Elvis Costello and the Imposters

You don't have to understand every narrative twist in this Mississippi-gothic opera -- Costello's best full-on rock album since Blood and Chocolate -- to love his rapier-metaphor language, the razor-wire temper of his guitar and the chain-gang charge of the Imposters. Of special note: the sweet sadness Emmylou Harris brings to the big hurt of "Heart Shaped Bruise."

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