http://www.losdiscosdepenedo.com/2008/0 ... ofuku.html
ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS - "Momofuku" (2008)
Publicado por Javier Penedo
28may
Ha vuelto a sus comienzos. Después de probar el Jazz junto a su esposa Diana Krall o incluso la música clásica, Costello ha vuelto a ser el Costello de los 70 y 80.
"Momofuku" empezó siendo un proyecto del artista británico que iba a tener sólo vida en vinilo y formato digital, con la intención de llamar la atención de la gran depresión de la industria musical; pero al final se ha rendido, y lo ha publicado también en CD.
El título del disco (un tanto extraño, pensarás) sirve para rendir homenaje a Momofuku Ando, el inventor de una comida asiática conocida como "ramen" que se vende seca en bolsas y que se cocina virtiendo agua hirviendo sobre ella.
El grupo que lo acompaña, The Imposters, está compuesto por Davey Faragher (Bajo), Jonathan Rice (guitarra) y Dave Scher, junto a Pete y Tennesse Thomas.
Lo cierto es que su sonido me recuerda un poco al que tenía en su álbum debut "My Aim Is True". Lo digo, por canciones como "Pardom Me Madam, My Name Is Eve", que puedes escuchar si te apetece...
"Momofuku" review
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bambooneedle
- Posts: 4533
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Re: "Momofuku" review
<hand up> I espeak espanish.johnfoyle wrote:http://www.losdiscosdepenedo.com/2008/0 ... ofuku.html
ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS - "Momofuku" (2008)
Publicado por Javier Penedo
28may
Ha vuelto a sus comienzos. Después de probar el Jazz junto a su esposa Diana Krall o incluso la música clásica, Costello ha vuelto a ser el Costello de los 70 y 80.
"Momofuku" empezó siendo un proyecto del artista británico que iba a tener sólo vida en vinilo y formato digital, con la intención de llamar la atención de la gran depresión de la industria musical; pero al final se ha rendido, y lo ha publicado también en CD.
El título del disco (un tanto extraño, pensarás) sirve para rendir homenaje a Momofuku Ando, el inventor de una comida asiática conocida como "ramen" que se vende seca en bolsas y que se cocina virtiendo agua hirviendo sobre ella.
El grupo que lo acompaña, The Imposters, está compuesto por Davey Faragher (Bajo), Jonathan Rice (guitarra) y Dave Scher, junto a Pete y Tennesse Thomas.
Lo cierto es que su sonido me recuerda un poco al que tenía en su álbum debut "My Aim Is True". Lo digo, por canciones como "Pardom Me Madam, My Name Is Eve", que puedes escuchar si te apetece...
Nothing new.
Re: "Momofuku" review
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 36577.html
Album: Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Momofuku (Lost Highway)
Reviewed by Andy Gill
Friday, 30 May 2008
Recorded as an offshoot of sessions for a Rilo Kiley album, Momofuku has an impromptu quality lacking in Elvis Costello's more considered recent work. Rattling from style to style as Costello aims at one target after another, there's a brusque impatience about the album, which in some cases transfers to the listener: frankly, it's hard to raise two hoots of interest in songs like the McCartneyesque trifle "Mr Feathers", the schematic "Stella Hurt" or the melodrama "Go Away".
Elsewhere, he sounds as bitterly animated as ever: lines like "I'm a limited, primitive kind of man" and "Whatever I said about you, I didn't say it behind your back" could have come from his early albums, and the emotional autopsies of "Harry Worth" and "Pardon Me Madam, My Name Is Eve" are as unflinching as any in his canon. Railing respectively against internet nastiness and the way the American flag is used as a gag, "No Hiding Place" and "American Gangster Time" are the money tracks, though the most neatly turned and moving is "Song With Rose".
Pick of the album:'Song With Rose', 'No Hiding Place', 'American Gangster Time', 'Pardon Me Madam, My Name Is Eve'
Album: Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Momofuku (Lost Highway)
Reviewed by Andy Gill
Friday, 30 May 2008
Recorded as an offshoot of sessions for a Rilo Kiley album, Momofuku has an impromptu quality lacking in Elvis Costello's more considered recent work. Rattling from style to style as Costello aims at one target after another, there's a brusque impatience about the album, which in some cases transfers to the listener: frankly, it's hard to raise two hoots of interest in songs like the McCartneyesque trifle "Mr Feathers", the schematic "Stella Hurt" or the melodrama "Go Away".
