By Larry Katz
Monday, June 1, 2009
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainme ... 5&srvc=rss
After a return to rocking on his last couple of albums, the ever-restless Costello turns to acoustic string band music, no drums at all. Working with past collaborator T-Bone Burnett as producer and a band of country’s finest (including Jerry Douglas on dobro, Stuart Duncan on banjo and fiddles, Jim Lauderdale on harmony vocals), Costello sounds right at home in Nashville - singing 12 originals (among them one co-written with Loretta Lynn, one written for her, and a pair intended for Johnny Cash) and a Bing Crosby cover. Even in this down-home setting, his arty side emerges with four songs from his unfinished opera about Hans Christian Andersen. But only haters will resist the humor of “Sulphur to Sugarcane” (which contains a shout-out to Worcester!) and a remake of his own “Complicated Shadows.” Download: “My All Time Doll.”
Grade : B+
REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
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invisible Pole
- Posts: 2228
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Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
If you don't know what is wrong with me
Then you don't know what you've missed
Then you don't know what you've missed
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invisible Pole
- Posts: 2228
- Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2004 2:20 pm
- Location: Poland
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Costello goes country again
By Jane Stevenson -- Sun Media
New Wave pioneer Elvis Costello famously dipped his toe in country music with his 1981 release Almost Blue, an album of covers by the likes of Hank Williams and George Jones.
At the time, the switch in musical genres by Costello was considered so shocking that the first pressing of the record bore a sticker in the UK: "WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause offence to narrow-minded listeners."
But after adopting various musical identities over the past 28 years, there's no need for any warning on Costello's latest album, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, in stores tomorrow.
The 12-track collection sees the 54-year-old Englishman backed by some of bluegrass and country music's finest musicians -- Jerry Douglas (dobro), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Mike Compton (mandolin), Jeff Taylor (accordion) and Dennis Crouch (double bass) -- on 10 previously unreleased songs, including his second songwriting effort with Loretta Lynn, I Felt The Chill. Two more tunes, Complicated Shadows, from Costello's All This Useless Beauty, and Hidden Shame, recorded by Johnny Cash for his 1990 album, Boom Chicka Boom, were given string band reworkings.
Producing is previous Costello collaborator T-Bone Burnett (King Of America, Spike), who also co-wrote two new tunes.
"We'd written a couple of songs in recent times and I said, 'I really think this sort of style of song, I'd really like to do an acoustic guitar record, maybe even a solo acoustic guitar record," said Costello, down the line from the New York City apartment he shares with Canadian wife and jazz-pop singer-pianist Diana Krall and their twin boys, Frank and Dexter, aged 2 1/2.
"And then the more I talked about it, the more it seemed I wanted to have this other instrumental voices and (Burnett's) very good at casting and we just booked three days in Sound Emporium in Nashville and did it."
Costello also pulled four other songs out of his back pocket he had written for an unfinished Hans Christian Andersen opera, The Secret Songs, and gave them the twang treatment too.
"It didn't seem too wrong to me that the sounds of this (Nashville) ensemble were the sounds that supported these songs," said Costello. "In fact, the more we played, the more they sounded like that's the absolutely ideal sound, the mandolins and the fiddles and the dobros. And the grace with which the ensemble played these relatively more intricate songs gave the record another dimension."
Meanwhile, Costello's time spent with Lynn dates back to when they wrote another tune, Pardon Me Madam, My Name is Eve, which was included on his 2008 disc, Momofuku.
The two were introduced by Cash's son, John Carter Cash, who has been one of Lynn's producers on a yet to be released new album. Lynn has also recorded Costello's Down Among the Wine and Spirits, although its fate remains up in the air.
"She's a wonderful, wonderful person to work with. She's really funny. I think the fact that we didn't write 12 songs is because we were laughing all the time," said Costello. "When I first went to Nashville, the very first song I recorded -- before we did even Almost Blue in '81, or when I went for a tryout session, I think it might have still been '79 -- was She's Got You, which although it's really a Patsy Cline song, I'd learned it from the Loretta Lynn record, I Remember Patsy. To work with her, of course, was an absolute gas. I'd do it in a heartbeat. So there is a sort of continuity with that first trip to Nashville, but not in the way that way people imagine. It's not sort of returning to something, it's more that which I took out of those experiences."
Canadian tour dates scheduled so far include stops in Winnipeg (with The Imposters) at the Folk Festival July 8; Vancouver (with The Sugarcanes) Aug. 24; and Toronto (with the Sugarcanes) Aug. 28.
Costello road-tested some of the new material in 2007 on a six-week late fall road trip with The Bob Dylan Show, including the song, Sulpher To Sugarcane, which includes the incredible line, "The women in Poughkeepsie, take their clothes off when they're tipsy, but in Albany, New York, they love the filthy way I talk."
"It's amazing that amount of applause you can get for suggesting the ladies of these towns you are visiting are of loose morales," said Costello. "The weird thing is that it's the girls who are cheering."
By Jane Stevenson -- Sun Media
New Wave pioneer Elvis Costello famously dipped his toe in country music with his 1981 release Almost Blue, an album of covers by the likes of Hank Williams and George Jones.
At the time, the switch in musical genres by Costello was considered so shocking that the first pressing of the record bore a sticker in the UK: "WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause offence to narrow-minded listeners."
But after adopting various musical identities over the past 28 years, there's no need for any warning on Costello's latest album, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, in stores tomorrow.
The 12-track collection sees the 54-year-old Englishman backed by some of bluegrass and country music's finest musicians -- Jerry Douglas (dobro), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Mike Compton (mandolin), Jeff Taylor (accordion) and Dennis Crouch (double bass) -- on 10 previously unreleased songs, including his second songwriting effort with Loretta Lynn, I Felt The Chill. Two more tunes, Complicated Shadows, from Costello's All This Useless Beauty, and Hidden Shame, recorded by Johnny Cash for his 1990 album, Boom Chicka Boom, were given string band reworkings.
Producing is previous Costello collaborator T-Bone Burnett (King Of America, Spike), who also co-wrote two new tunes.
"We'd written a couple of songs in recent times and I said, 'I really think this sort of style of song, I'd really like to do an acoustic guitar record, maybe even a solo acoustic guitar record," said Costello, down the line from the New York City apartment he shares with Canadian wife and jazz-pop singer-pianist Diana Krall and their twin boys, Frank and Dexter, aged 2 1/2.
"And then the more I talked about it, the more it seemed I wanted to have this other instrumental voices and (Burnett's) very good at casting and we just booked three days in Sound Emporium in Nashville and did it."
Costello also pulled four other songs out of his back pocket he had written for an unfinished Hans Christian Andersen opera, The Secret Songs, and gave them the twang treatment too.
"It didn't seem too wrong to me that the sounds of this (Nashville) ensemble were the sounds that supported these songs," said Costello. "In fact, the more we played, the more they sounded like that's the absolutely ideal sound, the mandolins and the fiddles and the dobros. And the grace with which the ensemble played these relatively more intricate songs gave the record another dimension."
