All This Useless Beauty is the seventeenth studio album by Elvis Costello, originally released in 1996. The album peaked at No. 28 on the UK album chart, and at No. 53 on the Billboard 200. It is his final album with his long-standing backing band The Attractions.
In its original conception, the album was to be a set of songs written for other artists, entitled A Case For Song, with backing by a diverse array of musicians. Instead, Costello chose to record the songs himself with The Attractions. For instance, “Complicated Shadows” had been intended for Johnny Cash, and “Why Can’t A Man Stand Alone?” for Sam Moore, and the B-side opens with his collaboration with Paul McCartney, “Shallow Grave”.
Four songs previously released by others also made it to the final track listing: “The Other End Of The Telescope” was co-written with Aimee Mann; “You Bowed Down” was recorded by Roger McGuinn; “All This Useless Beauty” and “I Want To Vanish” was recorded by June Tabor.
