New song “Hey Clockface / How Can You Face Me’, sept 11, 2020

[sweetest punch]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0_izikJ9N7U

[jardine]

ooooooooooooooo....interesting moment just before listening. i do love this old pleasure....!

HAH comes up as "not available." oooooooooooooo

"I Want You"!!!! [maybe i like that song more than i thought!]

[Lester Burnham]

Seems like this link works: https://youtu.be/-6z2eR05lMk

[jardine]

thanks for this...okay, here we go!!!

what a shambly mess. his voice seems to have the same sort of slight flatness i've heard in some concert footage...flat in both senses, too, unsharp-edged and tone-wise???

[Hawksmoor]

thanks for this...okay, here we go!!!

what a shambly mess. his voice seems to have the same sort of slight flatness i've heard in some concert footage...flat in both senses, too, unsharp-edged and tone-wise???

Suspect our hero is facing the same dilemma as many of his near-contemporaries (Dylan, Weller, McCartney): voice is shot to hell, but still got many brilliant songs to offer. What do you do? I honestly don't know.

[sweetest punch]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... e-1056725/

Elvis Costello Premieres Jaunty, Jazzy New Track from ‘Hey Clockface’
Cut in Paris this past February, pre-global pandemic, the song finds Costello backed by a small jazz ensemble dubbed Le Quintette Saint Germain

After more than four decades, few artists switch musical gears as quickly and ebulliently as Elvis Costello; to this day, you never quite know what you’re getting when he announces a new project.

Two years ago, Costello resumed work with the Imposters — which included two former members of the Attractions — on the album Look Now. On his upcoming Hey Clockface, he again changes direction — but this time within the course of the same album.

The initial tracks released from Hey Clockface — the pent-up “No Flag,” the bump-in-the-night character study “Hetty O’Hara Confidential” and the pop-noir “We Are All Cowards Now” — were recorded in Helsinki. But now comes the erstwhile title track, “Hey Clockface/How Can You Face Me,” which sounds nothing like its predecessors.

Cut in Paris this past February, pre-global pandemic, the song finds Costello backed by a small jazz ensemble dubbed Le Quintette Saint Germain. Steve Nieve from the Attractions and the Imposters returns to the fold, this time joined by trumpeter Michaël Gasche, clarinetist Renaud-Gabriel Pion, cellist Pierre-François “Titi” Dufour and one-named, all-capitals drummer AJUQ. (In a better world, every band would have a one-named, all-capital drummer named AJUQ.)

Whether it was the setting, the musicians or the croissants, Costello sounds comparatively light-hearted and frisky here. As if he were sitting in with a small jazz ensemble in a cramped, smokey club in Paris, he slips into one of his character roles — a man recovering from a gone-missing lover — and vents at a timepiece on his wall: “You said you‘d be a friend to me/But time is just my enemy/And it is hurting me so.” As he says, it’s a song “about picking an argument with time, the very clock face, either running too fast or too slow, depending on the company you keep,” and the musicians’ jaunty accompaniment seems to both perk up and mock the sad-sack narrator.

Toward the end, the track also quotes from the Thirties romper “How Can You Face Me?” by the singer, pianist and songwriter Fats Waller; both songs feature a similar arrangement. Enjoy it while you can (Hey Clockface arrives October 30th); Costello will no doubt be on to another radically different adventure the next time around — or maybe even the next track unveiled from the album.

[jardine]

thanks for this...okay, here we go!!!

what a shambly mess. his voice seems to have the same sort of slight flatness i've heard in some concert footage...flat in both senses, too, unsharp-edged and tone-wise???

Suspect our hero is facing the same dilemma as many of his near-contemporaries (Dylan, Weller, McCartney): voice is shot to hell, but still got many brilliant songs to offer. What do you do? I honestly don't know.

Sinatra covers? But really, look now didn't suffer from this...did i? But perhaps there were not songs on that that pushed his voice to a place it has trouble going. I don't hear voice problems with the other songs we've heard off clock. And looknow surely attests to the fact that something about his voice is just fine, almost as good as ever..may just be that the nimbleness needed in this song is a bit too much? But again, too, this reminds me of the discussions re: singing flat in concert because of an earpiec, or something like that. i don't want to push this too far, but how could you listen to this song in playback and not hear this???

and i say all this with deep affection

[Top balcony]

Funny how that 'scat' intro offsides me too. The vocal delivery, to these cloth ears at least, is most deliberately mannered to resemble a Jimmy-Standing-in-the-Rain era crooner. He definitely means it. I hope this one grows on me, all the other new songs (and story ) were instant hits!