Meanwhile, Costello's time spent with Lynn dates back to when they wrote another tune, Pardon Me Madam, My Name is Eve, which was included on his 2008 disc, Momofuku.
The two were introduced by Cash's son, John Carter Cash, who has been one of Lynn's producers on a yet to be released new album. Lynn has also recorded Costello's Down Among the Wine and Spirits, although its fate remains up in the air.
"She's a wonderful, wonderful person to work with. She's really funny. I think the fact that we didn't write 12 songs is because we were laughing all the time," said Costello. "When I first went to Nashville, the very first song I recorded -- before we did even Almost Blue in '81, or when I went for a tryout session, I think it might have still been '79 -- was She's Got You, which although it's really a Patsy Cline song, I'd learned it from the Loretta Lynn record, I Remember Patsy. To work with her, of course, was an absolute gas. I'd do it in a heartbeat. So there is a sort of continuity with that first trip to Nashville, but not in the way that way people imagine. It's not sort of returning to something, it's more that which I took out of those experiences."
Canadian tour dates scheduled so far include stops in Winnipeg (with The Imposters) at the Folk Festival July 8; Vancouver (with The Sugarcanes) Aug. 24; and Toronto (with the Sugarcanes) Aug. 28.
Costello road-tested some of the new material in 2007 on a six-week late fall road trip with The Bob Dylan Show, including the song, Sulpher To Sugarcane, which includes the incredible line, "The women in Poughkeepsie, take their clothes off when they're tipsy, but in Albany, New York, they love the filthy way I talk."
"It's amazing that amount of applause you can get for suggesting the ladies of these towns you are visiting are of loose morales," said Costello. "The weird thing is that it's the girls who are cheering."
If you don't know what is wrong with me
Then you don't know what you've missed
Then you don't know what you've missed
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
http://www.expressnightout.com/content/ ... stello.php
The Washington Post
June 1, 2009
No Fairy Tale: Elvis Costello, 'Secret, Profane & Sugarcane'
Meg Zamula
I HOPE ELVIS COSTELLO is keeping himself entertained. He apparently long ago grew weary of the smart, sharp pop-rock which initially made his reputation, and has since been experimenting with any number of genres and collaborators. While this commitment to musical diversity dates back to 1980's R&B-influenced "Get Happy!!" Costello has become notably more eclectic in the past two decades, dabbling in classical, jazz, opera country and television talk shows.
On his latest album, "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane," Costello opts for country and bluegrass arrangements. Had he set out to write a collection of songs with this sound in mind, the album might have been more successful.
As it is, it is musically cohesive: The album was recorded in a three-day session with producer T-Bone Burnett, and each track boasts the same dobro/fiddle/banjo/mandolin/bass/accordion lineup, performed by a number of well regarded country and bluegrass musicians. The song selection, however, is a bit less uniform. The disc offers up a random collection of compositions originally intended for other projects and releases. Sometimes this works: The outtakes from his New Orleans sessions with Allen Toussaint translate to this genre reasonably well.
However, the album takes a turn for the bizarre with the inclusion of four songs written for the Danish Royal Opera. These tracks very specifically detail fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen's fixation on 19th century opera star Jenny Lind, and her tour of the U.S. with circus magnate P.T. Barnum. It's an interesting story, but not one that has much to do with Appalachian music. "She Handed Me a Mirror" describes Lind's non-verbal rejection of the apparently ogre-like Andersen, and is comparatively accessible, since unattainable, unreciprocated love is an immortal theme.
"Red Cotton," on the other hand, Costello explains as documenting Barnum "reading an Abolitionist pamphlet while sewing red-dyed scraps of Lind's garment, even as he confronts the burden of guilt attached to its very threads." Without that context, available on Costello's Web site, lyrics like "The slave ship 'Blessing' slipped from Liverpool / Over the waves the Royal Navy rules / To go and plunder the Kingdom of Benin" are incomprehensible.
"Sulphur to Sugarcane" has a narrative conceit as well, but not one that requires extensive knowledge of major Scandinavian artistic notables of the 1850s. Costello's humor, in scant evidence elsewhere on "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane" is well-represented here with a series of geographical couplets describing the sexual predilections of the female population of various cities. Apparently "The women in Poughkeepsie / Take their clothes off when they're tipsy." I won't even disclose what the ladies in Ypsilanti like to do.
"Secret, Profane, & Sugarcane" isn't a terrible album, just an unnecessary, rather boring one. Costello had the right idea when he excised these songs from previous efforts. In fact, the best song here, "Complicated Shadows," already did come out on 1996's "All This Useless Beauty," in a more compelling rock form. There are a few other bright spots, notably a vocal contribution from Emmylou Harris on "The Crooked Line" and the relatively upbeat twang of "Hidden Shame," but for the most part "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane" sounds like what it is: an odds and sods collection which tries to disguise its randomness with a rather monotonous commitment to traditional acoustic arrangements.
http://www.livedaily.com/news/19240.html
Live Daily, Detroit.
Phil Gallo
June 1, 2009
Rock's most aggressive genre hopper lands in the cozy and calming world of acoustic folk and country instrumentation, with producer T Bone Burnett demonstrating there's more to mine in this vein than Robert and Alison Krauss tapped on "Raising Sand."
By teaming Costello with a band dominated by fiddles, banjos, upright bass and rhythm guitar, Burnett removes the luster of a bygone era being resuscitated; this is Costello alternating between front-porch crooner, dispatched lover and angry punk with a limited musical vocabulary who can't bring himself to shed the instruments of his parents.
The performances on "Secret, Profane and Sugarcane" are top notch and, ultimately, the dominating appeal of the album. The tight fiddle and banjo work from Krauss' bandmate Stuart Duncan and the weepy dobro of Jerry Douglas get the prominent slots in the mix, but it's Dennis Crouch's steady bass that keeps these tunes in line, propping up the ballads and steering the more upbeat numbers.
While Costello has certainly explored country and folk-rock previously--most prominently on "Almost Blue" in 1981 and 1986's "King of America"--"Secret" hangs as an album without a similar commitment to a specific style or mission. His two partnerships of the last 11 years--"Painted From Memory" with Burt Bacharach and "The River in Reverse" with Allen Toussaint--were total stylistic immersions for Costello. "Secret" has about a half-dozen songs built with an appropriate infrastructure: "I Felt the Chill," a waltz written with Loretta Lynn, is a genre gem and "I Dreamed of My Old Lover" is a perfect marriage of rock balladry and a romantic longing expressed in the lyric that is echoed in the stirring accompaniment.
But Costello has too many instances of shoe-horning here that get mixed results, especially the four tunes from his opera "The Secret Songs": "Hidden Shame" works wonderfully as bluegrass romp; the ambitious "How Deep is the Red" and "She Was No Good" just sound ill-suited for these arrangements.
