The Juliet Letters

The Juliet Letters is the 14th studio album by the British rock singer and songwriter Elvis Costello, released on compact disc as Warner Brothers 45180. The entire instrumental backing is provided by The Brodsky String Quartet. Costello described the album as "a song sequence for string quartet and voice and it has a title. It's a little bit different. It's not a rock opera. It's a new thing." It peaked at No. 18 on the UK album chart, and at No. 125 on the Billboard 200.

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Costello first encountered The Brodsky Quartet in 1989, a performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall of the entire cycle of string quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich. They met for the first time in November 1991, to begin work on the concept and execution of this album project. Costello viewed this album as neither his first stab at classical music, nor the Brodsky's first attempt at rock and roll.

With a concept of imaginary letters being sent to an imaginary recipient, Juliet Capulet, all five musicians contributed to the writing of the lyrics as well as the music. No overdubs were made, the album recorded in its entirety live in the studio. One single was actually released from the album, the track "Jacksons, Monk, and Rowe," although it did not grace the charts in either USA or the UK.