Independent (London) review of North

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 4:11 pm

see
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/musi ... ory=442462

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Album: Elvis Costello
North, Deutsche Grammophon
12 September 2003

Elvis Costello can be his own worst enemy - or at
least, that part of his personality that keeps pushing
him into fringe endeavours can be. Clearly unsatisfied
with being one of rock's leading singer-songwriters,
little over a year after the splendidly waspish When I
Was Cruel, he's off into the backwaters again for
North, an album of torch songs that plays as
resolutely to his weaknesses as previous incongruences
Deep Dead Blue and The Juliet Letters, his
collaborations with Bill Frisell and The Brodsky
Quartet respectively. The latter appear again here,
though the musical backbone of the album is supplied
by the drummer Peter Erskine, the bassist Mike
Formanek and the Attractions pianist Steve Nieve,
whose achingly poignant playing on tracks such as "You
Turned To Me" furnishes the set's best moments.
Alongside this core group are horns, vibes and a
platoon of strings, caressing Costello's brooding
laments and melancholy reflections, which would be
fine were they employed in the service of a better
singer. His habit of sharping notes, rather than
flatting them like blues singers, gives the impression
that he's straining beyond his range, a distraction
that spoils most performances, leaving the likes of
Lee Konitz to rescue a track such as "Someone Took The
Words Away" with a contemplative sax solo. And
Costello's writing here seems mannered and awkward: if
you're going to claim "all the words you say to me/
have music in them" as he does in "When It Sings",
it's perhaps best not to have the subsequent two lines
rhyme the harshly unmusical "prism" and "magnetism".

Pov · Post by **Pov** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 4:30 pm

But what does he REALLY think?

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 5:34 pm

That Costello isn't up to the job, by the look of it.

Mr. Misery · Post by **Mr. Misery** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 12:44 am

All the words you say to me
Have music in them
All the sorrows and the joys
Like magnetism
A selfish boy looks through a prism
And says what is but never asks what isn't.

Read these beautiful, artfully rhymed lines (music in them/magnetism/prism) and then re-read the Independent's review and you'll discover that it's not so hard to tell the difference between a poet and a hack.

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 6:40 am

This review is credited to Andy Gill in the `papers print edition.