Elsewhere, he sounds as bitterly animated as ever: lines like "I'm a limited, primitive kind of man" and "Whatever I said about you, I didn't say it behind your back" could have come from his early albums, and the emotional autopsies of "Harry Worth" and "Pardon Me Madam, My Name Is Eve" are as unflinching as any in his canon. Railing respectively against internet nastiness and the way the American flag is used as a gag, "No Hiding Place" and "American Gangster Time" are the money tracks, though the most neatly turned and moving is "Song With Rose".
Pick of the album:'Song With Rose', 'No Hiding Place', 'American Gangster Time', 'Pardon Me Madam, My Name Is Eve'
Re: "Momofuku" review
Not to quibble, but 'Go Away' a melodrama??
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Who Shot Sam?
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- Contact:
Re: "Momofuku" review
Frank at Chromewaves talks about Momofuku - quite positively - and has a contest with some free copies to give away...
http://www.chromewaves.net/?itemid=3040
http://www.chromewaves.net/?itemid=3040
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
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invisible Pole
- Posts: 2228
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Re: "Momofuku" review
Looks like Ms. Kelly forgot to check Steve's surname. 
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/revi ... -momofuku/
Elvis Costello and The Imposters
Momofuku
by Jennifer Kelly
Pump it up again.
In his 28th studio album, Elvis Costello revisits the brash and angry territories of his first three albums, collaborates with country legends Loretta Lynn and Roseanne Cash and flirts with more genres than you can count on one hand. Still, you have to wonder, are these great songs or do they just remind you of great songs?
Costello reconvenes the Impostors for Momofuku, which is two-thirds of the way towards assembling the late 1970s to mid-1980s Attractions—and a big part of his best work. Steve Nieves, whose trilling Vox defined hits like “Pump It Up” and “(I Don’t Want to) Go to Chelsea” (and whose classically-influenced grand piano contributed sheen of refinement to later songs), is back and seemingly same as ever. Pete Thomas, behind the kit since 1977’s “Watching the Detectives” has returned to provide the pounding tension behind torrid “Turpentine”, the steady gospel swing of “Flutter and Wow”, the explosive rock rhythms of “No Hiding Place”. Davey Faragher, who joined for 2002’s back-to-rock When I Was Cruel, does some wonderfully subtle bass work, urgent and pulsing on “Drum & Bone”, Latin slinky on the undulating “Harry Worth”, full of sensual slides on “No Hiding Place”. And, then, of course, there is Costello himself, returning in fabulous, hoarsely sardonic voice, slashing away on every variety of guitar and slipping in the kind of intricate wordplay that led him to declare himself “rock and roll’s scrabble champion” in the early 1980s.
All of which means that Elvis Costello, 30 years on since “Less than Zero”, sounds very much like Elvis Costello, abrasively intelligent, rhythmically unstoppable, harsh and soulful at the same time and, er, able to leap genres in a single bound. “American Gangster Time”, the standout among this disc’s rock songs, is a dark-toned triumph, its pessimistic imagery (the song opens with a pretty woman on her knees exchanging sex for drugs) hitched to exuberant rock riffs and a soaring chorus. Nieves’ Vox Continental alone would be enough to transport you back in time 30 years, trilling and squealing above the melody, even without the complex image-heavy lyrics that Costello spits and stutters. And yet, here’s a question: if you didn’t already long for exactly that sound, due to layers of personal history and three decades of affiliation with the Elvis Costello enterprise, would it have the same impact? Would “American Gangster Time” stop you cold the way that “Accidents Will Happen” or “Red Shoes” or “Watching the Detectives did all those years ago? It’s hard to say, but I’m leaning towards probably not.
Hardcore first-three-albums fans will lock onto the first three tracks of Momofuku, which hew most closely to the classic new wave Elvis sound. Starting with “Harry Worth”—a loungy, Latin-rhythmed stalk through images of a ruined marriage ("He said, do you hear that noise? Well, that once was our song.")—the album turns more contemplative and slower, tapping into mid-period Costello fascinations with jazz, pop and country. There is a warm and touching song dedicated to Costello’s children ("My Three Song") and a scratchy soul ballad that is subtly, obliquely about the garden of Eden ("Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve"). Costello, a champion collaborator, brings in two of the first ladies of country to write lyrics for him, Roseanne Cash for the grand “Song With Rose” and Loretta Lynn for “Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve.” Dave Scher of the Beachwood Sparks sits in on pedal or lap steel in four of 12 cuts, lending an indefinable rural melancholy to the proceedings.
Scher is also one member of a high-profile vocal “supergroup”—others include Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice—whose airy wooh-oohs and aaahs dot otherwise raw and uncompromising songs. I have nothing against these artists, personally, as singers or as musicians, but they get in the way. “Turpentine” almost sinks under the weight of their embellishments, its raucous, guitar-and-drum frenzy slipping under a too-sweet doo-woppy refrain of “Turpentine....” You can admire Costello’s willingness to reach out to the next generation, to incorporate them into his work, but it doesn’t really work. If anything the backing vocals obscure his edge, and Elvis Costello’s edge is something worth preserving.
