Elvis Costello
"Hey Clockface"
(Concord (ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK))
If Elvis Costello's 33rd studio album sounds a bit all over the place, that's because that's where it was recorded.
The stupendously prolific English songwriter and former angry young man began work by cutting three solo songs in Helsinki in February. He recorded nine more in Paris, working with musicians anchored by his longtime pianist Steve Nieve.
Finally, two tracks were written by trumpeter Michael Leonhart in New York and recorded with guitarists Bill Frisell and Nels Cline, before Costello completed them post-lockdown in Vancouver.
Unsurprisingly, "Hey Clockface" lacks the cohesion of "Look Now," 2018's excellent return to form with his band the Imposters. Instead, it plays out as a melange of styles, a sampler that relates to various stages in Costello's career.
"I Do (Zula's Song)" has a smoky jazz club vibe that recalls Chet Baker's heartbreaking turn on "Almost Blue." Elsewhere, the arrangements bang and clatter with a claustrophobic rage reminiscent of 1986's "Blood & Chocolate." "No Flag," bursts with bitterness and bile: "I've got a head full of idea and words that don't seem to belong to me," he spews. "No sign for the dark place that I live/ No God for the damn I don't give."
The stylistic smorgasbord begins with "Revolution #49," a spoken-word piece that unspools like film noir narration ("Life beats a poor man to his grave, love makes a poor man from a dagger/ Love is the one thing we can save").
The album hits a high point with the doomy, impressively realized "Newspaper Pane," creating a dark, enveloping mood in which the jaunty New Orleans strut "Hey Clockface/How Can You Face Me" feels strangely out of place. This is not Costello's most consistent work, but he still does have a head full of ideas, with most worthy of exploring. — Dan DeLuca
