Look Now , October 2018

Pretty self-explanatory
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Ulster Boy
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by Ulster Boy »

Interesting article that maybe includes the origins of Mr and Mrs Hush?
http://www.jimramsburg.com/truth-or-con ... audio.html
jardine
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by jardine »

and, in terms of era, maybe a hint of that TV show where Jimmie ended up with blindfolded panelists
download.jpg
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or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnXn1KSoc7Y
Ulster Boy
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by Ulster Boy »

I imagine EC was familiar with the UK version
https://nostalgiacentral.com/television ... s-line-uk/
jardine
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by jardine »

What?! No Arlene Francis? No Dorothy Kilgallen? How can this be?!

:| BTW, what years did it run?
sweetest punch
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by sweetest punch »

Star Tribune: #3 in Best Albums of 2018
http://www.startribune.com/women-ruled- ... 503277141/
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

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The Boston Globe: Look Now makes the list of best albums of 2018: https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/ ... story.html
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by sweetest punch »

Look Now makes Gothamist’s list of Best albums of 2018: http://gothamist.com/2018/12/21/the_bes ... f_2018.php

Elvis Costello, Look Now: Combining the ambitious arrangements of Imperial Bedroom with the Bacharach-ian melodies of Painted By Memory resulted in Look Now. It's filled with sophisticated piano compositions with ornate melodies, carefully-drawn lyrics, and a lemon slice of bitterness. It's one of the three best Costello albums of the last 30 years, which is a remarkable thing for a guy who not so long ago threatened to never release another album again.
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by sweetest punch »

Look Now is at #2 in Album of the Year in Rolling Stone France: https://www.rollingstone.fr/jonathan-wi ... nnee-2018/

2. Elvis Costello & The Imposters – Look Now

“J’ai pensé à cet album pendant vingt ans”, expliquait Elvis Costello dans ces pages il y a peu, avec une envie d’espace pour les orchestrations et pour la voix, où les guitares ne viendraient pas surcharger 2 le tableau. Mission largement accomplie. Entre amplitude et solennité – l’émotion est quasi permanente –, Costello livre là l’un de ses plus beaux projets “pop” depuis très longtemps. La présence à bord de ses Imposters et de Burt Bacharach en parfait l’osmose et la majestueuse beauté.
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

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Look Now is at #17 in the Top 50 albums of 2018 in The Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/8 ... e-machine/
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

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Look Now is at #22 in the list of Best albums of 2018 in ‘De Volkskrant’: https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media ... b8d14aa4f/
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

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Look Now makes the list of Best albums of 2018 in Asbury Park Press: https://eu.app.com/story/entertainment/ ... 368867002/
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

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At #5 in Göteborgs-Posten’s Best Albums list: http://www.gp.se/kultur/kultur/årets-bä ... 1.11867315
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

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At #7 in Dagasiven’s list of Best Albums: https://www.dagsavisen.no/kultur/musikk ... -1.1251176
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sweetest punch
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

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Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

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Look Now is at #15 in John Meagher’s 50 best albums of the year (Irish Independent News): https://www.independent.ie/entertainmen ... 42329.html
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jardine
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by jardine »

All these rankings are encouraging, but can someone remind me of how this compares to e.c.'s other releases, say, since 2000? Are these exceptionally good, average, normal, worse??? my uninformed impression is that this better than 'usual'???
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by taramasalata »

To top all of these high positions in all the album of the year's best lists, LOOK NOW is at Nr.1 of the critic's choice in the https://www.rollingstone.de
And even among the readers, he' at Nr. 4
Yet not online, but it's in the print version.
Quite surprisingly to me, since he has always been a critic's favorite, he was never that well-liked as others of his peers, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Neil Young, just no name a few of the usual suspects.
Always thought him to be too erratic for German ears... glad that they proved me wrong.
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wardo68
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by wardo68 »

I find it very interesting -- for lack of a better word -- that Look Now has gotten such high praise all over the place. I found it satisfactory at best, and only that much better than the McCartney album, which I found hollow but also got universal praise. Am I the only one here who doesn't think Look Now is a masterpiece?
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Top balcony
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by Top balcony »

wardo68 wrote: I found it satisfactory at best, .... Am I the only one here who doesn't think Look Now is a masterpiece?
Nope, count on me in that regard too. But there are tons of other LPs that I do think are epic, so there are plenty of alternatives vying for my attention. Can't remember the last time I gave PfM a spin, so I really shouldn't be surprised that I don't particularly rate PfM Part Two!

