Melbourne Age, October 23, 2020: Difference between revisions
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<center> Barry Divola </center> | <center> Barry Divola </center> | ||
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A lot of people — and this reviewer pleads guilty — want Elvis Costello to remain stuck in amber circa 1977-1983. It's unfair, of course. The knock-kneed motormouth punched out a remarkable run of records that grew out of punk but were way too smart to be confined by it. From collaborating with Burt Bacharach to writing a ballet score, he's always thumbed his nose at straitjackets. Recorded in Helsinki, Paris and New York, ''Hey Clockface'' is a sometimes disjointed experience. "No Flag" uses Tom Waits-ian junkyard percussion and distortion to drive sneering lines such as, ''"No God for the damn that I don't give"''; Byline is a gorgeously wrought kiss-off ballad where old letters house painful memories. On the title track's show-tune shadings, he does his best imitation of his old hero Randy Newman, while the thump-and-crunch of "Hetty O'Hara Confidential" crosses Dylan-esque syntax with rap-like delivery. Between the blooms there are weeds: blousy spoken-word poetry over brooding orchestration, a convoluted ballad or two where his voice cracks and creaks. But even when he fails to take flight, he continues to avoid being pinned down. | A lot of people — and this reviewer pleads guilty — want Elvis Costello to remain stuck in amber circa 1977-1983. It's unfair, of course. The knock-kneed motormouth punched out a remarkable run of records that grew out of punk but were way too smart to be confined by it. From collaborating with Burt Bacharach to writing a ballet score, he's always thumbed his nose at straitjackets. | ||
Recorded in Helsinki, Paris and New York, ''Hey Clockface'' is a sometimes disjointed experience. "No Flag" uses Tom Waits-ian junkyard percussion and distortion to drive sneering lines such as, ''"No God for the damn that I don't give"''; "Byline" is a gorgeously wrought kiss-off ballad where old letters house painful memories. On the title track's show-tune shadings, he does his best imitation of his old hero Randy Newman, while the thump-and-crunch of "Hetty O'Hara Confidential" crosses Dylan-esque syntax with rap-like delivery. | |||
Between the blooms there are weeds: blousy spoken-word poetry over brooding orchestration, a convoluted ballad or two where his voice cracks and creaks. But even when he fails to take flight, he continues to avoid being pinned down. | |||
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{{tags}}[[Hey Clockface]] {{-}} [[No Flag]] {{-}} [[Hetty O'Hara Confidential]] {{-}} [[Byline]] {{-}} [[Hey Clockface / How Can You Face Me?]] {{-}} [[Concord Records]] {{-}} [[Burt Bacharach]] {{-}} [[Il Sogno]] {{-}} [[Helsinki]] {{-}} [[Paris]] {{-}} [[New York]] {{-}} [[Tom Waits]] {{-}} [[Randy Newman]] {{-}} [[Bob Dylan]] | {{tags}}[[Hey Clockface]] {{-}} [[No Flag]] {{-}} [[Hetty O'Hara Confidential]] {{-}} [[Byline]] {{-}} [[Hey Clockface / How Can You Face Me?]] {{-}} [[Concord Records]] {{-}} [[Burt Bacharach]] {{-}} [[Painted From Memory]] {{-}} [[Il{{nb}}Sogno]] {{-}} [[Helsinki]] {{-}} [[Paris]] {{-}} [[New York]] {{-}} [[Tom Waits]] {{-}} [[Randy Newman]] {{-}} [[Bob Dylan]] | ||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