In the end, Momofuku is the kind of more-than-solid effort that reaffirms a great artists’ relevance, but doesn’t quite prove it all over again. It allows Elvis Costello to rampage over knotty rock tunes with a seasoned band, and to breathe soul and artistry into down-tempo meditations. It may not add a single classic to the 20 to 30 great songs under the Elvis Costello byline, but it reminds us of them, and that’s a good thing.
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/revi ... -momofuku/
Elvis Costello and The Imposters
Momofuku
by Jennifer Kelly
Pump it up again.
In his 28th studio album, Elvis Costello revisits the brash and angry territories of his first three albums, collaborates with country legends Loretta Lynn and Roseanne Cash and flirts with more genres than you can count on one hand. Still, you have to wonder, are these great songs or do they just remind you of great songs?
Costello reconvenes the Impostors for Momofuku, which is two-thirds of the way towards assembling the late 1970s to mid-1980s Attractions—and a big part of his best work. Steve Nieves, whose trilling Vox defined hits like “Pump It Up” and “(I Don’t Want to) Go to Chelsea” (and whose classically-influenced grand piano contributed sheen of refinement to later songs), is back and seemingly same as ever. Pete Thomas, behind the kit since 1977’s “Watching the Detectives” has returned to provide the pounding tension behind torrid “Turpentine”, the steady gospel swing of “Flutter and Wow”, the explosive rock rhythms of “No Hiding Place”. Davey Faragher, who joined for 2002’s back-to-rock When I Was Cruel, does some wonderfully subtle bass work, urgent and pulsing on “Drum & Bone”, Latin slinky on the undulating “Harry Worth”, full of sensual slides on “No Hiding Place”. And, then, of course, there is Costello himself, returning in fabulous, hoarsely sardonic voice, slashing away on every variety of guitar and slipping in the kind of intricate wordplay that led him to declare himself “rock and roll’s scrabble champion” in the early 1980s.
All of which means that Elvis Costello, 30 years on since “Less than Zero”, sounds very much like Elvis Costello, abrasively intelligent, rhythmically unstoppable, harsh and soulful at the same time and, er, able to leap genres in a single bound. “American Gangster Time”, the standout among this disc’s rock songs, is a dark-toned triumph, its pessimistic imagery (the song opens with a pretty woman on her knees exchanging sex for drugs) hitched to exuberant rock riffs and a soaring chorus. Nieves’ Vox Continental alone would be enough to transport you back in time 30 years, trilling and squealing above the melody, even without the complex image-heavy lyrics that Costello spits and stutters. And yet, here’s a question: if you didn’t already long for exactly that sound, due to layers of personal history and three decades of affiliation with the Elvis Costello enterprise, would it have the same impact? Would “American Gangster Time” stop you cold the way that “Accidents Will Happen” or “Red Shoes” or “Watching the Detectives did all those years ago? It’s hard to say, but I’m leaning towards probably not.
Hardcore first-three-albums fans will lock onto the first three tracks of Momofuku, which hew most closely to the classic new wave Elvis sound. Starting with “Harry Worth”—a loungy, Latin-rhythmed stalk through images of a ruined marriage ("He said, do you hear that noise? Well, that once was our song.")—the album turns more contemplative and slower, tapping into mid-period Costello fascinations with jazz, pop and country. There is a warm and touching song dedicated to Costello’s children ("My Three Song") and a scratchy soul ballad that is subtly, obliquely about the garden of Eden ("Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve"). Costello, a champion collaborator, brings in two of the first ladies of country to write lyrics for him, Roseanne Cash for the grand “Song With Rose” and Loretta Lynn for “Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve.” Dave Scher of the Beachwood Sparks sits in on pedal or lap steel in four of 12 cuts, lending an indefinable rural melancholy to the proceedings.
Scher is also one member of a high-profile vocal “supergroup”—others include Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice—whose airy wooh-oohs and aaahs dot otherwise raw and uncompromising songs. I have nothing against these artists, personally, as singers or as musicians, but they get in the way. “Turpentine” almost sinks under the weight of their embellishments, its raucous, guitar-and-drum frenzy slipping under a too-sweet doo-woppy refrain of “Turpentine....” You can admire Costello’s willingness to reach out to the next generation, to incorporate them into his work, but it doesn’t really work. If anything the backing vocals obscure his edge, and Elvis Costello’s edge is something worth preserving.
