Review of Painted From Memory
London Sunday Times, 1998-10-04
- Andrew Smith

Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach
Painted From Memory
Andrew Smith

It must have been difficult for this pan-generational songwriting dream team
to decide just how to approach the production of this record; whether to evoke
the 1960s or drag the old master into the 1990s. What we get is a compromise
-classic instrumentation with glossy modern production-which can be
off-puttingly redolent of the tragic Bacharach/Bayer Seger period at first,
especially on flashier tunes such as The Long Division. It can't completely
spoil the rest, though. There is simply no way of hiding the grand,
Make-It-Easy-on-Yourself-style sweep of an In The Darkest Place or God Give Me
Strength, nor the simple seduction of Toledo. In fact, Bacharach proves he
still has plenty of those luminously bittersweet melodies inside him and it's
hard to think of an active lyricist who would be more suited to complimenting
them than Mr. Costello. If it came with a roaring fire, a few friends and
bottle of fine brandy, it would be near perfect.