10.21.2020
POETRY AND POISE: THE ECLECTIC NEW OFFERING FROM ELVIS COSTELLO
Around The Sound: Aminah Hughes: October 20th 2020
ELVIS COSTELLO HEY CLOCKFACE
From the first enchanting notes of ‘Revolution #49,’ I find myself standing alone in a barren landscape, encircled by desert winds. To my left is a serpent (instrument, not snake), behind me the low rumblings of cello and piano, to my right a wailing cor anglais. The tone is dirty, not desolate, rasping yet rich – then there’s Costello’s voice emerging from the sand.
The land was white, the wind a dagger / Life beats a poor man to his grave / Love makes a rich man from a beggar / Love is the one thing we can save.
I settle in, committed. I could do two more hours of this. But the mood set by the opening number of Elvis Costello’s latest offering, Hey Clockface, is quickly turned on its head by the second track.
It’s hard to grasp Costello’s intention with this album. A winding journey of genres fourteen songs deep and only slightly too long for vinyl, it hints at an approach catering to a modern audience that listens to single tracks embedded in Spotify playlists, rather than a cohesive body of work for the remaining purists among us to embrace with headphones in the dark. Yet there is so much to embrace.
Recorded in Helsinki, Paris and New York, the album dips in and out of rock, pop and jazz, with Middle Eastern and ragtime flavours, peppered with the occasional poetry and spoken word.