In the end, Momofuku is the kind of more-than-solid effort that reaffirms a great artists’ relevance, but doesn’t quite prove it all over again. It allows Elvis Costello to rampage over knotty rock tunes with a seasoned band, and to breathe soul and artistry into down-tempo meditations. It may not add a single classic to the 20 to 30 great songs under the Elvis Costello byline, but it reminds us of them, and that’s a good thing.
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: "Momofuku" review
Very funny and clueless review. 
Too many glaring factual errors to count but my favorite is "Pete Thomas, behind the kit since 1977’s “Watching the Detectives” has returned to provide the pounding tension. . ." We all know that the Rumour's Steve Goulding contributed the drum track to "Detectives".
Too many glaring factual errors to count but my favorite is "Pete Thomas, behind the kit since 1977’s “Watching the Detectives” has returned to provide the pounding tension. . ." We all know that the Rumour's Steve Goulding contributed the drum track to "Detectives".
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: "Momofuku" review
And she doesn't know where to place an apostrophe ('a great artists' relevance', tsk, tsk).
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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Who Shot Sam?
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Re: "Momofuku" review
I'm amazed by how careless people are about the use of apostrophes. I went to pick up my kids at school earlier this week, and someone had painted on the wall in the cafeteria, "Only [XX] day's until summer." I told my daughter to walk over to the wall and scrape off the apostrophe with her fingernail.Otis Westinghouse wrote:And she doesn't know where to place an apostrophe ('a great artists' relevance', tsk, tsk).
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: "Momofuku" review
Known as 'the greengrocer's apostrophe' here (as in 'Apple's £1.50 kg'). Never had you down as the male Lynne Truss, WSS! Was that book big in the States? Massive here. I found it intensely irritating despite being an editorial pedant and apostrophe stickler. People predict it will die altogether, probably first for possessives and then abbreviations, but I resolutely include them in my text messages, etc.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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Who Shot Sam?
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Re: "Momofuku" review
I wouldn't normally have been that bothered about it, but this was in a school cafeteria. You know - a school, where they are supposed to be teaching kids (or should that be kid's?) to use proper grammar and punctuation! I suppose you could say I'm just being pedantic, but if no one protests it just becomes accepted usage.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
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Otis Westinghouse
- Posts: 8856
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
- Location: The theatre of dreams
Re: "Momofuku" review
I'm with you, dude!
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
Re: "Momofuku" review
It seems Mojo/Uncut/Q/The Word ( although I haven't seen the August issue yet) are giving 'fuku a miss as regards a review. If anything were needed to show how spoon-fed ( as in, if they have to be given it - they won't go and look for it) the U.K. music press is , Elvis' under-the-radar tactic would seem to be a good example.
However, Record Collector continue their excellent ways , the latest issue having news about many a tasty release and a 'fuku review -
Record Collector , August '08.
Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Momofuku
****
Lost Highway 0602417665835
A rush job that reaps rich rewards
Having fulfilled his guest duties on the forthcoming Jenny Lewis record, Costello was fired up to stay in the studio and knock out a “quickie” of his own. Momofuku was, he claims, mostly written and recorded in about three weeks, and the immediacy and spontaneity of the project will remind fans of 1986’s Blood & Chocolate.
In common with that superb set, there’s a rough’n’ready garage feel that harks back to the past: Steve Nieve’s stabbing Vox Continental organ parts on American Gangster Time and Go Away (both with Lewis chiming in on harmonies) have the cut and thrust of This Year’s Model. Elvis the soul crooner also gets a look in (Flutter & Wow), and there’s graceful country imagery to the Loretta Lynn co-write Pardon Me Madam My Name Is Eve, while Stella Hurt and Turpentine boast the staccato twists of the tougher elements of The Delivery Man.
Costello had planned to take the year off to spend time with his young twins, but they’re remembered alongside his grown-up offspring on the tender My Three Sons. He may relish diversity in his ongoing career (a second ballet score was premiered in America in March), but Momofuku is living proof that he’s not forgotten how to rock.
Terry Staunton
However, Record Collector continue their excellent ways , the latest issue having news about many a tasty release and a 'fuku review -
Record Collector , August '08.
Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Momofuku
****
Lost Highway 0602417665835
A rush job that reaps rich rewards
Having fulfilled his guest duties on the forthcoming Jenny Lewis record, Costello was fired up to stay in the studio and knock out a “quickie” of his own. Momofuku was, he claims, mostly written and recorded in about three weeks, and the immediacy and spontaneity of the project will remind fans of 1986’s Blood & Chocolate.
