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When Elvis Costello first covered one of Burt Bacharach's songs the tearjerker "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself," on the 1977 Stiff Records compilation Live Stiffs many fans wondered if the young punk's tribute to the aging schmaltzmeister was tongue-in-cheek. It wasn't. Of all the musicians lumped together by the terms punk and new wave in that revolutionary era, Costello was always the one with the surest grip on pop conventions, and the widest pool of influences: witness the bittersweet "Alison" on his debut album My Aim Is True, a song so gracefully melodic and with such a tortured romanticism that Linda Ronstadt immediately saw fit to cover it. Besides, Costello's rendition of Bacharach's ballad (originally penned for Dusty Springfield) was so sincere, so utterly heartfelt, that his genuine admiration was unmistakable.
Two decades later, that admiration has spawned the unlikely Painted From Memory, an album of songs co-written by Costello and Bacharach, sung by the former and orchestrated by the latter. Growing out of a collaboration that began with the song "God Give Me Strength," which was recorded for the movie Grace of My Heart, Painted From Memory is a striking anomaly in the currents of modern music, but one unlikely to make much impact on the commercial mainstream: Costello's voice is too raw, too nakedly emotional to appeal to fans of Bacharach's lush pop stylings, while Bacharach's extravagant musical sensibility is likely to turn off most of Costello's followers. Too bad for them. Fans of either artist with open minds and a broad enough appreciation of pop music genres are likely to find Painted From Memory one of the year's most rewarding albums.
Like Frank Sinatra's best Capitol recordings of the 1950s, Painted From Memory is a song cycle that explores romantic disillusionment, with only an occasional nod to the passion that leads up to heartbreak. Its best songs make splendid use of both Costello's and Bacharach's talents. Costello has long since learned to temper his vocals, which lends an extra power to the moments he does let loose, as on the wistful title track, or on the yearning "God Give Me Strength," reprised here as the closing track. Bacharach's arrangements are expert, the interplay between strings and muted horns is especially lovely on the opening number, "In the Darkest Place" but the songs are built around his and longtime Costello collaborator Steve Nieve's piano work, as well as the contrasts between Costello's gruff baritone and the smooth soprano vocals of the background chorus.
Not every song is a gem: If Costello has learned to control his emotions as a vocalist, he still has trouble with an occasional tendency to overwrite his lyrics, and Bacharach doesn't always reign in the flowery slickness that made him anathema to Costello's more hard-bitten contemporaries. But, overall, Painted From Memory must be counted as a major comeback for Bacharach, and as another rewarding departure for Costello. Like his country album, Almost Blue, and his collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet, The Juliet Letters, it offers ample proof that his talent transcends genres.
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