Costello’s Still the Bard of the Bittersweet

This next song is about. . . .

That’s a welcome introduction at any concert because the stories behind the songs often take you deeper into the world of the writer, providing insights into the artist and the work.

It’s an appealing journey that we’ve been able to take with increasing frequency in recent months as some of the all-time great rock songwriters--notably the Who’s Pete Townshend and the Kinks’ Ray Davies--have turned to the intimacy of one-man, acoustic retrospectives. Davies, in fact, was so effective in the format last year at the Henry Fonda Theatre that he’s reprising it for five shows there this week.

It’s hard to imagine that Elvis Costello--who brought this approach to the Troubadour on Tuesday--has been around long enough to fit into a discussion of those veterans. But it has been almost 20 years since the immensely gifted Englishman made his local debut at the Whisky.

When he arrived in 1977, Costello was already a dazzling talent--a songwriter with the intensity of a punk-edged Buddy Holly and the sophisticated wordplay of a contemporary Cole Porter.

And he kept us enthralled with a rush of captivating albums, from 1977’s “My Aim Is True” to 1986’s “Blood and Chocolate,” that marked him as perhaps the most prolific major figure ever in rock.

There have been memorable moments on subsequent albums, but not the consistent revelation and invention to make them essential. The exception was “The Juliet Letters,” his bold 1993 album with the classical Brodsky Quartet.

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So, it was a tribute to the continuing respect for Costello that there was almost as much electricity for Tuesday’s acoustic show at the Troubadour as there was for his Whisky debut.

Costello, who will be back with his Attractions band Aug. 27-28 at the Universal Amphitheatre, did a similar show Monday at the John Anson Ford Theatre, but Tuesday’s date was a rare chance to see him in a club setting.

“All This Useless Beauty,” which was released Tuesday, is another uneven album, though it’s clearly Costello’s most satisfying since “Juliet,” and he played all 12 songs during the two-hour set, which was broadcast live on KSCA-FM (101.9).

As he showed in such songs as “The Other End of the Telescope” and “Starting to Come to Me,” Costello can still dissect relationships and attitudes with chilling precision and depth.

On the less compelling new tunes, Costello’s spoken introductions at least gave them interesting frameworks--such as his reference to the teenager from Minnesota with the dying wish of wanting to kill a bear (before “Why Can’t a Man Stand Alone?”) and the amusing asides about his Catholic upbringing (before “Distorted Angel”).

Wearing a red shirt and black vest, Costello--frequently joined by keyboardist Steve Nieve and, at the end, by drummer Pete Thomas--also found time for some earlier material, from the early classic “Alison” to the more recent but penetrating “Just About Glad.”

In some ways, the most telling moments came when Costello sang two recent collaborations, one written for a movie soundtrack with composer Burt Bacharach (who was in the audience), the other with Nieve. There was a freshness and discipline to both numbers that--coupled with his past work with the Brodsky Quartet and Paul McCartney--suggested this master wordsmith ought to focus on partnerships more often.

In the end, however, it was simply a joy to see Costello still dedicated to his craft and able to touch us with new material. While he may not hit the target as often as he once did, his aim is still true.