[Miclewis]

It has already grown on me upon a second listen. I do like it. But is does suffer from a similar problem with "A Voice in the Dark"; where Elvis seems to bend the melody to suit the words a little too much. Plus I end wanting him to shut up for a second and allow a nice muted trumpet or clarinet solo.

[sweetest punch]

https://www.elviscostello.com/#!/news/299349



SEPTEMBER 11TH SEES THE RELEASE OF “HEY CLOCKFACE/HOW CAN YOU FACE ME?”, THE FOURTH ADVANCE TRACK FROM AN ALBUM OF THE SAME NAME.

September 11th sees the release of ‘Hey Clockface/How Can You Face Me?’, the fourth advance track from the “Hey Clockface” album, which will be released by Concord Records on October 30th. The song will be available via the miracle of digital download and streaming.

While that initial trio of bulletins from the Finnish capital were recorded over three days in February 2020, “Hey Clockface” is the first song to be released from the sessions that took place in Paris on the following weekend.

The ensemble dubbed “Le Quintette Saint Germain” is led by Steve Nieve at the piano with Mickaël Gasche on trumpet, Renaud-Gabriel Pion on clarinet and contrabass clarinet, Pierre-François “Titi” Dufour on cello and AJUQ on drums.

“This is a song about picking an argument with time, the very clock face, either running too fast or too slow, depending on the company you keep”.

The madcap mood of the song is caught in a new moving picture clip by the production team of Eamon Singer and Arlo McFurlow.

The record opens with a trumpet and vocal duet, quoting the theme of the Fats Waller/Andy Razaf song, “How Can You Face Me?”, which dates back to the mid-1930s. 

Costello tells us, “None of our arrangements for this session were written down in advance. I sang the theme of “How Can You Face Me?” to Mickaël and we kicked off this take right away, quoting a few lines of the song in the tag”.

Whether taken at tempo or in ballad form, the two-day session in Paris provided nine of the songs which will be heard on the upcoming “Hey Clockface” album.

“I sang live on the studio floor with the ensemble playing everything I wanted to hear and nothing that I didn’t”, said Costello.

“Hey Clockface” offers an exuberant contrast to the dark tone of “The Helsinki Sound” releases but Costello cautions that we should expect many more surprises ahead, adding, “Watch this space”…


Lyric video: https://youtu.be/i_ERPpbvAW8

[Ulster Boy]

thanks for this...okay, here we go!!!

what a shambly mess. his voice seems to have the same sort of slight flatness i've heard in some concert footage...flat in both senses, too, unsharp-edged and tone-wise???

Suspect our hero is facing the same dilemma as many of his near-contemporaries (Dylan, Weller, McCartney): voice is shot to hell, but still got many brilliant songs to offer. What do you do? I honestly don't know.

Sinatra covers? But really, look now didn't suffer from this...did i? But perhaps there were not songs on that that pushed his voice to a place it has trouble going. I don't hear voice problems with the other songs we've heard off clock. And looknow surely attests to the fact that something about his voice is just fine, almost as good as ever..may just be that the nimbleness needed in this song is a bit too much? But again, too, this reminds me of the discussions re: singing flat in concert because of an earpiec, or something like that. i don't want to push this too far, but how could you listen to this song in playback and not hear this???

and i say all this with deep affection

Sinatra had ‘unusual’ intonation, too lol. I think the difference in this latest release and Look Now is that the former is sung live in the studio with the band and the latter album sessions gave him time and space to produce more considered vocals. I’m not sure but I think he said at the time that the vocals on Look Now were dubbed on after the tracks were laid down? I think The man just struggles to keep pitch when singing live with a band, it’s been apparent for years in concert. Some listeners will be ok with it, for me it’s a it issue, sadly.

[sheeptotheslaughter]

A decent song on first listen, very Jimmie's, Voice in the dark and Sulphur to sugarcane.

The voice isn't great but we have to remember like all of us old father time is catching up with the great man. What is he 66 now? I think the way EC sings has always taken it out of his voice.

Someone mention Dylan and Weller earlier. neither of them ever had great singing voices. And I love Weller

Just great to have a new Elvis record in the pipeline

[Neil.]

