Review of Painted From Memory
Daily Telegraph, 1998-10-03
- Neil McCormick


Attraction

As accomplished musically as he is lyrically, Costello has never really
required a songwriting partner, but a passion for the music of his youth
has led to an undistinguished stint playing latterday Lennon and McCartney
and now a complete album as lyricist and vocalist for the king of easy
listening.

This curious collaboration draws mostly on Bacharach's oeuvre. The light
but imaginative melodies, sophisticated arrangements and complex rhythms
all hearken back to the swinging Sixties, when Bacharach was in his prime
and Costello in primary school.

At times, the muted trumpets and saccharine female choirs push the whole
exercise towards parody, something that lyrical references to middle
America (Toledo and Ohio get namechecked) only serve to emphasise. But,in
his favour, Costello forgoes the tortuous puns and over-elaborate metaphors
that often undermine his best work, turning in a series of mature lyrics
contemplating complex, adult relationships. With a vocal stylist like
Dionne Warwick, the result would have been old-fashioned but classy.
Costello's voice, however, was never meant for this. Over-exposed his
wracked crooning verges on the unpleasant.

The duo's finest moment, God Give Me Strength, was also their first
co-composition, an ambitious and impassioned pastiche that plays to the
strengths of both participants. In pop music you can often achieve more in
three minutes than you can in 60, so while subsequent Bacharach and
Costello songs display many qualities, they never achieve the same heights
as the first effort.