New album for 2013: "Wise Up Ghost" (with The Roots!)

[Otis Westinghouse]

Comes out the same week as the new Pynchon novel. How will I contain myself?

I think Elvis has timed it as a special 50th gift to one of his truest fans!

[Neil.]

Well, it's Saturday at 6.13pm in Britain, and Elvis appears to have attracted some interest as far as pre-orders go for 'Wise Up Ghost'. It's currently number 20 in the US Amazon 'Alternative Rock' chart - this is nearly two months ahead of the release. In the overall music chart, it's hit the top 200. Let's hope it continues to sell! (I believe the charts update every few hours - I won't be able to resist checking from time to time!)

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[Otis Westinghouse]

I think it's fair to say this song has more commercial appeal than anything he's done in ages.

Only thing is, Amazon UK is showing 3 x import CD with cover image, and then non-import, no cover, £25.57. WTF?

[Neil.]

Sunday morning, number 13 in the Alt Rock chart. It's even getting nearer the top 100 overall music chart!

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[John]

Not such a positive review here - I love the track but must admit that the two points referred to here do stand out.

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/201 ... re_wha.php

What's Up With Elvis Costello's Vocal Ticks on "Walk Us Uptown"?

A few years ago, we went to see Bob Dylan play, and it was one of the most crushingly disappointing performances we've ever seen. Not because he'd rearranged songs, and not because he didn't play some classics -- the overriding problem of the entire thing was simple: he rolled through the set with so little enthusiasm or even interest that it was like paying to watch an old man fall asleep into a bowl of soup. It wasn't about his age. It was about him simply not giving a shit anymore.

That's what happens sometimes -- artists reach a certain level, get called a legend one too many times, and they start taking their audience for granted. They know people are going to continue to show up to see them regardless of what they do, or what they put out, and they know that once the "legend" title has been granted, it never gets overturned. Which might explain Elvis Costello's half-arsed performance on new track, "Walk Us Uptown" -- a collaboration with the Roots.

This, ladies and gents, is not the recording of someone who particularly gives a shit anymore. The lovely gents of the Roots were nice enough to put together a kick-ass track for Costello to croon over, and he phones in a performance that, at best, gives us some insight as to what he sounds like singing in the shower.

We understand throwing down vocals in a laid-back manner. We understand the random nature of jamming. But seriously, Elvis? That point 36 seconds in, when your voice cracks, breaks and hits a bum-note? You're not gonna re-do that? Really? Because it would take you about 30 seconds to fix. You also could've taken an additional 30 seconds to fix the point where it happens again, at the 1:26 minute mark.

Now, we know this sounds like nit-picking. And really, it is. But that's what you're supposed to do when you record a song -- you nit-pick until you get everything right. We're pretty sure that Elvis Costello wouldn't have left such obvious vocal flaws on his earliest recordings, when he was still making a name for himself, so why is it okay to do now? Don't the Roots deserve better? Or the audience, for that matter? Having bum notes caused by an obvious vocal crack left in a song doesn't add character to the track, it ruins it -- especially when Costello sounds so exhausted for the entirety of this thing.

Costello and the Roots have a full album of collaborations out on Sept. 17, titled Wise Up Ghost. We're still excited to hear it -- but we can only hope Costello isn't this sloppy on every track, because the potential for greatness with this project is enormous.

[sweetest punch]

Not such a positive review here - I love the track but must admit that the two points referred to here do stand out.

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/201 ... re_wha.php

What's Up With Elvis Costello's Vocal Ticks on "Walk Us Uptown"?

A few years ago, we went to see Bob Dylan play, and it was one of the most crushingly disappointing performances we've ever seen. Not because he'd rearranged songs, and not because he didn't play some classics -- the overriding problem of the entire thing was simple: he rolled through the set with so little enthusiasm or even interest that it was like paying to watch an old man fall asleep into a bowl of soup. It wasn't about his age. It was about him simply not giving a shit anymore.

That's what happens sometimes -- artists reach a certain level, get called a legend one too many times, and they start taking their audience for granted. They know people are going to continue to show up to see them regardless of what they do, or what they put out, and they know that once the "legend" title has been granted, it never gets overturned. Which might explain Elvis Costello's half-arsed performance on new track, "Walk Us Uptown" -- a collaboration with the Roots.

This, ladies and gents, is not the recording of someone who particularly gives a shit anymore. The lovely gents of the Roots were nice enough to put together a kick-ass track for Costello to croon over, and he phones in a performance that, at best, gives us some insight as to what he sounds like singing in the shower.

We understand throwing down vocals in a laid-back manner. We understand the random nature of jamming. But seriously, Elvis? That point 36 seconds in, when your voice cracks, breaks and hits a bum-note? You're not gonna re-do that? Really? Because it would take you about 30 seconds to fix. You also could've taken an additional 30 seconds to fix the point where it happens again, at the 1:26 minute mark.

