Review of Painted From Memory
News & Reviews
TIME OUT, 1998-09-23


PAINTED FROM MEMORY
Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach
by Ross Fortune

<Picture>Hey, hosanna, pop music as the good Lord always intended it, 
courtesy of the bespectacled craftsman and the platinum old master. 
Following their collaboration for the Grace Of My Heart soundtrack - 
the epic and sublime "God Give Me Strength" (also included here) - 
this album’s depth and beauty should come as no surprise. Certainly, 
it doesn’t disappoint. In a classy set of 12 big, irresistibly catchy 
songs, Bacharach plays piano and conducts a 24-piece pop orchestra, 
while Costello thunders and emotes, singing his hear out with plangent 
and earnest aplomb - ably providing the spit to Bacharach’s polish. In
truth, possiblythe album’s only weakness lies in Costello’s tendency 
to over sing; his too wracked and straining voice sometimes jarring 
amid such beauteous and lush surrounds.  But it’s a minor quibble.

Overwhelmingly this is a great album.  Sensitively orchestrated, with
additional keyboard contributions from Steve Nieve and a sprinkling
of female backing vocals to soften the tone, the two protagonists meld
their respective songwriting might in a mature fusion of styles and suffusion
of identity. "Toledo" immediately stands out - a gently paced, haunting and
graceful piece to set beside anything from Bacharach’s inestimable canon -
but it is just one delicious and delightful part of the elegantly crafted and
sharply focused whole. Veering stylishly, with soulful languor, from savage
melancholy to soaring epic, "Painted From Memory" is a an honest and blue,
tender and true masterpiece of punchy and pristine, deft moody splendour.