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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by sulky lad »

wardo68 wrote:
I found it satisfactory at best, .... Am I the only one here who doesn't think Look Now is a masterpiece?
I'm with Colin here too, don't get me wrong, I enjoy it quite a lot and have no issues with it compared to some others - for example I think it's quite a bit better than ATUB, but in terms of re-inventing himself and stretching himself, WIse Up Ghost is a much more invigorating and exacting album to listen to and thus seems more like the Elvis of old always pushing new boundaries!
However I might feel differently when Father Christmas gives me the double LP with the 4 extra tracks
Merry Christmas everyone !
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A rope leash
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by A rope leash »

What I got out of the movie Purple Rain, was that the audience liked Prince but not as much as the other band, until prince played a song that sucked, then somehow everyone liked him much better. Wide appeal is what's required for a popular hit, plus a beat and a hook, and a hopeful outlook.

It's scientific.

I had Look Now playing in the car since I bought it up until last week. Cathead sings along, and even looked up lyrics on the Google. (They don't make sense). The songs are well crafted and elegantly performed, and the production is top class. Elvis points out touchy stuff but doesn't get to judgey, so folks can acknowledge the pain without being jabbed again. A couple of songs on this recording really have me thinking, but we've come too far now, and there's no use discussing it.

"It's very important not to give a shit..." - George Carlin

Words to live by, perhaps, and vital to pop success. Be sure to make a big deal out of nothing, because a big deal out of something is too heavy....and hard to access, or feel. The emotions of human beings are nothing, really, on the greater scale. Your dashed hopes, unwanted children, stray wives, and show-biz comebacks are really not worth airing out again, but these things strike at the heart of the individual, and when combined with a snappy beat and solid hook...well, that's a hit record. That's money.

The deeper, wider issues...the scary and the crazy...belong in the realm of Rock and Jazz. So, Elvis knows what he's doing. Look Now is a masterpiece because it's a piece by a master, one that has an appeal across a range of demographics, as the various charts show. Good for Elvis!

...but you couldn't call it unexpected.

Well, the holes in my head were full up with Look Now, and overflowing. Night and day the songs would play, and right in the middle of conversations, even. Reading the reviews posted here made me happy and angry, and downright pissed off when the Rolling Stone jerk said this was the record Elvis "had always aspired to..."! I choke on baloney!

Anyway, one day last week I just jerked it out of the CD player and put in American Idiot
.

Now that's Rock and Roll.

Tom Petty is dead but not dead, because I'm not dead.

Rock is not dead because the King is not dead.

This ain't over. The success of this record demands a feisty encore. Elvis could do that in a weekend.

I can wish.



Have a Happy Merry!
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verbal gymnastics
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by verbal gymnastics »

In my view it’s a good album but not the masterpiece it’s being portrayed as.

I wonder if the overall positivity is because this is an Elvis and the Impostors record rather than an Elvis and someone else side project.
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
jardine
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by jardine »

I remember quite clearly how painful it was back in 2010 for National Ransom to seem to disappear without hardly a trace of recognition and how that disappearance, I'm embarrassed to say, slowly eroded some of my own love of it (it really is time I pulled NR out again). I recall some speculation here on the board of the effect of all that on e.c. himself back then. Now I'm in full bask again and therefore, of course, very glad of the reviews (except, as per usual, so many of them are not especially insightful). I even love the gnarls of key changes that i can never quite anticipate in DTStars, and a melody winding up and around and eating its own tail.

Not sure if i understand any more exactly what might be a side project for e.c.
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verbal gymnastics
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by verbal gymnastics »

jardine wrote:Not sure if i understand any more exactly what might be a side project for e.c.
I crudely refer to it in terms that albums with the Impostors are the main job and recordings with other artists are side projects.
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
jardine
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Re: Look Now: new album announced!

Post by jardine »

seems that there are more side projects than non-side. doesn't that make the imposters the side project? just kidding, of course, but e.c. has always been a bit of a strange case...one reason we love him, of course (and are sometimes frustrated or surprised or, etc.).
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