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One day, there should be a comprehensive Elvis Costello anthology that covers his entire career and it should be called "The Many Moods of Elvis Costello." Since he arrived on the scene in 1977, his musical path has covered new wave, baroque-style pop, country, string quartet, soul, pre-rock pop (with Burt Bacharach), hip-hop (with The Roots) and about every variation of rock music short of metal.
Costello's new album, Hey Clockface, feels like a microcosm of his career in that it is so varied that you can't place it in a genre. There's effectively tense and multi-faceted rock on "Newspaper Pane" and "We Are All Cowards Now," while "The Whirlwind" and "Byline" sound like they could have been songs birthed during Costello's sessions for Painted From Memory — the album he made with Bacharach.
"I Can't Say Her Name" and "Hey Clockface / How Can You Face Me?" are informed by old-time jazz, Dixieland and ragtime. On "Hetty O'Hara Confidential" and "No Flag," Costello embraces modern production techniques and creates songs that can only be described as rock or pop, but also inject elements of soul, hip-hop and various forms of electronica — all wrapped in hooks that are forceful, yet accessible.
Not everything works. Costello's forays into spoken word on "Revolution #49" and "Radio Is Everything" don't quite connect. Still, with its wide-ranging styles and adventurous arrangements, Hey Clockface is unlike any previous Costello album and it rewards those who like music that can challenge and please in equal amounts.
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