I hope not Mug, you'd have to be pretty thick not to know about the new versatile Costello by now.
Just went over to narbawlz's...
-This, from Billboard May 30, 2003
http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/artic ... id=1898879
Elvis Costello Crafting 'Quite Different' Album
Elvis Costello tells Billboard.com his next studio album "will be something quite different." Of the as-yet-untitled album, due Sept. 23 from Deutsche Grammophon, the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee adds, "It's all original songs written at the piano. There are 11 songs and they are among the most direct I've ever written lyrically, and, musically, I hope they do something new."
Costello has also written all of the orchestrations for the material. "[It] ranges from a 35-piece ensemble to solo piano, so there's quite a range, but it's all of one piece. It kind of can be heard as a story -- there's a thread running through it."
In a further break from his usual methods, the artist only plays guitar on one track and is going in new directions in terms of his singing style. "I'm singing exclusively in my speaking register, everything in baritone range, with the exception of maybe four notes on the record that go above middle C," he reveals.
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-This info -- about the plans he had to record another album -- had also appeared at
http://www.astheygo.com/whatsnew.htm (it's still there, along with the above).
"Costello recently hinted that artists of his "age and profile" may need to record two albums a year, "the way the Who did in the Sixties, for a much more reasonable amount of money, but only expect to sell as much as jazz artists." This would certainly be a welcome development for fans, many of whom long for the days when the gaps between albums were a matter of months, not years.
Originally, EC had planned to make two albums in 2003 -- the other was to be recorded during a US tour of Southern states, where he and the Imposters would play the new songs in small theaters and record them in local studios to capture some of the local flavour. This project is still a priority for Costello, but he will most likely wait until next year rather than flood the market with albums and reissues. "
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-Also, Lewis Nash, drummer, worked on one track for EC's new album. And he won't say anything else about it. (still the "uptown album"? By all indications, I would assume). Lewis Nash site:
http://www.lewisnash.com/music/