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Last time he was in America, Elvis Costello ruffled a few feathers by drunkenly insulting Ray Charles and getting decked by Bonnie Bramlett for his comments. Predictably, Costello's newest album, Trust, a 14-song tribute to his prolific writing talents, incorporates that incident. "You need protection from the physical part of conversation," sings Elvis in "Never Be a Man."
The feisty, bespectacled performer seems in an uncharacteristically mellow mood this LP around, with the once-spitfire delivery slowed up enough so you can even savor the patently elliptical Costello phrasing. "Clubland" is the first U.K. single and leads off the album, with keyboardist Steve Naive's wicked classical break the highlight. Throughout Trust, it is Naive's keyboards-for-every-occasion that give the cuts their distinctive flavor, whether that be the honky-tonk piano in "Different Finger," the soap opera flourishes of "Shot With His Own Gun," the hurdy-gurdy carnival calliope of "Fish 'n' Chip Paper" or the lilting organ of "Watch Your Step."
Trust displays a more mature, thoughtful Elvis, his voice a few shades less frenetic and even lower to signify his newfound wisdom. On "Lovers Walk," he even admits to "looking for a hand with the personal touch" — a confession he probably wouldn't have voiced a few albums ago. Another highlight is a raucous call-and-response duet with lead guitarist Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, the band that opens for Elvis in an already sold-out Palladium appearance, Saturday through Monday.
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