In common with that superb set, there’s a rough’n’ready garage feel that harks back to the past: Steve Nieve’s stabbing Vox Continental organ parts on American Gangster Time and Go Away (both with Lewis chiming in on harmonies) have the cut and thrust of This Year’s Model. Elvis the soul crooner also gets a look in (Flutter & Wow), and there’s graceful country imagery to the Loretta Lynn co-write Pardon Me Madam My Name Is Eve, while Stella Hurt and Turpentine boast the staccato twists of the tougher elements of The Delivery Man.
Costello had planned to take the year off to spend time with his young twins, but they’re remembered alongside his grown-up offspring on the tender My Three Sons. He may relish diversity in his ongoing career (a second ballet score was premiered in America in March), but Momofuku is living proof that he’s not forgotten how to rock.
Terry Staunton
Re: "Momofuku" review
http://www.nodepression.net/newreviews/ ... sters.html
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS
Momofuku
(Lost Highway)
(NO DEPRESSION.NET) -- Momofuku is Elvis Costello's best album since...well, you can make your own call. As for me, I'd say Momofuku is his best work since at least 1996's All This Useless Beauty and perhaps even his best since the 1980s -- since the unspectacular but strikingly consistent Spike in 1989, or the spectacular but strikingly inconsistent Blood And Chocolate from three years earlier. I don't know. I'll get back to you.
But I do feel confident enough to proclaim Momofuku the best rock record Costello has made on which he didn't share billing with his golden-age backing band, the Attractions. Granted, Costello's non-Attractions rock efforts (Mighty Like A Rose, When I Was Cruel and the rest) have nearly always featured Attractions drummer Pete Thomas as well as that band's keyboard wizard, Steve Nieve. So I guess what I really mean to say is that Momofuku is Elvis' finest rock record sans Attractions bass player (and Costello nemesis) Bruce Thomas.
Aside from the hardly insignificant detail that those early Elvis Costello & the Attractions albums were part of a punk/new-wave moment that can't be replicated, the real disappointment I feel concerning Costello's post-Attractions work is all about their sound. I'm not sure exactly what Bruce Thomas' bass work -- slippery, at once rhythmic and melodic, always unpredictable -- brought to the party. Did his playing make his mates play differently in response? Or is it that Costello's latter-day backing band, the Imposters (basically the Attractions with bassist Davey Faragher in Bruce Thomas' place) have simply wanted to avoid, their name to the contrary, the old Attractions sound?
Whatever the explanation, those Attractions records sound like Attractions records; they sound instantly as if no other band could possibly be playing. This is particularly the case with the Attractions' urgent, busy rhythm section, which more than anything else helped to transform Costello's not inconsiderable vocal limitations into his distinctively Costello-ish vocal strengths. Costello's Imposters records, meanwhile, typically find both Nieve and Pete Thomas, two of the most singular players to ever grace a rock 'n' roll record, sounding like nothing more than a really good session group.
This creates another problem. Costello's unmistakable tone and phrasing now must carry all the weight of making his latter-day recordings sound like Elvis Costello records -- and Costello's voice these days, turned deeper and raspier with age, and whispery thin on its high end, is a ragged one indeed. This happens to a lot of singers as they get older. It happened to two of Costello's heroes, George Jones and Tony Bennett. But unlike those masters, Costello has yet to adapt his phrasing and melodies to make best use of his new instrument.
On Momofuku, Costello sometimes sounds like he couldn't sing quietly if he needed to -- and he needs to. On "Flutter And Wow" and "My Three Sons", songs as sweet and tender as any he's ever written, he can't make his voice sound either sweet or tender in the choruses; it's as if he requires the running head start of a shout to hit the notes.
Still, as I say, this is the best Costello album since... His songs remain strong as ever, and Momofuku benefits, too, from the energy of putting down the tracks in a hurry and mostly live. I'm particularly fond of the raging attack on our YouTube culture, "No Hiding Place", that opens the disc, and of "Harry Worth", which sounds, both musically and emotionally, like Sergio Mendes swallowing castor oil. Wisely, when Costello strains for the highest notes of the chorus, his paper-thin voice is masked by a small group of even higher voices. Then his voice fades from the mix altogether, though his bittersweet words are still ringing in our ears.
-- DAVID CANTWELL
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS
Momofuku
(Lost Highway)
(NO DEPRESSION.NET) -- Momofuku is Elvis Costello's best album since...well, you can make your own call. As for me, I'd say Momofuku is his best work since at least 1996's All This Useless Beauty and perhaps even his best since the 1980s -- since the unspectacular but strikingly consistent Spike in 1989, or the spectacular but strikingly inconsistent Blood And Chocolate from three years earlier. I don't know. I'll get back to you.