"Changing Partners," a waltz composed by Lawrence Coleman and Joseph Daron and popularized Bing Crosby, closes the album on a note of serenity, a reminder that popular music once had no genre boundaries, that a good song was simply that: a good song. Costello is one of the few artists living by those bygone rules, excelling when he limits the number of thumbprints--or even just the scope of a particular number--on any given project.
http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/music/ ... _page_id=9
Evening Standard, London
CLAIRE ALLFREE
June 1, 2009
Trying to stick a genre on Elvis Costello is a bit like herding cats.
Still, Secret, Profane And Sugarcane, on which the restless malcontent of British pop hooks up with old mucker T-Bone Burnett, is perhaps most neatly filed alongside Costello's 1981 album of country covers Almost Blue: it was recorded acoustically in Nashville with a stellar country line-up and features ten previously unrecorded songs plus two originally written for Johnny Cash (although Costello also sneaks in a few conceived for his unfinished opera on Hans Christian Andersen).
Costello effortlessly takes command of Burnett's spit-and-sawdust arrangements (accordion, dobro, double bass, mandolin) and moves between hoedown soul (The Crooked Line), red-raw regret (She Was No Good) and backporch melancholy (I Felt The Chill). Not quite vintage Costello, but enough moments (She Handed Me A Mirror) to confirm him as a rare talent still.
The Washington Post
June 1, 2009
No Fairy Tale: Elvis Costello, 'Secret, Profane & Sugarcane'
Meg Zamula
I HOPE ELVIS COSTELLO is keeping himself entertained. He apparently long ago grew weary of the smart, sharp pop-rock which initially made his reputation, and has since been experimenting with any number of genres and collaborators. While this commitment to musical diversity dates back to 1980's R&B-influenced "Get Happy!!" Costello has become notably more eclectic in the past two decades, dabbling in classical, jazz, opera country and television talk shows.
On his latest album, "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane," Costello opts for country and bluegrass arrangements. Had he set out to write a collection of songs with this sound in mind, the album might have been more successful.
As it is, it is musically cohesive: The album was recorded in a three-day session with producer T-Bone Burnett, and each track boasts the same dobro/fiddle/banjo/mandolin/bass/accordion lineup, performed by a number of well regarded country and bluegrass musicians. The song selection, however, is a bit less uniform. The disc offers up a random collection of compositions originally intended for other projects and releases. Sometimes this works: The outtakes from his New Orleans sessions with Allen Toussaint translate to this genre reasonably well.
However, the album takes a turn for the bizarre with the inclusion of four songs written for the Danish Royal Opera. These tracks very specifically detail fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen's fixation on 19th century opera star Jenny Lind, and her tour of the U.S. with circus magnate P.T. Barnum. It's an interesting story, but not one that has much to do with Appalachian music. "She Handed Me a Mirror" describes Lind's non-verbal rejection of the apparently ogre-like Andersen, and is comparatively accessible, since unattainable, unreciprocated love is an immortal theme.
"Red Cotton," on the other hand, Costello explains as documenting Barnum "reading an Abolitionist pamphlet while sewing red-dyed scraps of Lind's garment, even as he confronts the burden of guilt attached to its very threads." Without that context, available on Costello's Web site, lyrics like "The slave ship 'Blessing' slipped from Liverpool / Over the waves the Royal Navy rules / To go and plunder the Kingdom of Benin" are incomprehensible.
"Sulphur to Sugarcane" has a narrative conceit as well, but not one that requires extensive knowledge of major Scandinavian artistic notables of the 1850s. Costello's humor, in scant evidence elsewhere on "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane" is well-represented here with a series of geographical couplets describing the sexual predilections of the female population of various cities. Apparently "The women in Poughkeepsie / Take their clothes off when they're tipsy." I won't even disclose what the ladies in Ypsilanti like to do.
"Secret, Profane, & Sugarcane" isn't a terrible album, just an unnecessary, rather boring one. Costello had the right idea when he excised these songs from previous efforts. In fact, the best song here, "Complicated Shadows," already did come out on 1996's "All This Useless Beauty," in a more compelling rock form. There are a few other bright spots, notably a vocal contribution from Emmylou Harris on "The Crooked Line" and the relatively upbeat twang of "Hidden Shame," but for the most part "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane" sounds like what it is: an odds and sods collection which tries to disguise its randomness with a rather monotonous commitment to traditional acoustic arrangements.
http://www.livedaily.com/news/19240.html
Live Daily, Detroit.
Phil Gallo
June 1, 2009
Rock's most aggressive genre hopper lands in the cozy and calming world of acoustic folk and country instrumentation, with producer T Bone Burnett demonstrating there's more to mine in this vein than Robert and Alison Krauss tapped on "Raising Sand."
By teaming Costello with a band dominated by fiddles, banjos, upright bass and rhythm guitar, Burnett removes the luster of a bygone era being resuscitated; this is Costello alternating between front-porch crooner, dispatched lover and angry punk with a limited musical vocabulary who can't bring himself to shed the instruments of his parents.
The performances on "Secret, Profane and Sugarcane" are top notch and, ultimately, the dominating appeal of the album. The tight fiddle and banjo work from Krauss' bandmate Stuart Duncan and the weepy dobro of Jerry Douglas get the prominent slots in the mix, but it's Dennis Crouch's steady bass that keeps these tunes in line, propping up the ballads and steering the more upbeat numbers.
While Costello has certainly explored country and folk-rock previously--most prominently on "Almost Blue" in 1981 and 1986's "King of America"--"Secret" hangs as an album without a similar commitment to a specific style or mission. His two partnerships of the last 11 years--"Painted From Memory" with Burt Bacharach and "The River in Reverse" with Allen Toussaint--were total stylistic immersions for Costello. "Secret" has about a half-dozen songs built with an appropriate infrastructure: "I Felt the Chill," a waltz written with Loretta Lynn, is a genre gem and "I Dreamed of My Old Lover" is a perfect marriage of rock balladry and a romantic longing expressed in the lyric that is echoed in the stirring accompaniment.
But Costello has too many instances of shoe-horning here that get mixed results, especially the four tunes from his opera "The Secret Songs": "Hidden Shame" works wonderfully as bluegrass romp; the ambitious "How Deep is the Red" and "She Was No Good" just sound ill-suited for these arrangements.
"Changing Partners," a waltz composed by Lawrence Coleman and Joseph Daron and popularized Bing Crosby, closes the album on a note of serenity, a reminder that popular music once had no genre boundaries, that a good song was simply that: a good song. Costello is one of the few artists living by those bygone rules, excelling when he limits the number of thumbprints--or even just the scope of a particular number--on any given project.
http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/music/ ... _page_id=9
Evening Standard, London
CLAIRE ALLFREE
June 1, 2009
Trying to stick a genre on Elvis Costello is a bit like herding cats.
Still, Secret, Profane And Sugarcane, on which the restless malcontent of British pop hooks up with old mucker T-Bone Burnett, is perhaps most neatly filed alongside Costello's 1981 album of country covers Almost Blue: it was recorded acoustically in Nashville with a stellar country line-up and features ten previously unrecorded songs plus two originally written for Johnny Cash (although Costello also sneaks in a few conceived for his unfinished opera on Hans Christian Andersen).
