I know that when I make a record like The Delivery Man as a contrast to even Il Sogno, this is going to reach a wider audience, because it communicates in that very direct way.

The River in Reverse was released in the UK on the Verve label the following year in May. Also that year Costello made an appearance in the television series Frasier as a folk singer in the Cafe Nervosa sending Frasier and Niles on a search for a new coffee bar. In the intervening period Costello had served as artistic chair for the 1995 Meltdown Festival which gave him the opportunity to explore his increasingly eclectic musical interests.

They toured and recorded together for the better part of a decade though differences between Costello and members of The Attractions caused them to split by 1986. He began his career as part of London's pub rock scene in the early 1970s and later became associated with the first wave of the British Punk/New Wave movement of the mid-to-late 1970s.