see
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,7944,00.html
( use the search function to get the boxed of
review section)
Sept.12 `03
ELVIS COSTELLO
North (Deutsche Grammophon)
(1/5 stars)
WITH typically breathtaking audacity, Elvis Costello
has recast himself in the role of a jazz supper-club
singer on North. Rather than do a Robbie and cover Rat
Pack standards, he has written his own collection of
ersatz piano ballads and orchestral torch songs. They
are a pretentious, ponderous homage to a bygone era,
rendered in deadly earnest. It rings sadly hollow.
David Sinclair