Costello effortlessly takes command of Burnett's spit-and-sawdust arrangements (accordion, dobro, double bass, mandolin) and moves between hoedown soul (The Crooked Line), red-raw regret (She Was No Good) and backporch melancholy (I Felt The Chill). Not quite vintage Costello, but enough moments (She Handed Me A Mirror) to confirm him as a rare talent still.
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sweetest punch
- Posts: 5983
- Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:49 am
- Location: Belgium
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
I find it a very, very good album. But after hearing all the bonustracks, I feel it could have been a great album had it included Dirty Rotten Shame, What Lewis Did Last and Femme Fatal in stead of the Secret songs How Deep Is The Red, She Was No Good and The Red Cotton. These last songs aren't bad, but they are lyrically in a different place and feel somewhat like "artsongs".
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Got the album yesterday and listened to it once last night on headphones. Songs that stood out for me as most compelling were the ones from the Secret Songs opera! How Deep Is The Red really hit me, as did Red Cotton. Some breathtaking lyrics that made you think "yeah, he's still got it". How Deep Is The Red reminded me of God Give Me Strength, with the bell/belle puns changed to bow/beau. Certain phrases, which I can't recall after one listen, leapt out. The stuff on the riverboats was incredibly atmospheric.
Hidden Shame was always a great song, and remains so. Sulphur To Sugarcane has a lot of impact but I think its slightly comical melody may grate after a while. I Dreamed Of My Old Lover is beautiful, though as I'm used to it from a live recording with Steve, this version, with the vocal fairly close-mic, seemed less powerful and dreamy. Could've done with some echo effect on the voice, I thought, to create a larger, more swoony sound.
Others are still a bit vague, but I think I liked 'I Felt The Chill'. Am not a particular fan of the bluegrass sound, so it'll be hard for me to really embrace the album - I am a pop lover, I crave high-impact melodies, and Elvis can still deliver this, but didn't want to for this album, which is fine. And, as ever, I always remember that I didn't like Blood and Chocolate or Get Happy on first listen, but now they're my favourites, so you never know...
I notice as one critic has said that Burnett has somehow got Elvis to lay off the affected vibrato for practically the whole album. This is a shame, as I actually love the affected vibrato! God knows if this actually was Burnett, or Elvis's decision. I'd hate to be the one who dares to tell Elvis how to sing! The Bing Crosby cover was pitched too low, I felt - it sounded strained in that register.
On first listen, I'd say that it's not that commercial an album, but as ever, I have my fingers crossed that it'll do well for the great man.
P.S. my CD case credits Lou Reed for 'Femme Fatale', but it's not actually on the album.
Hidden Shame was always a great song, and remains so. Sulphur To Sugarcane has a lot of impact but I think its slightly comical melody may grate after a while. I Dreamed Of My Old Lover is beautiful, though as I'm used to it from a live recording with Steve, this version, with the vocal fairly close-mic, seemed less powerful and dreamy. Could've done with some echo effect on the voice, I thought, to create a larger, more swoony sound.
Others are still a bit vague, but I think I liked 'I Felt The Chill'. Am not a particular fan of the bluegrass sound, so it'll be hard for me to really embrace the album - I am a pop lover, I crave high-impact melodies, and Elvis can still deliver this, but didn't want to for this album, which is fine. And, as ever, I always remember that I didn't like Blood and Chocolate or Get Happy on first listen, but now they're my favourites, so you never know...
I notice as one critic has said that Burnett has somehow got Elvis to lay off the affected vibrato for practically the whole album. This is a shame, as I actually love the affected vibrato! God knows if this actually was Burnett, or Elvis's decision. I'd hate to be the one who dares to tell Elvis how to sing! The Bing Crosby cover was pitched too low, I felt - it sounded strained in that register.
On first listen, I'd say that it's not that commercial an album, but as ever, I have my fingers crossed that it'll do well for the great man.
P.S. my CD case credits Lou Reed for 'Femme Fatale', but it's not actually on the album.
-
invisible Pole
- Posts: 2228
- Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2004 2:20 pm
- Location: Poland
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_b ... rcane.html
Elvis Costello's never been one to shrink from a challenge, and on his new album, "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane," he's taken on a big one, a song cycle of sorts incorporating themes that wind like the muddy Mississippi through the cultural legacy of the American South and the tragic secrets and varied stripes of love -- obsessive, unrequited and misfired.
Some songs can be as straightforward as classic country. Costello wrote with country queen Loretta Lynn "I Felt the Chill Before the Winter Came," a dark scenario of a faithless man losing his grip on the woman he sinned for. Others are as art-song sophisticated as "She Was No Good," inspired by 19th century European singing star Jenny Lind's tour of the U.S.
Mystery abounds in oblique stories such as "Hidden Shame," which might have remained more effectively mysterious without the concluding details of a long-kept secret. "Red Cotton" is more powerful, a theatrically dramatic example of the price of human greed.
The highlights are "Sulphur to Sugarcane," the kind of bawdy blues Ma Rainey or Bessie Smith would have loved, and "The Crooked Line," a beautiful plea that Costello describes as "the only song I've ever written about fidelity that is without irony."
With considerable contributions from producer T-Bone Burnett and star string players out of Nashville (where the collection was recorded), including fiddler Stuart Duncan, dobra ace Jerry Douglas, mandolinist Mike Compton and upright bassist Dennis Crouch, Costello instills much of this outing a fitting old-timey feel.
Randy Lewis
Elvis Costello's never been one to shrink from a challenge, and on his new album, "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane," he's taken on a big one, a song cycle of sorts incorporating themes that wind like the muddy Mississippi through the cultural legacy of the American South and the tragic secrets and varied stripes of love -- obsessive, unrequited and misfired.
Some songs can be as straightforward as classic country. Costello wrote with country queen Loretta Lynn "I Felt the Chill Before the Winter Came," a dark scenario of a faithless man losing his grip on the woman he sinned for. Others are as art-song sophisticated as "She Was No Good," inspired by 19th century European singing star Jenny Lind's tour of the U.S.
Mystery abounds in oblique stories such as "Hidden Shame," which might have remained more effectively mysterious without the concluding details of a long-kept secret. "Red Cotton" is more powerful, a theatrically dramatic example of the price of human greed.
The highlights are "Sulphur to Sugarcane," the kind of bawdy blues Ma Rainey or Bessie Smith would have loved, and "The Crooked Line," a beautiful plea that Costello describes as "the only song I've ever written about fidelity that is without irony."
With considerable contributions from producer T-Bone Burnett and star string players out of Nashville (where the collection was recorded), including fiddler Stuart Duncan, dobra ace Jerry Douglas, mandolinist Mike Compton and upright bassist Dennis Crouch, Costello instills much of this outing a fitting old-timey feel.