But I do feel confident enough to proclaim Momofuku the best rock record Costello has made on which he didn't share billing with his golden-age backing band, the Attractions. Granted, Costello's non-Attractions rock efforts (Mighty Like A Rose, When I Was Cruel and the rest) have nearly always featured Attractions drummer Pete Thomas as well as that band's keyboard wizard, Steve Nieve. So I guess what I really mean to say is that Momofuku is Elvis' finest rock record sans Attractions bass player (and Costello nemesis) Bruce Thomas.
Aside from the hardly insignificant detail that those early Elvis Costello & the Attractions albums were part of a punk/new-wave moment that can't be replicated, the real disappointment I feel concerning Costello's post-Attractions work is all about their sound. I'm not sure exactly what Bruce Thomas' bass work -- slippery, at once rhythmic and melodic, always unpredictable -- brought to the party. Did his playing make his mates play differently in response? Or is it that Costello's latter-day backing band, the Imposters (basically the Attractions with bassist Davey Faragher in Bruce Thomas' place) have simply wanted to avoid, their name to the contrary, the old Attractions sound?
Whatever the explanation, those Attractions records sound like Attractions records; they sound instantly as if no other band could possibly be playing. This is particularly the case with the Attractions' urgent, busy rhythm section, which more than anything else helped to transform Costello's not inconsiderable vocal limitations into his distinctively Costello-ish vocal strengths. Costello's Imposters records, meanwhile, typically find both Nieve and Pete Thomas, two of the most singular players to ever grace a rock 'n' roll record, sounding like nothing more than a really good session group.
This creates another problem. Costello's unmistakable tone and phrasing now must carry all the weight of making his latter-day recordings sound like Elvis Costello records -- and Costello's voice these days, turned deeper and raspier with age, and whispery thin on its high end, is a ragged one indeed. This happens to a lot of singers as they get older. It happened to two of Costello's heroes, George Jones and Tony Bennett. But unlike those masters, Costello has yet to adapt his phrasing and melodies to make best use of his new instrument.
On Momofuku, Costello sometimes sounds like he couldn't sing quietly if he needed to -- and he needs to. On "Flutter And Wow" and "My Three Sons", songs as sweet and tender as any he's ever written, he can't make his voice sound either sweet or tender in the choruses; it's as if he requires the running head start of a shout to hit the notes.
Still, as I say, this is the best Costello album since... His songs remain strong as ever, and Momofuku benefits, too, from the energy of putting down the tracks in a hurry and mostly live. I'm particularly fond of the raging attack on our YouTube culture, "No Hiding Place", that opens the disc, and of "Harry Worth", which sounds, both musically and emotionally, like Sergio Mendes swallowing castor oil. Wisely, when Costello strains for the highest notes of the chorus, his paper-thin voice is masked by a small group of even higher voices. Then his voice fades from the mix altogether, though his bittersweet words are still ringing in our ears.
-- DAVID CANTWELL
Re: "Momofuku" review
I like that Cantwell review. Refreshing to see a rock record review where the critic actually addresses the sound of a record.
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verbal gymnastics
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Re: "Momofuku" review
Agreed.
I agree that Flutter and Wow and My Three Sons could benefit from softer vocals.
In a similar vein, Billy Bragg has made two beautifully soft songs in Saturday Boy and Wish You Were Her but he doesn't have the softness to carry them off well.
I agree that Flutter and Wow and My Three Sons could benefit from softer vocals.
In a similar vein, Billy Bragg has made two beautifully soft songs in Saturday Boy and Wish You Were Her but he doesn't have the softness to carry them off well.
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
Re: "Momofuku" review
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase ... d%3A663238
Austin Chronicle
AUGUST 22, 2008
: MUSIC
Phases and Stages
BY JIM CALIGIURI
Elvis Costello & the Imposters
Momofuku (Lost Highway)
The latest batch of Elvis Costello songs is characteristically mysterious. At one point, the prolific song shape-shifter claimed to have sworn off recording, but Momofuku's appearance materializes as if out of a ramen package: instantaneous. (Momofuku Ando invented the noodle convenience.) Unlike recent Costello discs, there's no theme or concept, just 12 tunes in a familiar style, some mad rock with a dash of soul and country, and wordplay so furious it's difficult to keep up. The swirling "Stella Hurt" is fascinating, although the abrupt ending docks it half a point. In an unusual turn, there are two co-writes: the modern country "Song With Rose," a collaboration with Rosanne Cash, and the funny, creepy "Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve" pairing with Loretta Lynn. Like some of his best work, Momofuku feels thrown together, loose and natural. That he can produce meaningful, listenable work in such situations has always been Elvis Costello's forte.