Agreed Elvis's voice is showing signs of age now, but there's nothing anyone can do about that - it happens to everyone (apart from Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey - not saying that cos they come from The Land of Song, it just seems that their voices refuse to lose their power).

I think this song is entirely in keeping with his older, less easy-to control voice.

Even when he was younger, it was an unruly instrument - we all remember "But it's his story you'll flatter" from Deep Dark Truthful Mirror. Elvis clearly doesn't mind - he kept that in the take!

BTW I quite like this good-natured shambling along song! It could eventually segue into the song from the Babycham advert: https://youtu.be/MrU1CydUMlI

[Neil.]

P.S. To add to the list of singers who seem to have titanium vocal chords, I would add Mick Jagger!

[sheeptotheslaughter]

P.S. To add to the list of singers who seem to have titanium vocal chords, I would add Mick Jagger!

You may laugh but Maura and I have seen Leo Sayer a couple of times in recent years, including May 2019. His voice is incredable for a man of 71. You could see why he was a big star on the 70's and early 80's

[sulky lad]

Agreed Elvis's voice is showing signs of age now, but there's nothing anyone can do about that - it happens to everyone (apart from Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey - not saying that cos they come from The Land of Song, it just seems that their voices refuse to lose their power).

I think this song is entirely in keeping with his older, less easy-to control voice.

Even when he was younger, it was an unruly instrument - we all remember "But it's his story you'll flatter" from Deep Dark Truthful Mirror. Elvis clearly doesn't mind - he kept that in the take!

BTW I quite like this good-natured shambling along song! It could eventually segue into the song from the Babycham advert: https://youtu.be/MrU1CydUMlI

Does this mean your voice will go on and on, Neil ?

[chickendinna]

Definitely agree about Mick Jagger, he still sounds pretty good to these ears. Van Morrison too. I haven't heard any vocal decline and he releases a new album what seems like every 6 months. He's about due for a new album. Sadly, the same can't be said for Sir Paul and his Bobness. But, I'm stating the obvious there. That, said both of their latest releases, Egypt Station and Rough and Rowdy ways shows that at least in the studio, they can still bring it.

[jardine]

myt sinatra crack was meant to allude to dylan's sojourn and how his voice is, well, "better" on R&RW compared to tempest...interesting that a live in the studio vocal would suffer the same thing as on-stage live and overdubbed vocals don't. i'm still bemused that he would let it stand as is, actually. will keep listening, but so far, it is slightly painful. one reason i haven't been collecting vids of live performances...

[rightbrain]

Sounds like I'm in the minority here. This is my favorite song off the new album (so far). I liked it when EC debuted it on Steve's Facebook Immobile Tour earlier this Summer and really love the arrangement. Now, in full transparency, I also greatly enjoyed Elvis singing "Let's Misbehave" from the De-Lovely OST, and "It Had To Be You" and "I Surrender Dear" from the OST of Boardwalk Empire.

With regard to the state of EC's 66-year-old voice, I think he could have delivered a "better take" (technically) on this track if he wanted to. I think he "allowed" this particular take to be the final because it best suits the "madcap mood" he was after. Much like Randy Newman becoming the character in the song, I think the creaks and croaks perfectly suit the sad-sack character talking to the clock on the wall at 4:40am. The character in this song is heartbroken, he's up way too late, he's lamenting, he's most likely besotted. This vocal performance is exactly what I would expect him to "sound" like as the sun is about to rise after a long night. ("I'm up while the dawn is breaking/even though my heart is aching), as it were.

Remember, EC is the producer who had Glenn Tilbrook furiously smoke cigarettes to get some kind of ragged-edge on his angelic pure voice for the East Side Story recording sessions.

Personally, I'm truly looking forward to hearing the other 8 songs from this particular "Paris Session" with "Le Quintette Saint Germain." I prefer it to the "Helsinki Sound."

But what do I know? I love The Juliet Letters, Painted From Memory, and North . . . and still say "Next Time 'Round" is the best track on Blood & Chocolate!

Your mileage may vary.

[bronxapostle]

A decent song on first listen, very Jimmie's, Voice in the dark and Sulphur to sugarcane.

The voice isn't great but we have to remember like all of us old father time is catching up with the great man. What is he 66 now? I think the way EC sings has always taken it out of his voice.