Randy Lewis
If you don't know what is wrong with me
Then you don't know what you've missed
Then you don't know what you've missed
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Gave it another spin last night. Again, the Secret Songs ones stood out for me. She's No Good and Red Cotton are like a novel in themselves, quite amazing: this man is so talented. Makes me wish he's done the who Secret Songs thing as an album in itself. And the Crooked Line 'got' me the second time. Lovely country bounce to it, lovely sentiment. I agree with the other guy who said this should've been the radio airplay track.
However, I did feel the backing singing dragged the album down a little - don't know if that style of 'spoken' backing singing is traditional for bluegrass music, but it sounds nervous and tentative. Held Elvis back a bit, I felt. Also, I felt the arrangements didn't quite lift off like previous T-Bone Stuff (e.g King of Confidence, People's Limo, Loveable). That said, it could be cause I'm very familiar with those old songs, and not with these ones yet. The production of the slowies isn't as warm-sounding as previous T-Bone ones (Our Little Angel, Shoes Without Heels). I reckon some reverb on Elvis's voice would've added a richness to the sound - but again, I think they deliberately wanted an unaffected, straight-on feel as though in a live, un-miked performance like in the day of the old West. They didn't want any rock affectations, I imagine, hence the untreated sound.
However, I did feel the backing singing dragged the album down a little - don't know if that style of 'spoken' backing singing is traditional for bluegrass music, but it sounds nervous and tentative. Held Elvis back a bit, I felt. Also, I felt the arrangements didn't quite lift off like previous T-Bone Stuff (e.g King of Confidence, People's Limo, Loveable). That said, it could be cause I'm very familiar with those old songs, and not with these ones yet. The production of the slowies isn't as warm-sounding as previous T-Bone ones (Our Little Angel, Shoes Without Heels). I reckon some reverb on Elvis's voice would've added a richness to the sound - but again, I think they deliberately wanted an unaffected, straight-on feel as though in a live, un-miked performance like in the day of the old West. They didn't want any rock affectations, I imagine, hence the untreated sound.
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mood swung
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Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
I didn't look for links but this has gotten mentions in two women's magazines, which strikes me as funny somehow. The Ladies Home Journal thinks you rock, Elvis!
And then I started thinking what different images are conjured up by "women's magazine" and "men's magazine", so that was even funnier. Cooking, cleaning & Elvis. That's my life.
And then I started thinking what different images are conjured up by "women's magazine" and "men's magazine", so that was even funnier. Cooking, cleaning & Elvis. That's my life.
Like me, the "g" is silent.
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Who Shot Sam?
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Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
New album got hammered on Pitchfork, but their reviews are so screwy that I rarely listen to anything they say. Waiting for my copy.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
http://nz.entertainment.yahoo.com/090606/5/cpt2.html
June 6 '09
Billboard
Following last year's garage-rocking "Momofuku" with another shot of back-to-basics roots music, Elvis Costello teams with producer T Bone Burnett and an ensemble of Nashville regulars for a 13-track set that sounds like it was recorded in a single all-night song-swapping session. (In fact, they spent all of three days on it.) The material features nine Costello originals, as well as a pair of songs co-written by Costello and Burnett, a tender rendition of the early-'50s gem "Changing Partners" and "I Felt the Chill," which Costello penned with Loretta Lynn. ("Momofuku" contained another collaboration with the country queen.) Burnett's settings are much more stripped-down than his work on Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' "Raising Sand" but no less precise: On "My All Time Doll," one of the strongest cuts, Jeff Taylor's accordion shades the desperation in Costello's lyric with just the right amount of sarcasm.
June 6 '09
Billboard
Following last year's garage-rocking "Momofuku" with another shot of back-to-basics roots music, Elvis Costello teams with producer T Bone Burnett and an ensemble of Nashville regulars for a 13-track set that sounds like it was recorded in a single all-night song-swapping session. (In fact, they spent all of three days on it.) The material features nine Costello originals, as well as a pair of songs co-written by Costello and Burnett, a tender rendition of the early-'50s gem "Changing Partners" and "I Felt the Chill," which Costello penned with Loretta Lynn. ("Momofuku" contained another collaboration with the country queen.) Burnett's settings are much more stripped-down than his work on Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' "Raising Sand" but no less precise: On "My All Time Doll," one of the strongest cuts, Jeff Taylor's accordion shades the desperation in Costello's lyric with just the right amount of sarcasm.
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Okay, after a good few listens - The Crooked Line and How Deep Is The Red are now officially, in my book at least, among the best things Elvis has ever done! Would happily put them in a best-of compilation. I don't think Elvis has ever done a more joyful love song than The Crooked Line.
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Neil, I agree with you about The Crooked Line. It surely has to be promoted as a single. The second half of the album, after She Handed Me A Mirror, is a pure joy.
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Ypsilanti
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Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Neil,I don't think Elvis has ever done a more joyful love song than The Crooked Line.
Absolutely agree. It's a lovely song--so straightforwardly happy--very infectious & fun to listen to. Quite a contrast between it and other recent love songs, like "Still" or even "Flutter & Wow". I guess Elvis just keeps getting happier and happier. Good for him, too. He's earned it & deserves it.
So I keep this fancy to myself
I keep my lipstick twisted tight
I keep my lipstick twisted tight
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/alb ... _sugarcane
JODY ROSEN
Jun 8, 2009
Rolling Stone
What is is this time? Schubert lieder? Balkan fusion? Elvis Costello's genre-hopping can be exhilarating and, often, exhausting. But here he's in one of his comfort zones, rootsy Americana, reunited with T Bone Burnett, who produced the similarly flavored 1986 ringer King of America. Recorded in Nashville in three days, it's tight and uncluttered, with fiddle and dobro accenting jaunty bluegrass-folk corkers such as "Hidden Shame." The music brings out the terser side of one of pop's most prolix lyricists, with some spectacular results: The closer, "Changing Partners," is a waltz-time weeper so unfussy and timeless, you half-suspect Costello found it under a rock on an Appalachian hillside.
JODY ROSEN
Jun 8, 2009
Rolling Stone
What is is this time? Schubert lieder? Balkan fusion? Elvis Costello's genre-hopping can be exhilarating and, often, exhausting. But here he's in one of his comfort zones, rootsy Americana, reunited with T Bone Burnett, who produced the similarly flavored 1986 ringer King of America. Recorded in Nashville in three days, it's tight and uncluttered, with fiddle and dobro accenting jaunty bluegrass-folk corkers such as "Hidden Shame." The music brings out the terser side of one of pop's most prolix lyricists, with some spectacular results: The closer, "Changing Partners," is a waltz-time weeper so unfussy and timeless, you half-suspect Costello found it under a rock on an Appalachian hillside.