***
Austin Chronicle
AUGUST 22, 2008
: MUSIC
Phases and Stages
BY JIM CALIGIURI
Elvis Costello & the Imposters
Momofuku (Lost Highway)
The latest batch of Elvis Costello songs is characteristically mysterious. At one point, the prolific song shape-shifter claimed to have sworn off recording, but Momofuku's appearance materializes as if out of a ramen package: instantaneous. (Momofuku Ando invented the noodle convenience.) Unlike recent Costello discs, there's no theme or concept, just 12 tunes in a familiar style, some mad rock with a dash of soul and country, and wordplay so furious it's difficult to keep up. The swirling "Stella Hurt" is fascinating, although the abrupt ending docks it half a point. In an unusual turn, there are two co-writes: the modern country "Song With Rose," a collaboration with Rosanne Cash, and the funny, creepy "Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve" pairing with Loretta Lynn. Like some of his best work, Momofuku feels thrown together, loose and natural. That he can produce meaningful, listenable work in such situations has always been Elvis Costello's forte.
***
Re: "Momofuku" review
Uncut, Oct. '08
Elvis Costello and The Imposters
Momofuku
****
Return to vintage form for souped-up Elvis
Don’t panic, it’s not a ballet or a string quartet, but Costello sounding more Attractions-like than he has in over 2O years. These 12 songs were recorded in a week back in February, and The Imposters seem galvanised by Costello’s songwriting frenzy. The thundering drums and bass of Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher provide the guts, while Steve Nieve displays supernatural cunning on keyboards. It’s Nieve’s demented organ vamp that fires the tyre-squealing “American Gangster”, while his clanging piano in “Song With Rose” evokes Springsteen alumnus Roy Bittan. Meanwhile Elvis rasps, rages and thrashes his Les Paul, pumping it up on “Go Away” and discharging both barrels in “No Hiding Place”. But there’s space for introspection, too, as in the McCartney-ish, music-hall like “Mr Feathers”, or the wry rumba of “Harry Worth”. Fatherhood, hymned in “My Three Sons”, obviously agrees with him.
ADAM SWEETING
Elvis Costello and The Imposters
Momofuku
****
Return to vintage form for souped-up Elvis
Don’t panic, it’s not a ballet or a string quartet, but Costello sounding more Attractions-like than he has in over 2O years. These 12 songs were recorded in a week back in February, and The Imposters seem galvanised by Costello’s songwriting frenzy. The thundering drums and bass of Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher provide the guts, while Steve Nieve displays supernatural cunning on keyboards. It’s Nieve’s demented organ vamp that fires the tyre-squealing “American Gangster”, while his clanging piano in “Song With Rose” evokes Springsteen alumnus Roy Bittan. Meanwhile Elvis rasps, rages and thrashes his Les Paul, pumping it up on “Go Away” and discharging both barrels in “No Hiding Place”. But there’s space for introspection, too, as in the McCartney-ish, music-hall like “Mr Feathers”, or the wry rumba of “Harry Worth”. Fatherhood, hymned in “My Three Sons”, obviously agrees with him.
ADAM SWEETING
Re: "Momofuku" review
http://www.scenepointblank.com/reviews/2140
Elvis Costello
Momofuku
Posted on Friday September 26th, 2008
Kristin writes
It can be kind of intimidating to just jump into the oeuvre of an artist like Elvis Costello. It's like playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but the wonderful old donkey has magic powers that let him move from one decade to the next - he's hard to get a handle on. Honestly, record reviews don't always help that much, when there is such a wealth from which to choose: recommending that you to stay away from this or that album, because it didn't live up to something else recorded fifteen years ago is kind of pointless if your only frames of reference are “Alison”, and that controversial SNL clip somebody put up on YouTube. These things render Elvis Costello familiar to a good many people, but only superficially so. They might lead you to conclude that he is intriguing, awesome and has more culturally significant moments in music history that a lot of other people ever will, but they don't actually provide much in the way of meaningful direction. Suddenly selecting which album to start with becomes an honest-to-god serious task - like a commitment that fills you with a mild trepidation. If you pick the wrong item on a menu that vast you might never want to go to that particular restaurant again, you know? And you're kind of aware that you might be missing out on something awesome if you do that.
