Register for E-mail alerts. Comment on articles. Sign up today, it's easy.
Close
The Washington Times Online Edition

Lovesick Costello goes soft on ‘North’

Elvis Costello

North

Deutsche Grammophon

Elvis Costello has … zzzzzz … recorded another collection of … zzzzz … cabaret ballads. It’s called “North,” and it makes me wish I were East, West or South, anywhere but “North.”

Do not, under any circumstances, listen to “North” while operating machinery or motor vehicles. It’s the aural equivalent of taking a Xanax and then downing a bottle of red wine.

As someone who holds Mr. Costello in the highest regard, I wasn’t particularly jazzed by the idea that the singer-songwriter was returning to the self-indulgent mood of “The Juliet Letters,” his 1993 collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet, and “Painted From Memory,” his post-hip alliance with Burt Bacharach in 1998.

This after a scorching return to rock form with last year’s “When I Was Cruel.”

But return to the chamber Mr. Costello has done, gushing undying love to his new flame, the Canadian jazz-pop singer Diana Krall. “It’s strange to finally find myself so tongue-tied / A change has come over me / I’m powerless to express / Everything I know but cannot speak / And if I try my voice will break,” he croons on “Someone Took the Words Away.”

Wonder who that someone is?

“Every single time I approached despair / I thought of your name and you were there,” he surges lovingly on “When Green Eyes Turn Blue.”

It’s portentously announced in the liner notes that “North” was “composed, arranged and conducted by Elvis Costello,” and each section of the 11-song cycle is minimalistically crafted in the style of old Broadway book or soft jazz-pop, with sporadic murmurs from brass and strings.

For songs that sound so quietly personal and private, Mr. Costello oversells every song, singing in a quavering vibrato that becomes gratingly thick and showy.

His longtime keyboard associate, Steve Nieve, plays on every track save for a pair, and drummer Peter Erskine lightly brushes a snare drum. The Brodsky Quartet appears on the album’s best track, “Still,” rescued by a gracefully simple melody.

After repeated listens, you’ll be hard-pressed to distinguish one song from the next: It all wafts together into one soporific cloud of lounge smoke.

Story Continues →

View Entire Story
Comments
blog comments powered by Disqus
You Might Also Like
  • ** FILE ** Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich speaks during a news conference on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

    Questions surface on Gingrich campaign travel payments

    By Luke Rosiak - The Washington Times

  • This artist rendering shows Amine El Khalifi before U.S. District Judge T. Rawles Jones Jr. in federal court in Alexandria, Va., Friday, Feb. 17, 2012. El Khalifi, a 29-year-old Moroccan man was arrested Friday near the U.S. Capitol as he was planning to detonate what he thought was a suicide vest, given to him by FBI undercover operatives, said police and government officials. (AP Photo/Dana Verkouteren)

    Terror suspect arrested near U.S. Capitol

    By Tom Howell Jr. - The Washington Times

  • Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Associated Press)

    Justice says Supreme Court should revisit campaign finance

    By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

  • Happening Now

          Independent voices from the TWT Communities

          Forbidden Table Talk

          Political satirist and Christian apologist Bob Siegel discusses religion and politics.

          The Political Pro-Con

          Not your typical discussion, writer Conor Murphy writes about the cons, and pros, of politics

          A Heart Without Compromise; Advocating for Children

          Children around the globe are too often silent. From victims of abuse - physical, mental, and sexual to those whose lives embrace joy, their stories are many and need to be heard.