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
http://www.sundayherald.com/arts/arts/d ... 70.0.0.php
Secret, Profane And Sugarcane
(Universal)
ELVIS Costello now conducts his career almost entirely off-Broadway, down a warren of alleys, side streets and paths less trodden. Here he takes a charmingly old-fashioned stroll through the Appalachians, accompanied by mandolin, fiddle and old friend T-Bone Burnett. Though closest in terms of instrumentation to 1986's King Of America, which Burnett also produced, the writing and performances lack the clarity and emotional impact of that album, partly because these songs have been culled from sources as diverse as Costello's aborted opera about Jenny Lind and an incomplete Southern Gothic song-cycle. The album's esoteric origins explain not only the fractured narrative voice - which proves distancing - but also why several songs feel too melodically and structurally complex for their sparse settings. It's never less than beautifully performed and at its best - I Felt A Chill, the bawdy Sulphur To Sugarcane - it's almost as good as Costello gets, but it's all just a little out of focus.
Graeme Thomson
Secret, Profane And Sugarcane
(Universal)
ELVIS Costello now conducts his career almost entirely off-Broadway, down a warren of alleys, side streets and paths less trodden. Here he takes a charmingly old-fashioned stroll through the Appalachians, accompanied by mandolin, fiddle and old friend T-Bone Burnett. Though closest in terms of instrumentation to 1986's King Of America, which Burnett also produced, the writing and performances lack the clarity and emotional impact of that album, partly because these songs have been culled from sources as diverse as Costello's aborted opera about Jenny Lind and an incomplete Southern Gothic song-cycle. The album's esoteric origins explain not only the fractured narrative voice - which proves distancing - but also why several songs feel too melodically and structurally complex for their sparse settings. It's never less than beautifully performed and at its best - I Felt A Chill, the bawdy Sulphur To Sugarcane - it's almost as good as Costello gets, but it's all just a little out of focus.
Graeme Thomson
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Polish review -
http://www.dziennik.pl/kultura/muzyka/a ... tml#reqRss
Google translation -
http://216.239.59.132/translate_c?hl=en ... Rtw#reqRss
Anna Gromnicka
In fact, living the great American designer - the best rock poets, but also by independent artists - nagrywają better record. Bill Calahan, William Oldham, Tom Waits czy Elvis Costello uosabiają największy paradoks świata muzyki: są legendami, mimo że pozostają konsekwentnie w nurcie osobnym. Bill Calahan, William Oldham, Tom Waits and Elvis Costello embody the greatest paradox of the music world: they are legends, even though the trend remains consistent in its own. Cała ich spuścizna wyrasta z prostych piosenek z akompaniamentem gitary, którymi nie zdobywają list przebojów, a jednak są głosem Ameryki. All of their legacy grows from simple songs with guitar accompaniment, which does not acquire the charts, but is the voice of America. Co prawda Costello to rodowity londyńczyk i nie ma chyba chęci na intymną wyprawę do źródeł pamięci zbiorowej Ameryki, ale i tak „Secret, Profane and Sugarcane” sięga mocno do jej korzeni oraz historii samego Costello. While Costello is a native Londoner and has no desire except to intimate expedition to the source of collective memory of America, but the "Secret, profane and sugarcane" goes back to its roots firmly and history itself Costello.
W 1981 roku Costello, jeden z czołowym zwolenników amerykańskiego punk rocka i nowej fali, nagrał przedziwną płytę będącą ukłonem w stronę obśmiewanej przez nowojorskich artystów sceny country. In 1981, Costello, one of the leading supporters of the American punk rock and new wave, recorded a CD which is the extraordinary nod in the direction of New York artists obśmiewanej country scene. „Almost Blue” kapitalnie zanurzała się w atmosferze rdzennych brzmień Ameryki i gdyby nie pełne poezji, gęste od emocji teksty Costello, zapewne rzesze fanów artysty porzuciłyby punka dla country. "Almost Blue" zanurzała famously in the spirit of indigenous American sounds, and if not full of poetry, dense texts of emotions Costello, crowds of fans probably porzuciłyby punk artist for the country. Po trzech dekadach artysta powraca do „muzyki duszy i ziemi”, ale w quasi-akustycznej „Secret, Profane and Sugarcane” próżno szukać dworskich hołdów dla „zasłużonych” piosenkarzy country. After three decades of the artist returns to the music of soul and the earth ", but in the quasi-acoustic" Secret, profane and sugarcane 'vain search for a court hołdów for "distinguished" country singers. Wprawdzie i oni dość licznie zaludniają ten album (Emmylou Harris w „The Crooked Line” , producent T-Bone Burnett czy piosenkarz Jim Lauderdale), ale jeśli ktoś liczy na piknik w Mrągowie, to się zawiedzie. Although they are quite numerous, and this album zaludniają (Emmylou Harris for "The Crooked Line", the producer T-Bone Burnett and singer Jim Lauderdale), but if someone wants to picnic in Mrągowie, it fails. Bo Costello nagrał ten krążek, by oddać ducha epoki, w której style, barwy i wpływy różnych kultur przenikały się i tworzyły harmonijny miks, inny od współczesnych stylistycznych kolaży w rodzaju country popu, neo folku czy americany. Bo Costello has recorded this disc to give the spirit of the era in which style, color and influence the transfer of different cultures and forming a harmonious mix, different from the contemporary stylistic collages such as country pop, neo folk and americana. Sięga do tradycji Cajunów, do kołysanek, ballad i walców z Luizjany, ale i bluegrassowych melancholijnych zaśpiewów. Goes back to the tradition Cajunów to kołysanek, ballads and waltzes from Louisiana, but bluegrassowych melancholic zaśpiewów. Łączy country z połowy lat 80. It combines country in the mid-80. z tradycyjnym instrumentarium (skrzypce, mandolina, akordeon, dobro) i jak zawsze kapitalnymi tekstami, jednymi z jego najlepszych. with the traditional instruments (violin, mandolin, accordion, dobro), and as always capital texts, some of his best.
In the sentimental ballads and epic songs are at times upodabnia to Tom Waits, describing part of the dark, tragic history of the country of democracy and equality, but also the home growers wyzyskiwaczy, slave traffickers, murderers. Lecz gdy pieśni Waitsa tkwią gdzieś między dosłownością, knajpianą melancholią i grozą, Costello i zespół odsyłają słuchacza do krainy pastiszu i częściej – autentycznej liryki, jak w „My All Time Doll” („Me usta poznały smak okrucieństwa, oczy wypełnia piekący ból”). But when Waits songs lie somewhere between dosłownością, bar melancholy and risk, Costello syndrome and refer listeners to the land of pastiche and more - authentic lyrics, like "My All Time Doll" ( "Me mouth know the taste of cruelty, pain, burning eyes filled) .
Mimo tych ewidentnie kowbojskich inspiracji płytę przepełnia duch niepożytej punkrockowej energii Elvisa, kameralnej poetyckości i operowego dramatyzmu (napisane wespół z Lorrettą Lynn „She Handed Me a Mirror” ) i – jak zawsze – zjadliwej ironii ( „Hidden Shame” , oryginalnie skomponowana dla Johnny'ego Casha). Despite these kowbojskich clearly inspired by the spirit of a disc niepożytej energy punkrockowej Elvis, chamber and operatic drama poetyckości (written together with Lorrettą Lynn "She Handed Me a Mirror") and - as always - pathogenic irony ( "Hidden Shame", originally composed for Johnny ' Cash ego). I radosne przeświadczenie samego Costello, że tej muzyki i jego samego czas się w zasadzie nie ima. And the joyful conviction Costello that the music and the same time, in principle, not ima.
