'Lost Highway will release Momofuku from Elvis Costello'

[krm]

Went down to Shibuya to look for momofuku today. No sign of it either HMV or Tower.........or at disc union... We are still waiting here, too....
cheers from Tokyo

[thepopeofpop]

anyway, bummer : I just found out that the download is for US residents only, which I find kinda disappointing...I hope the management, if not The Man himself will eventually sort this situation out....
back tomorrow with feedbacks on the album - if anyone cares...

Don't worry - the download will be available for everyone in the world. The "US only" thing was the idea of someone at the record company who probably didn't realise the album was being shipped all over the world, but EC will get it sorted out before May.

Incidentally Momofuku is awesome. I've listened to it 5 times in the first day.

[martinfoyle]

Here's a live version of the album made from the Apr 23 Ryman torrent

http://tinyurl.com/6f8zan

[And No Coffee Table]

Most of the lyrics are up on the wiki site:
http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... u_-_Lyrics

There are a lot of gaps and probably plenty of errors. Corrections are encouraged.

Or you could just wait for the complete lyrics to show up on the official site.

[Lester Burnham]

Great! Thanks to whoever transcribed them – I was thinking about doing it myself, but I just kept putting it off.

edit: I think this is my favorite verse on the entire album, for some odd reason:

"Day is closing
Old men and infants are dozin'
That's the kind of life I've chosen
Just see what I've become
The humble father of my three sons
The humbled father of my three sons"

It's so quaint without being overly sentimental. I guess I just like the image of Elvis dozing off in a chair with his two sons...

[scielle]

No Hiding Place aired on WFUV on Friday - still streaming here:

http://www.wfuv.org/blog/?p=460

[Bad Ambassador]

UK buyers might be interested in this price:
£12.03 delivered from US - via Amazon Marketplace
Ordered one last night, already shipped by this morning. Based on previous orders, will probably take about 7-8 working days.

[E*C*RIDER]

Wow, what an astounding album.

Quite simply one of the best records ever made.

Elvis is King.

[johnfoyle]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/arts/audio ... owling.htm

Elvis: Howling In A Vacuum

Posted by Neil McCormick on 28 Apr 2008 at 15:30


I got my hands on the new Elvis Costello album, Momofoku. The good news (well, for any old punks that are still interested) is that Costello is on blistering form. The bad news is that since I have the only copy in the country, I don’t know how anyone else is going to hear it.


With a quality of vitriol rarely heard since his heyday, Elvis gives the internet and, in particular, the blogging culture both barrels on the opening track ‘No Hiding Place’. “In the not too distant future / When everything will be free / There won’t be any secrets / Let alone any novelty” he declares to a fuzzed up guitar and sharp, attacking rhythm. “You can say anything you want to / In your fetching cloak of anonymity / Are you feeling out of breath now? / In your desperate pursuit of infamy’.

I get the strong impression some scabrous popbitch style internet gossip merchant may have upset the old curmudgeon. “Walk up to me and say what you said / Let’s see how brave you are when I’m about this far / You sit in judgement and bitch / well, baby that’s rich / You’re nothing but a snitch …”

I love a bit of spleen venting.

I will be providing a more considered review on the Arts pages in the near future. But while Elvis roars at all those voices ‘howling in a vacuum’, I wonder how his fans are supposed to hear his own howling.

The record took some tracking down, and I’ve got a big contacts book. It was rush recorded and allegedly released last week without pre-publicity as a vinyl double album, but there are hardly any record shops any more and those I called hadn’t heard of it. Since even Elvis’s PR did not have a copy, and Universal records said they would bike me the only one in the country, it would appear its chances of being widely heard are extremely limited. There’s a limit to the number of people I can fit in my office.

I know that Elvis is putting his album out quickly and without pre-publicity as a reaction to the grinding machinery of the music business, where a record is recorded, a release date set far in advance, the publicity machine put in place, then a copy leaks on the internet and everybody who cares downloads it for free. The irony is that the only place you can find anything out about this record right now … is on music blogs.

I will keep you posted.

[Otis Westinghouse]

It's all a bit silly, isn't it? The only copy in the country! Oh well, the CD will soon be in Fopp...

[BlueChair]

I'm sure the CD will have a wider rate of distribution. A lot more people out there have currently-working CDs than record players. I suspect the vinyl may as well have been promoted as a "special order" item.

[thepopeofpop]

Well, I dunno. I've had the darn thing for a week and I just live in Orstrilia. I don't have any special Costello family connections. I just bought it at a local record store. This whole thing of it not being available in England just seems like bullshit - everybody else can buy the damn thing, what's up with England? Fuck, it's not hard to order an album kids... I question the sanity and/or ability of English record shops these days. If we've got it in Sydney, which is virtually on a different frigging planet to America, then how hard could it be to get it across the Atlantic? I don't think this is Elvis' problem, you know...

No wonder EC can't crack the pommy charts anymore... I think it's all become crystal clear. Some kind of national resistance to Elvis Costello records in England, so it seems. Well, have you got a better theory?

[baptiste]

....It's quite good, indeed, and excellent (Harry Worth, Ni Hiding Place, My Three Sons (yep)), focused, sharp, brilliant production (in a straight to the point zone similar to the one that prevailed for Blood&Chocolate), the singing is impressive, great musicianship...I really like the fact that's a very playful album, one can hear that Elvis is enjoying himself A LOT. Harry Worth, with its Kinks vibe is a good example of that approach.
I know it's not much of a review, but then english is not my given language...and I feel lazy today. And nervous too for reasons I'd rather not disclose. I'll write about it (the album, not my nervousness), somewhere else, for what passes as job...

