Entertainment Weekly review of North

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 3:21 pm

see
http://www.ew.com/ew/
(subscription required - this text was posted on Costello-l-listserv)
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Doing the math on Elvis Costello yields some remarkable figures: More
than a quarter century and hundreds of compositions into his catalog,
you can count the sweet, unbarbed, unremittingly positive love songs
he's written on one hand and still have a digit left to "wish [someone]
luck with a capital F" (to quote this month's Punch the Clock reissue).

Now comes North, a piano-based ballad cycle that instantly doubles the
truly romantic original songs in his canon with an elated second half
all about the initial flush of love; the dour first half more
characteristically mourns a prior relationship's breakdown. (We can
assume, despite his coyness in confessing, that this narrative mirrors
his marital breakup and subsequent engagement to Diana Krall.) With
Costello somewhat in let's-be-Frank mode, it's as if Capitol reissued
the despairing Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely and ebullient Songs
for
Swingin' Lovers! on one disc.

Falling in love has some side effects-like reducing Costello's
vocabulary to a once unthinkable minimalism, with no irony, punmanship,
or even Lorenz Hartian wit in sight. Two tracks even take
speechlessness
as their topic: "Someone Took the Words Away" describes a repartee
deficit in the waning days of (let's say) a marriage, while "Let Me
Tell
You About Her" explores conflicting urges to keep a new lover's
confidence or kiss 'n' tell; both end with Costello shutting up and
handing the ball to a jazz soloist (Lee Konitz on sax and Lew Soloff on
flugelhorn, respectively). Exquisitely arranged orchestra and brass
make
unobtrusive interjections, rarely rising to overwhelm Steve Nieve's
subdued piano figures or Costello's hushed confidences.

North is, in its latter stretches, a love letter, but not just to a
certain jazz thrush. It also feels like a mash note to autumnal
Manhattan, most explicitly in "I'm in the Mood Again," in which
Costello, buzzed on love, spends the wee small hours walking off his
high, watching papers being delivered on the empty city streets. A New
York stricken by the September blues couldn't ask for a nicer get-well
present.

A
-Chris Willman

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 4:03 pm

So, we seem to have a bit of a cross-the-pond divide theme going here, with American critics mostly championing EC, and his old homies mostly dissing him. We'll see if this continues.

And thanks to Jfoyle and everyone who's been posting these. Saves me a lot of time!

Jackson Monk · Post by **Jackson Monk** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 5:09 pm

Hooray for US critics
Boo to the UK tosspots

I write this with no irony at all. The UK of the 21st century: Closed and narrow minds reign supreme with little interest in anything except the drudgery of doc soaps and TV Talent(less) competitions.

God, I feel like emigrating from this godforesaken place.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 5:33 pm

See, that's why I used to subscribe to EW (I stopped cause I was reading it cover to cover every week; fun, but still junk food in writer's reading diet)-- their writers are smart and well spoken. I don't agree with all their folks, but the reviews overall are great, and they cover more stuff than the major papers.

I have a feeling NORTH will do well on both sides of the Atlantic, even commercially.