With the release of King Of America earlier this year, it was hats off to a solo Costello, more adventurous than he'd been in a long while. This time though, he's saddled up with the Attractions again, and the result is, well, predictable.
What we have is another catalogue of paranoias and bedroom dramas, all deftly executed, sure, but by now it's been refined into an academic exercise. There are a few moments where spontaneity shines through, such as on the bittersweet "Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head," or on the intro to "Next Time Around," but much of it gets buried in stylised self-absorption. By anyone else's standards, this is a decent record, but we all know that this man can do a lot better.
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