[Who Shot Sam?]

I really like the fact that's a very playful album, one can hear that Elvis is enjoying himself A LOT

Totally agree baptiste - it's his most relaxed-sounding album in years.

[verbal gymnastics]

No wonder EC can't crack the pommy charts anymore... I think it's all become crystal clear. Some kind of national resistance to Elvis Costello records in England, so it seems.

Well, have you got a better theory?

Elvis doesn't like the UK because apparently we don't appreciate him enough ad nauseum

[Bad Ambassador]

Well, I dunno. I've had the darn thing for a week and I just live in Orstrilia. I don't have any special Costello family connections. I just bought it at a local record store. This whole thing of it not being available in England just seems like bullshit - everybody else can buy the damn thing, what's up with England? Fuck, it's not hard to order an album kids... I question the sanity and/or ability of English record shops these days. If we've got it in Sydney, which is virtually on a different frigging planet to America, then how hard could it be to get it across the Atlantic? I don't think this is Elvis' problem, you know...

No wonder EC can't crack the pommy charts anymore... I think it's all become crystal clear. Some kind of national resistance to Elvis Costello records in England, so it seems. Well, have you got a better theory?

Yeah. The distributors ballsed up and the usual shops that stock Costello vinyl in plentiful supplies got screwed. The chance for some indie stores to make some cash on vinyl goes up in smoke thanks to poor management of a product that would've done alright in the two vinyl-only weeks. To blame the record shops themselves is as insane as your theory about national resistance. Why on earth would decent indie stores turn down the chance to make money - they've all been offering it for pre-order based on the release date they were given. Unfortunately the label didn't honour their end of the deal.
For that matter, even the bloody big virtual supermarket of record shops, Amazon, doesn't have copies. So it's hardly for want of trying is it?

[burgundy breakfast]

After one listen....I'm pretty blown away. This album is REALLY strong. Basically I feel like I'm echoing the sentiments of what a number of people have said already, but the spontaneous nature of the recording process really shines through. That combined with the strength of the songs themslves makes for probably the strongest record Elvis has made since at least Brutal Youth.

I'm a big fan of the last few records he's made...but there is an air meticulousness in both the songwriting and recording that is simply absent here. A song like "Alibi"...how long did it take for them to get that structure and arrangement down? In the end they never perfected it, in my opinion.

Anyway...listening to Momofuku once I hear the energy of This Year's Model, the weight and attitude of Blood & Chocolate, the spirit of Imperial Bedroom. Fuck...now I'm REALLY excited for the show next week!!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Unfortunately the label didn't honour their end of the deal.

Doesn't it all seem deliberate? In line with the Word interview about no more releases for now. I guess the CD will be more widespread, but for now I think there's a bit of sport being played of 'no gigs in the UK, no new release there, either'. I can wait.

[cwr]

A song like "Alibi"...how long did it take for them to get that structure and arrangement down? In the end they never perfected it, in my opinion.

Actually, unless I'm mistaken, the version of "Alibi" on WIWC is a first take with the band. (Someone can correct me if I'm mistaken about that, but I remember reading it somewhere.)

But I agree with your basic point-- this album has a really great, loose feel to it.

[burgundy breakfast]

A song like "Alibi"...how long did it take for them to get that structure and arrangement down? In the end they never perfected it, in my opinion.

Actually, unless I'm mistaken, the version of "Alibi" on WIWC is a first take with the band. (Someone can correct me if I'm mistaken about that, but I remember reading it somewhere.)

But I agree with your basic point-- this album has a really great, loose feel to it.

I was actually referring to the structure/composition of the song. Wasn't it played live in various incarnations years before it was recorded?

[Fishfinger king]

Alibi was performed live with Steve Nieve for at least a year before it appeared on WIWC - I recorded it off a Radio 2 concert and it was much more exciting and spontaneous than the eventual recorded version, which was definitely overthought and overlong.

As far as Momofuku is concerned then surely the vinyl release first is just a gimick? If EC was serious that vinyl was better, then a CD version would not be released at all - or at least a gap of a couple of months with good vinyl distribution first. In the UK the vinyl isn't even going to appear before the CD (assuming the CD actually arrives next week) but I guess we don't count anymore.

[the_platypus]

Alibi was performed live with Steve Nieve for at least a year before it appeared on WIWC - I recorded it off a Radio 2 concert and it was much more exciting and spontaneous than the eventual recorded version, which was definitely overthought and overlong.

Oh man. Do you have an mp3 copy of that? I'd love to hear it.

[MOJO]

Hey - Has anyone (outside the US) tried to purchase the record from the elviscostello.com store? Why not place your order through the online store? I don't get it. By the way, check out the coffee mug they have for sale...

[cwr]

I was actually referring to the structure/composition of the song. Wasn't it played live in various incarnations years before it was recorded?

Oh, sorry-- I just thought because you said about the meticulousness of the recording and arrangement, and it had taken me by surprise when I learned that the album version was a first take, precisely because it doesn't really "feel" like a first take. It doesn't have anywhere near the kind of feeling that Momofuku has.

Songs like "No Hiding Place" and "American Gangster Time" run circles around it.

[charliestumpy]

Alibi was performed live with Steve Nieve for at least a year before it appeared on WIWC - I recorded it off a Radio 2 concert and it was much more exciting and spontaneous than the eventual recorded version, which was definitely overthought and overlong.

Oh man. Do you have an mp3 copy of that? I'd love to hear it.

UK Newcastle 1999 BBC Alibi factory ...

http://download.yousendit.com/3D8F23A2266E396E

I thought as said earlier that this sounds great (greater than cack release-'strategy' for Momofuku).