Anna Gromnicka
http://www.dziennik.pl/kultura/muzyka/a ... tml#reqRss
Google translation -
http://216.239.59.132/translate_c?hl=en ... Rtw#reqRss
Anna Gromnicka
In fact, living the great American designer - the best rock poets, but also by independent artists - nagrywają better record. Bill Calahan, William Oldham, Tom Waits czy Elvis Costello uosabiają największy paradoks świata muzyki: są legendami, mimo że pozostają konsekwentnie w nurcie osobnym. Bill Calahan, William Oldham, Tom Waits and Elvis Costello embody the greatest paradox of the music world: they are legends, even though the trend remains consistent in its own. Cała ich spuścizna wyrasta z prostych piosenek z akompaniamentem gitary, którymi nie zdobywają list przebojów, a jednak są głosem Ameryki. All of their legacy grows from simple songs with guitar accompaniment, which does not acquire the charts, but is the voice of America. Co prawda Costello to rodowity londyńczyk i nie ma chyba chęci na intymną wyprawę do źródeł pamięci zbiorowej Ameryki, ale i tak „Secret, Profane and Sugarcane” sięga mocno do jej korzeni oraz historii samego Costello. While Costello is a native Londoner and has no desire except to intimate expedition to the source of collective memory of America, but the "Secret, profane and sugarcane" goes back to its roots firmly and history itself Costello.
W 1981 roku Costello, jeden z czołowym zwolenników amerykańskiego punk rocka i nowej fali, nagrał przedziwną płytę będącą ukłonem w stronę obśmiewanej przez nowojorskich artystów sceny country. In 1981, Costello, one of the leading supporters of the American punk rock and new wave, recorded a CD which is the extraordinary nod in the direction of New York artists obśmiewanej country scene. „Almost Blue” kapitalnie zanurzała się w atmosferze rdzennych brzmień Ameryki i gdyby nie pełne poezji, gęste od emocji teksty Costello, zapewne rzesze fanów artysty porzuciłyby punka dla country. "Almost Blue" zanurzała famously in the spirit of indigenous American sounds, and if not full of poetry, dense texts of emotions Costello, crowds of fans probably porzuciłyby punk artist for the country. Po trzech dekadach artysta powraca do „muzyki duszy i ziemi”, ale w quasi-akustycznej „Secret, Profane and Sugarcane” próżno szukać dworskich hołdów dla „zasłużonych” piosenkarzy country. After three decades of the artist returns to the music of soul and the earth ", but in the quasi-acoustic" Secret, profane and sugarcane 'vain search for a court hołdów for "distinguished" country singers. Wprawdzie i oni dość licznie zaludniają ten album (Emmylou Harris w „The Crooked Line” , producent T-Bone Burnett czy piosenkarz Jim Lauderdale), ale jeśli ktoś liczy na piknik w Mrągowie, to się zawiedzie. Although they are quite numerous, and this album zaludniają (Emmylou Harris for "The Crooked Line", the producer T-Bone Burnett and singer Jim Lauderdale), but if someone wants to picnic in Mrągowie, it fails. Bo Costello nagrał ten krążek, by oddać ducha epoki, w której style, barwy i wpływy różnych kultur przenikały się i tworzyły harmonijny miks, inny od współczesnych stylistycznych kolaży w rodzaju country popu, neo folku czy americany. Bo Costello has recorded this disc to give the spirit of the era in which style, color and influence the transfer of different cultures and forming a harmonious mix, different from the contemporary stylistic collages such as country pop, neo folk and americana. Sięga do tradycji Cajunów, do kołysanek, ballad i walców z Luizjany, ale i bluegrassowych melancholijnych zaśpiewów. Goes back to the tradition Cajunów to kołysanek, ballads and waltzes from Louisiana, but bluegrassowych melancholic zaśpiewów. Łączy country z połowy lat 80. It combines country in the mid-80. z tradycyjnym instrumentarium (skrzypce, mandolina, akordeon, dobro) i jak zawsze kapitalnymi tekstami, jednymi z jego najlepszych. with the traditional instruments (violin, mandolin, accordion, dobro), and as always capital texts, some of his best.
In the sentimental ballads and epic songs are at times upodabnia to Tom Waits, describing part of the dark, tragic history of the country of democracy and equality, but also the home growers wyzyskiwaczy, slave traffickers, murderers. Lecz gdy pieśni Waitsa tkwią gdzieś między dosłownością, knajpianą melancholią i grozą, Costello i zespół odsyłają słuchacza do krainy pastiszu i częściej – autentycznej liryki, jak w „My All Time Doll” („Me usta poznały smak okrucieństwa, oczy wypełnia piekący ból”). But when Waits songs lie somewhere between dosłownością, bar melancholy and risk, Costello syndrome and refer listeners to the land of pastiche and more - authentic lyrics, like "My All Time Doll" ( "Me mouth know the taste of cruelty, pain, burning eyes filled) .
Mimo tych ewidentnie kowbojskich inspiracji płytę przepełnia duch niepożytej punkrockowej energii Elvisa, kameralnej poetyckości i operowego dramatyzmu (napisane wespół z Lorrettą Lynn „She Handed Me a Mirror” ) i – jak zawsze – zjadliwej ironii ( „Hidden Shame” , oryginalnie skomponowana dla Johnny'ego Casha). Despite these kowbojskich clearly inspired by the spirit of a disc niepożytej energy punkrockowej Elvis, chamber and operatic drama poetyckości (written together with Lorrettą Lynn "She Handed Me a Mirror") and - as always - pathogenic irony ( "Hidden Shame", originally composed for Johnny ' Cash ego). I radosne przeświadczenie samego Costello, że tej muzyki i jego samego czas się w zasadzie nie ima. And the joyful conviction Costello that the music and the same time, in principle, not ima.
Anna Gromnicka
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Otis Westinghouse
- Posts: 8856
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
- Location: The theatre of dreams
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Gotta love Google translate. IP must have enjoyed this one!johnfoyle wrote:Goes back to the tradition Cajunów to kołysanek, ballads and waltzes from Louisiana, but bluegrassowych melancholic zaśpiewów. Łączy country z połowy lat 80.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Elvis' official site clearly has a sense of humour. In the middle of the review section, for the new album, they happily quote from this drubbing-
http://elviscostello.com/
The Independent: 29th May 2009: Andy Gill.
A shoddy set of barrel-scrapings overall, lacking both focus and impetus.
The original, full review -
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 92397.html
http://elviscostello.com/
The Independent: 29th May 2009: Andy Gill.
A shoddy set of barrel-scrapings overall, lacking both focus and impetus.
The original, full review -
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 92397.html
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martinfoyle
- Posts: 2502
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:24 pm
- Location: Dublin, Ireland
- Contact:
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Shock & awe, the album actually is getting bit of a push in Dublin.
