Eamon Blog

Today's Shelf Pull: Elvis Presley, ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits

Familiar songs, worth hearing in company

Across four vinyl sides, the interest lies in the changes of pace, from compact early singles to the broader gestures further along.

Elvis Presley’s ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits has a practical virtue: it puts songs you may already know back into company with one another. On vinyl, across four sides, those neighbours matter. Familiarity can make a record seem smaller than it is.

This is a compilation, not a studio album with one sustained mood. Its pleasure is in the changes of scale: a clipped, busy single followed by something that asks the voice to linger. The movement between them gives the listening its shape.

The catalogue identifies this as a 2002 RCA release in 2LP format. That is useful orientation, but the better introduction is the opening run itself. There is very little waiting about before the songs begin making their separate cases.

Heartbreak Hotel opens Side A at 2:10. Its spare setting makes the vocal seem particularly exposed, with space around the phrases rather than a constant cushion underneath. The short running time does not make it feel hurried.

On the shelf today

Elvis Presley - ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits

2LP / Rock / 2002

EUR33.95 / Sold out

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