David Lee Roth of the Eighties hair metal jokers Van Halen once claimed that rock critics only liked Elvis Costello because he looked like them. I would go one farther and say it is because we know a kindred spirit when we see one. The snarky superiority, the nerdy awkwardness, thinking he's cooler than he is, being an all-round smartarse... he's cut from the same cloth. But there is one vital difference: he can write songs and we can't.
That ability comes to the fore on Costello's first album with the Imposters since 2008, recorded in New York shortly before he had surgery to remove a small but malignant growth. Look Now is not, however, a reflection on mortality. It is an upbeat collection of smart story songs, with a melodic sophistication that suggests some of his former collaborator Burt Bacharach's magic has rubbed off on Costello.
"Stripping Paper" is a case in point. A portrait of a divorced woman reflecting on her old marriage as she strips the walls, it is as poignant as it is clever. "Back then we didn't have means for fine decoration," sings Costello, "so we painted while mixing wine with flirtation." Set against a descending piano melody, the words capture the sadness of a dying relationship beautifully.
"Photographs Can Lie," co-written with Bacharach, is also sung from a female perspective. A daughter looks at an old picture of her parents and battles with the knowledge that her much-loved father was cheating on her mother at the time. And "Don't Look Now" captures the ennui of a model trying to protect herself from unwanted attention. All of these reject the rootsy Americana Costello has dabbled in on recent albums for a jazz-tinged, almost intellectual take on easy listening, mixed with a touch of Sixties soul: all tinkling pianos and smooth, locked-in rhythms.
Amid the character portraits, Costello finds time for a quick reflection on Brexit. "John Bull got caught with his pants down," observes a wealthy British man who has been living in the US for years on the string-laden "I Let the Sun Go Down." Yet like all of the songs on Look Now, the mood is thoughtful rather than judging; hopeful rather than cynical. Perhaps Costello is less like a rock critic than we thought.
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