Now, we know this sounds like nit-picking. And really, it is. But that's what you're supposed to do when you record a song -- you nit-pick until you get everything right. We're pretty sure that Elvis Costello wouldn't have left such obvious vocal flaws on his earliest recordings, when he was still making a name for himself, so why is it okay to do now? Don't the Roots deserve better? Or the audience, for that matter? Having bum notes caused by an obvious vocal crack left in a song doesn't add character to the track, it ruins it -- especially when Costello sounds so exhausted for the entirety of this thing.

Costello and the Roots have a full album of collaborations out on Sept. 17, titled Wise Up Ghost. We're still excited to hear it -- but we can only hope Costello isn't this sloppy on every track, because the potential for greatness with this project is enormous.

To me it's obvious that Elvis deliberately left those "faults" in this recording.

[Jack of All Parades]

I think it's fair to say this song has more commercial appeal than anything he's done in ages.

Only thing is, Amazon UK is showing 3 x import CD with cover image, and then non-import, no cover, £25.57. WTF?

My unofficial barometer is my spouse- she has actually been listening to this one and she listens to little outside of jazz and classical and Indian music. Also my middle daughter said it was about time the 'old geezer' collaborated with someone 'hip'. Kind of like counting the number of bands on a wooly caterpillar to predict the length and severity of a given winter but I take these two as encouraging signs for future sales.

As to the previous post I would offer an interpretation of his vocal take that says a degree of tiredness fits well with the words[and they are definitely not sung but rather delivered with an exhausted and exasperated and almost here we go again tone]-given the none too subtle feeling of exhaustion those words exude a sort of updating of 'we hope will not get fooled again' but 'here it comes yet again' exhaustion that I hear from people around me as I go about my daily life. It is something that I think this particular song has tapped into with 'gusto'.

[verbal gymnastics]

I agree with Sweetest Punch. Surely there can't be so much adoration from The Roots that they didn't feel they could approach him about these vocal flaws. And I'm sure Elvis realises it. Perhaps it fits with the context of the song.

The sing is growing on me but it's not an instant classic. At least not for me.

[Neil.]

I just had to respond to the bloke on that blog who went completely over the top about Elvis's vocal on 'Walk Us Uptown':

"I think it's really pushing it to say Elvis has phoned in this performance! He always leaves "throat frogs" in, because he prefers to go with the live, untinkered-with take (there's an astounding bum note in his 1989 track 'Deep Dark Truthful Mirror'. I seriously don't think it's anything to do with him not giving a shit!

As for sounding tired - I'm not sure I agree, but if you think he does, it's probably entirely down to an artistic choice - again nothing to do with 'not giving a shit'. One of his most acclaimed early albums, 'Imperial Bedroom', contains a totally knackered-sounding vocal, as though the weight of the world is on his shoulders and he hasn't slept for a month. That track is the gold-plated classic, 'Man Out of Time'.

His last album, 2010's National Ransom, was as energetic as ever, full of invention. Can you really say that he is phoning in performances on the amazing 'Church Underground' and 'A Voice in the Dark' (though he does sound suitably - and deliberately - exhausted on the heartbreaking 'All These Strangers')

Is this a 'phoned-in' performance on radio, for that album? (The vocal intro is restrained and tender, but wait until the song proper kicks in) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szu-y3n9ubg

(Okay, you're probably stirring it up a bit to garner some comments - well, it's worked!)"

[John]

Well said Neil.

[cwr]

That break in Costello's voice is one of my favorite moments on the track, and anyone with even a passing familiarity with Costello would know that he LOVES keeping in slight imperfections and takes that are a little ragged but have the right "feel." There is a FLUBBED LYRIC on the lead single from Imperial Bedroom, just to mention one example.

The tone of Costello's vocal is obvious from the lyrics-- it's world-weary. It's bleak. Far from not giving a shit, it's EC conveying the meaning of the words he's singing.

I think this critic is projecting. A phoned-in review from a music writer who has stopped listening.

[Neil.]

LOL, Costello's cavalry are coming to the rescue!

Hey, CWR, what's the "flubbed lyric" from Imperial Bedroom? 'You Little Fool' was the lead single, wasn't it?

[Poor Deportee]

I'm not going to go to the wall defending that particular vocal - my initial reaction was that he's slightly off-pitch, which may be deliberate but seems a characteristically perverse move, given the track's obvious commerical potential - but the whole mentality that every little mistake has to be papered over and corrected is a big part of what's gone wrong with pop music since about 1965. In these days of auto-tuning, people hardly even know what actual, honest singing sounds like anymore.

[cwr]

In "You Little Fool", Costello clearly mangles the word "bird" when singing "with a bird in his hand." It sounds more like a hard "k" sound than a "b."

