http://www.jazztimes.com/JazzNews/XcNew ... cleid=1099
Elvis Costello Goes North
Date: 9/25/2003
Written By: Christopher Porter
Elvis Costello loves Diana Krall. He also loves the
same music as Diana Krall, which explains why
Costello’s new CD, North (Deutsche Grammophon), is
heavy on the torchy piano ballads.
The man who came up with punk rock is now “one of the
world’s premier adult music artists,” as Universal’s
Web site unapologetically states. North features
Costello’s usual pianist, Steve Nieve from the
Attractions, as well as jazzers Peter Erskine on drums
and Mike Formanek on double bass. In addition to
writing the album entirely on piano (of which,
Costello admits, he’s not the best player), the
majority of North is sung in the former ranter’s
baritone register (with plenty of vibrato, natch). The
music, also arranged and conducted by Costello,
sometimes features a 48-piece ensemble, composed of a
rhythm section, horn nonet and 28 string players.
Costello’s songs on North are unrelentingly slow and
balladic, but they all aren’t romantic paeans to
Krall; some obviously deal with his breakup of his
second marriage, to former Pogues bassist Cait
O'Riordan. (Have fun picking out the love songs from
the heartbreakers!) Our own Christopher Loudon
compares North to Frank Sinatra’s 1954 classic weeper
In the Wee Small Hours. That’s high praise, indeed.