Thankfully, Momofuku is one of those albums you can just jump into. The album, sharing a name with the inventor of the Pot Noodle, proves that sometimes the simple, uncomplicated things are the most satisfying. The Imposters' - Steve Nieve (piano and organ), Pete Thomas (drums) and Davey Faragher (bass) - and the guests which appear on this album including Thomas' daughter Tennesee, Jonathan Rice, and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis, conspire to present a melodious hodgepodge of simply classic-sounding songs that showcases crisp, clear songwriting and clever lyrics. It's the effortless, undressed quality of the album that makes it so appealing. Outgoing and assertive in parts, ponderous and reflective in others, Momofuku is always stripped down and straightforward, from the performances to the production. It's an album that pushes and pulls the listener from track to track, creating and maintaining that perfect tension that lets it stand up to repeated listening. The attraction is instant, and it really is that simple.
Standout tracks “No Hiding Place,” “American Gangster Time,” and “Stella Hurt” are snarly, rollicking good romps that show Elvis Costello and the Imposters at their seemingly effortless best. Elvis sound like a grizzly old goat, and it's perfect for the spirited piss-and-vinegar commentary on the grubbiness of contemporary life these songs deliver.
“Harry Worth” relays the age-old story of fools in love in such a gently embittered fashion you can't help but appreciate the hotel bar atmosphere it conjurers, with it's expertly cheesy turns about the keyboard. This is the background music you know you should be paying attention to, because to geezer is imparting some worthwhile home truths about the honeymoon being over. “It's not very far/ from tears to mirth,” indeed.
“Flutter and Wow” and “My Three Sons” are simple soulful ballads, sweeping and sentimental without being crushingly so, and “Pardon Me, Madam, My Name is Eve” establishes for the umpteenth time just how good Elvis is at effortlessly capturing a rich fully developed narrative and cramming it into a single song for you to flesh out at your leisure.
Great melodies, expertly crafted and delivered, Momofuku lets you know you're in the hands of a humble master who can let his work speak for itself.
Elvis Costello
Momofuku
Posted on Friday September 26th, 2008
Kristin writes
It can be kind of intimidating to just jump into the oeuvre of an artist like Elvis Costello. It's like playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but the wonderful old donkey has magic powers that let him move from one decade to the next - he's hard to get a handle on. Honestly, record reviews don't always help that much, when there is such a wealth from which to choose: recommending that you to stay away from this or that album, because it didn't live up to something else recorded fifteen years ago is kind of pointless if your only frames of reference are “Alison”, and that controversial SNL clip somebody put up on YouTube. These things render Elvis Costello familiar to a good many people, but only superficially so. They might lead you to conclude that he is intriguing, awesome and has more culturally significant moments in music history that a lot of other people ever will, but they don't actually provide much in the way of meaningful direction. Suddenly selecting which album to start with becomes an honest-to-god serious task - like a commitment that fills you with a mild trepidation. If you pick the wrong item on a menu that vast you might never want to go to that particular restaurant again, you know? And you're kind of aware that you might be missing out on something awesome if you do that.
Thankfully, Momofuku is one of those albums you can just jump into. The album, sharing a name with the inventor of the Pot Noodle, proves that sometimes the simple, uncomplicated things are the most satisfying. The Imposters' - Steve Nieve (piano and organ), Pete Thomas (drums) and Davey Faragher (bass) - and the guests which appear on this album including Thomas' daughter Tennesee, Jonathan Rice, and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis, conspire to present a melodious hodgepodge of simply classic-sounding songs that showcases crisp, clear songwriting and clever lyrics. It's the effortless, undressed quality of the album that makes it so appealing. Outgoing and assertive in parts, ponderous and reflective in others, Momofuku is always stripped down and straightforward, from the performances to the production. It's an album that pushes and pulls the listener from track to track, creating and maintaining that perfect tension that lets it stand up to repeated listening. The attraction is instant, and it really is that simple.
Standout tracks “No Hiding Place,” “American Gangster Time,” and “Stella Hurt” are snarly, rollicking good romps that show Elvis Costello and the Imposters at their seemingly effortless best. Elvis sound like a grizzly old goat, and it's perfect for the spirited piss-and-vinegar commentary on the grubbiness of contemporary life these songs deliver.
“Harry Worth” relays the age-old story of fools in love in such a gently embittered fashion you can't help but appreciate the hotel bar atmosphere it conjurers, with it's expertly cheesy turns about the keyboard. This is the background music you know you should be paying attention to, because to geezer is imparting some worthwhile home truths about the honeymoon being over. “It's not very far/ from tears to mirth,” indeed.
“Flutter and Wow” and “My Three Sons” are simple soulful ballads, sweeping and sentimental without being crushingly so, and “Pardon Me, Madam, My Name is Eve” establishes for the umpteenth time just how good Elvis is at effortlessly capturing a rich fully developed narrative and cramming it into a single song for you to flesh out at your leisure.
Great melodies, expertly crafted and delivered, Momofuku lets you know you're in the hands of a humble master who can let his work speak for itself.