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His first solo album since 2010's National Ransom certainly delivers on Elvis Costello's stated aim to produce something "vivid, whether... loud and jagged or intimate and beautiful."
The eclectic tone is set from the start and incorporates scat singing on the title track and "I Can't Say Her Name" and a variety of brass and woodwind flourishes from the trio of Parisian musicians involved — alongside Costello's long-time collaborator Steve Nieve — in the two-day session which produced the bulk of the album.
The single "We're All Cowards Now" is a standout moment along with "Hetty O'Hara Confidential," about the rise and fall of a fearsome gossip columnist, and the Tom Waits-esque "What Is It That I Need That I Don't Already Have?"
It may not rank alongside his classic albums but Hey Clockface is an interesting and worthwhile addition to the catalogue.
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