And that's on an album where he took a lot of care with the vocals, recording them all at the end of the process. It's clearly a deliberate choice.

(If you listen to an alternate take from those sessions, he clearly sings "bird." I think Costello, for all his perfectionist tendencies, also just loves it when there are little mistakes and happy accidents. That vocal break on "we won't make a sound" is great.)

I know that Dylan goes through periods where he seems like he doesn't give a shit and is phoning it in, but I don't trust that writer's judgment in assessing Dylan, either. I have a feeling they would have booed when he went electric and said The Basement Tapes lacked "polish."

[Otis Westinghouse]

Agreed that those crass comments show a huge ignorance of Elvis's approach as a singer and what makes him unique. And to make a claim about phoning it in when the vocal is coated in ardour and passion, well purrrlease. You can almost hear him saying 'I know it's not perfect, but I nailed the feel of that song there and then.' So what if he would have corrected on his first few outings in the studio (though as observed not necessarily by the time of Imp Bed)? Lame self-righteous posturing, yuk.

[MOJO]

I agree with cwr's comments about the critic. Did you take notice of her other pieces? She was raving about the upcoming Jay Z and Timberlake show. Wow, really? What is she like 12 years old or something? She should stick to a genre of music she knows and that is probably the mainstream bs being manufactured in LA. A new set of ears might help her out, too. Also, it's sad to see this published in my local city paper. Weak.

[cwr]

Also, aside from the fact that she basically opens her review trashing Bob Dylan-- just to establish her, y'know, credibility-- the thing that really annoys me about this article is the way she makes this a Roots vs. Elvis proposition.

The lovely gents of the Roots were nice enough to put together a kick-ass track for Costello to croon over, and he phones in a performance that, at best, gives us some insight as to what he sounds like singing in the shower.

Don't the Roots deserve better?

I'm pretty sure The Roots themselves would read this review and think "this critic is an IDIOT."

[And No Coffee Table]

Questlove posts a few seconds of what appears to be "Viceroy's Row":
http://vine.co/v/hAQY7OqODtV

[Otis Westinghouse]

Bonkers! More like one second on a loop, but sounds groovy. Sadly the wisuploop Twitter tag only has this on it. Maybe more to follow?

[krm]

In "You Little Fool", Costello clearly mangles the word "bird" when singing "with a bird in his hand." It sounds more like a hard "k" sound than a "b."

And that's on an album where he took a lot of care with the vocals, recording them all at the end of the process. It's clearly a deliberate choice.

(If you listen to an alternate take from those sessions, he clearly sings "bird." I think Costello, for all his perfectionist tendencies, also just loves it when there are little mistakes and happy accidents. That vocal break on "we won't make a sound" is great.)

I know that Dylan goes through periods where he seems like he doesn't give a shit and is phoning it in, but I don't trust that writer's judgment in assessing Dylan, either. I have a feeling they would have booed when he went electric and said The Basement Tapes lacked "polish."

If I remember right there are some similar things on KOA as well. In Our little Angel his voice just disappears in the end. HAvn´t listened to it for a while. Need to tune in tonight.

[Jocko Wainwright]

It's kind of hilarious that these people are treating Elvis Costello like some sort of American Idol contestant.

[cwr]

It's also interesting to note that the Twitter account for this blog (@SFAllShookDown) has conspicuously neglected to tweet a link to this article.

Perhaps they're too cowardly to get into it with @Questlove @StevenMandel and @ImposterSpeaks all being so active on Twitter. Rae Alexandra talks a tough game on the blog but I'll bet at least part of her must be aware that it's not the smartest move to tell Elvis Costello that he no longer "gives a shit" and to imply that Questlove and The Roots are somehow blinded by his "legend."

[verbal gymnastics]

I think Elvis's vocal flaws deserve a thread of their own.

Let's not forget the flaw in Stella Hurt "twe-, nineteen twenty-nine"

[chickendinna]

Of course we're going to come to the defense of Elvis. We're fans, aren't we? This is much to do about nothing. I've never thought that he phoned it in. I love the track and can't wait to hear the whole album. I give him credit for teaming up with the Roots. I don't believe that any one of us saw that coming. This could turn out to be a really inspired pairing.

[Poor Deportee]

Is there any vocal on a studio album where EC can be thought to have "phoned it in?" I'm not even sure how I would make that determination.

I think a much more relevant criticism is when he oversings trying to get the song over. In the case of a tune like "Alibi," this is presumably because the material isn't up to scratch; in the case of excellent songs like "Church Underground" this seems to be just an unfortunate aesthetic choice. Then there's the exaggerated straining at play on, say, "God Give Me Strength" or (Lord help us) "Still Too Soon to Know." EC was always a singer with distinctive mannerisms, but over the years he's occasionally allowed them to get in the way of the song, and this tendency got worse rather than better over the 1990s and into the 2000s.

That's not dialing it in. It's the opposite.