Video Review: 'Elvis Costello Live — A Case For Song'

Shot at the BBC’s London studios last year, this showcase features the prolific tunesmith rifling through his songbook in a variety of guises. There’s acoustic Elvis, Elvis with crack backup band the Attractions, Elvis with horns (The White City Septet), and Elvis with strings (erstwhile collaborators the Brodsky Quartet). Though a bit overreliant on 1996’s just-okay All This Useless Beauty, Live includes a few gems for both the casual fan (an accordian-driven romp of his classic ”Pump It Up”) and the hungry fanatic (”Riot Act,” ”Pills and Soap,” and a cover, with the Brodskys, of the Beach Boys’ ”God Only Knows”). B+