Someone mention Dylan and Weller earlier. neither of them ever had great singing voices. And I love Weller

Just great to have a new Elvis record in the pipeline

TIME OUT!!! i gotta disagree....a little bit anyway. to me, i have NEVER seen WELLER hit a bad note, a scratchy throated nor an out of pitch one either. YES, NOT an opera singer, BUT man, that boy could sing!! and he is in the top 5 or 10 people who have sung to me LIVE lots of times!!! at the risk of expulsion from the group , i wish EC has had as little difficulty the last few years as PW. AND, as an ex smoker, i hate to say this....BECAUSE I TRULY WISH HE WOULD QUIT, but many a singing smoker, Frank? Sammy? Dean? would often say that they would NEVER stop smoking for fear of change in their voice. Horrible, but real logic.

[fred darden]

idon't know, dylan quit smoking just before lay lady lay. always thought that was a different singer.

[sulky lad]

Sounds like I'm in the minority here. This is my favorite song off the new album (so far). I liked it when EC debuted it on Steve's Facebook Immobile Tour earlier this Summer and really love the arrangement. Now, in full transparency, I also greatly enjoyed Elvis singing "Let's Misbehave" from the De-Lovely OST, and "It Had To Be You" and "I Surrender Dear" from the OST of Boardwalk Empire.

With regard to the state of EC's 66-year-old voice, I think he could have delivered a "better take" (technically) on this track if he wanted to. I think he "allowed" this particular take to be the final because it best suits the "madcap mood" he was after. Much like Randy Newman becoming the character in the song, I think the creaks and croaks perfectly suit the sad-sack character talking to the clock on the wall at 4:40am. The character in this song is heartbroken, he's up way too late, he's lamenting, he's most likely besotted. This vocal performance is exactly what I would expect him to "sound" like as the sun is about to rise after a long night. ("I'm up while the dawn is breaking/even though my heart is aching), as it were.

Remember, EC is the producer who had Glenn Tilbrook furiously smoke cigarettes to get some kind of ragged-edge on his angelic pure voice for the East Side Story recording sessions.

Personally, I'm truly looking forward to hearing the other 8 songs from this particular "Paris Session" with "Le Quintette Saint Germain." I prefer it to the "Helsinki Sound."

But what do I know? I love The Juliet Letters, Painted From Memory, and North . . . and still say "Next Time 'Round" is the best track on Blood & Chocolate!

Your mileage may vary.

Total agreement here from me too !

[Hawksmoor]

With regard to the state of EC's 66-year-old voice, I think he could have delivered a "better take" (technically) on this track if he wanted to. I think he "allowed" this particular take to be the final because it best suits the "madcap mood" he was after.

Agree, and also the fact that he was recording nine songs in two days (or whatever it was), partly to try and capture some kind of 'live in the studio' feel. The aborted Abbey Road sessions were allegedly also to have been short (in terms of days) in an effort to capture the vibe of the touring line-up 'while our blood was up'. I think the Helsinki session was also only a couple of days? So yes, it does seem that for the whole LP, he'd been trying for a bang-them-out/what the hell/don't-overthink-it vibe. And in that mood, it fits that you wouldn't spend days re-recording one vocal part.

And regarding the quality of the vocal... Somebody once wrote (honestly can't remember who, it might have been Christopher Hitchens) something along the lines of (I'm paraphrasing from memory)...'of course Dylan can't sing, technically. But, technically, Brando can't act. Nevertheless, whenever you watch Brando onscreen, something rather wonderful is happening - you can call it 'acting' or you can call it something else, but it's still great. And the same is true of Dylan's 'singing'.

And for me, the same is true of Elvis' 'singing'!

In fact, the thing of trying to get a 'raw/live' feel for the vocal (and thereby ignoring mistakes) goes back as far as 'I Want You'. It's pretty obvious that, near the end, the line which should be 'I know I'm going to feel this way until you kill it' comes out as 'I'm going, going to feel this way until you kill it'. But he left that mistake in, for the sake of the overall performance - and quite right too!

[jardine]

this is one reason i really like this forum. it is slowly growing on me... and that by itself is weird. because it is growing, i can't quite hear the flatness to the same degree!!

[verbal gymnastics]

As far as his vocal take is concerned in this case it’s more about the emotion than technical wizardry to make the vocal “better”.

Who can forget the emotion on The Puppet Has Cut Its Strings?