Review of Painted From Memory
The Who Weekly, 1998-10-19
- Barry Divola

Painted from Memory
Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach (Mercury)

This kind of makes sense. The piano-playing, 
orchestra-conducting gent who made the whole world 
sing about love in the 1960s, matched with the 
bespectacled guy who has spent the past couple of 
decades using every genre at his disposal to inform 
us that love is a battlefield. What a beautiful 
relationship it could make.

The happy couple dance effortlessly from the outset, 
with "In the Darkest Place" the best track on the 
album - a pillowy drumbeat, sweet female backing 
vocals, Bacharach's pocket-symphony arrangement and 
Costello's unique phasing (phrasing?)all coming 
together. It works because the two work as one. 
Later, you can more easily differentiate their 
contributions - "I Still Have That Other Girl" is 
more Elvis; "This House Is Empty Now bears the Burt 
trademarks.

Painted from Memory sags in the middle somewhat, 
where a couple of tracks take a trip down a 
synthesised middle-of-the-road route - "The Long 
Division" is too strained; "Such Unlikely Lovers" 
could be an out-take from a 1980s Steve Winwood 
album. End result? Not the perfect couple, but 
certainly a dynamic duo who give adult-oriented pop 
a good name.

RATING: B