribune.

Entertainment Weekly. Electronic Folk International. Jazz Latin New Age. Aggressive Bittersweet Druggy. Energetic Happy Hypnotic. Romantic Sad Sentimental. Sexy Trippy All Moods. Drinking Hanging Out In Love.

Introspection Late Night Partying. Rainy Day Relaxation Road Trip. Romantic Evening Sex All Themes.