I read a revealing comment recently in an article about Elvis Costello in the November 8, 2010 New Yorker. His long-time producer/associate T-Bone Burnett said something along the lines of Costello having the ability to "knock off an album in an afternoon". And while I don't like to get negative in this blog, and despite the fact that in my younger years I was a very big Elvis Costello fan, I feel that the remark may explain a great deal about something that has troubled me for a while: why a recording artist's early albums often outshine later ones. This is not the case for Costello only, by the way; the same could be said about other important artists, including the Rolling Stones and David Bowie. And I don't want to extrapolate too much from the comment - Burnett said he could do it, not that he did. All that being said, here was the moment of realization: The only thing that makes music sound good (and last) is work. Without it, all the skill in the world just sounds like going through the motions.