Here's the end display at HWV, one of the few big music shops left in Dublin
& a close up of the blurb
Here's the end display at HWV, one of the few big music shops left in Dublin
& a close up of the blurb
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
http://www.thetimes.co.za/Entertainment ... id=1050678
The Times , South Africa
Below the Crooked Line
Aug 22, 2009
Costello’s latest album fails to impress, but only because he’s set the bar so high for himself
Elvis Costello : Secret, Profane & Sugarcane * * * *
Aubrey Paton
After 30 years in the music industry, Elvis Costello needs to appeal to the younger generation, but I doubt this unsatisfyingly arbitrary album will be the one for that.
For a Liverpudlian who popped his musical cherry with punk, Costello has always been strangely attracted to that traditional acoustic American sound, and he does it wonderfully well: his 1986 King of America — produced by the same T-Bone Burnett who produces this album — was one of the best collections of all time, with a sound transcending genre.
You can call it dirt-floor Americana, hillbilly, blue grass, jug band or American roots music [the roots being in Irish and English folk melodies, relying heavily on mandolin, accordion and fiddle] but basically, at the end of the day, this new release is country most of the way.
I Felt the Chill is Costello’s second recorded songwriting collaboration with C & W doyenne Loretta Lynn. Hidden Shame is a cover version of a song written for Johnny Cash, while the last track, Changing Partners, is a waltz originally sung by Bing Crosby.
Sulphur to Sugarcane is co-written with Burnett, as is Crooked Line — the chorus of which features another country megastar, Emmylou Harris: generally, it is all true-blue, foot-pumping, porch-stomping stuff, as authentic as moonshine and grits.
Tagged on, almost as a make-weight, is a reworking of an old Costello number, Complicated Shadows, and four songs from an unfinished commission for the Royal Danish Opera Company for an opera about the life of the storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen.
In an attempt to make Andersen’s life of some interest to the make-or-break US and UK markets, Costello concentrated on the shy fabulist’s relationship with the pretty and popular songbird, Jenny Lind, especially on her mid-19th century US tour.
The opera may have been aborted, but the songs She Handed me a Mirror, How Deep is the Red, She Was No Good and Red Cotton are, together with Complicated Shadows, the best on the album and the only ones to hint at what kept Costello cool for over three decades.
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane fell far short of my expectations, but perhaps they were impossibly high. Tight, melodic, versatile, eclectic, technically and professionally exemplary, this album disappoints only because it fails to live up to perfection.
The Times , South Africa
Below the Crooked Line
Aug 22, 2009
Costello’s latest album fails to impress, but only because he’s set the bar so high for himself
Elvis Costello : Secret, Profane & Sugarcane * * * *
Aubrey Paton
After 30 years in the music industry, Elvis Costello needs to appeal to the younger generation, but I doubt this unsatisfyingly arbitrary album will be the one for that.
For a Liverpudlian who popped his musical cherry with punk, Costello has always been strangely attracted to that traditional acoustic American sound, and he does it wonderfully well: his 1986 King of America — produced by the same T-Bone Burnett who produces this album — was one of the best collections of all time, with a sound transcending genre.
You can call it dirt-floor Americana, hillbilly, blue grass, jug band or American roots music [the roots being in Irish and English folk melodies, relying heavily on mandolin, accordion and fiddle] but basically, at the end of the day, this new release is country most of the way.
I Felt the Chill is Costello’s second recorded songwriting collaboration with C & W doyenne Loretta Lynn. Hidden Shame is a cover version of a song written for Johnny Cash, while the last track, Changing Partners, is a waltz originally sung by Bing Crosby.
Sulphur to Sugarcane is co-written with Burnett, as is Crooked Line — the chorus of which features another country megastar, Emmylou Harris: generally, it is all true-blue, foot-pumping, porch-stomping stuff, as authentic as moonshine and grits.
Tagged on, almost as a make-weight, is a reworking of an old Costello number, Complicated Shadows, and four songs from an unfinished commission for the Royal Danish Opera Company for an opera about the life of the storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen.
In an attempt to make Andersen’s life of some interest to the make-or-break US and UK markets, Costello concentrated on the shy fabulist’s relationship with the pretty and popular songbird, Jenny Lind, especially on her mid-19th century US tour.
The opera may have been aborted, but the songs She Handed me a Mirror, How Deep is the Red, She Was No Good and Red Cotton are, together with Complicated Shadows, the best on the album and the only ones to hint at what kept Costello cool for over three decades.
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane fell far short of my expectations, but perhaps they were impossibly high. Tight, melodic, versatile, eclectic, technically and professionally exemplary, this album disappoints only because it fails to live up to perfection.
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Ypsilanti
- Posts: 542
- Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:02 am
- Location: down in a location that we cannot disclose
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Ewww! That's icky.For a Liverpudlian who popped his musical cherry with punk
So I keep this fancy to myself
I keep my lipstick twisted tight
I keep my lipstick twisted tight
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2009 ... ic-awards/
Dave Paulson
on October 7, 2009
(extract)
After a nine-year absence, the Nashville Music Awards made a welcome return Wednesday night to honor the best in locally made music.
Top winner Taylor Swift — who was named artist and songwriter-artist of the year and won country album of the year for Fearless — is a massive star on an international level. The same can be said for pop/rock album winners Kings of Leon, instrumentalist of the year Jack White and Elvis Costello, who was given the Made in Music City award for recording his Secret, Profane & Sugarcane album here in Nashville.
MADE IN MUSIC CITY AWARD (for a recording made in Nashville by a non-Nashville artist)
Elvis Costello, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane
T Bone Burnett, producer
Recorded at Sound Emporium studio
Dave Paulson
on October 7, 2009
(extract)
After a nine-year absence, the Nashville Music Awards made a welcome return Wednesday night to honor the best in locally made music.
Top winner Taylor Swift — who was named artist and songwriter-artist of the year and won country album of the year for Fearless — is a massive star on an international level. The same can be said for pop/rock album winners Kings of Leon, instrumentalist of the year Jack White and Elvis Costello, who was given the Made in Music City award for recording his Secret, Profane & Sugarcane album here in Nashville.
MADE IN MUSIC CITY AWARD (for a recording made in Nashville by a non-Nashville artist)
Elvis Costello, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane
T Bone Burnett, producer
Recorded at Sound Emporium studio
Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
I finally got around to writing up a review for this one. It's not my favorite piece of writing, but then again it's not one of my favorite albums either:
http://everybodysdummy.blogspot.com/201 ... ofane.html
http://everybodysdummy.blogspot.com/201 ... ofane.html
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Jack of All Parades
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Re: REVIEWS: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
I think you pretty much catch it right-for me a big ho-hum of an album- though I am having a great time with "Live At Hollywood High" which is reminding my why I first came to this artist with his powerful immediacy as displayed in this set of songs and that tight, well honed band behind him. Memories of concerts of his I saw around that time-god! they could play.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'