King of America by Elvis Costello

King of America, Elvis Costello's tenth studio album, arrived on 21 February 1986 on F-Beat, and it's the sound of a new wave firebrand unplugging and heading for the roots. It grew out of the Coward Brothers tours he had done with T Bone Burnett, who co-produced it with him in Los Angeles in mid-1985. Burnett rounded up American session players dubbed the Confederates, among them Ray Brown, Earl Palmer and veterans of Elvis Presley's TCB Band; the Attractions, after sessions that went badly, made it onto just one track, "Suit of Lights".

The songs are mostly acoustic and pull from country, folk, R&B and Americana, digging into romance, betrayal, drink and the American dream, "Brilliant Mistake" among them. Even the credits play dress-up: Costello billed himself on the sleeve by his real name, Declan MacManus, and wore a crown on the cover. It was greeted as a comeback, and later critics rank it with his finest work.

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