Genre Pop/Rock
Concert artist Elvis Costello
Concert venue Malmö konserthus
Concert date 2014-09-28
When the audience streams their music for a pittance, so touring has become most artists' primary source of income, many look to maximize their revenues by allowing fellow musicians stay home. Usually it is a low-budget solution, and it shows - also known as singer-songwriters need backing and assistance from others to the point of the songs will come up. That alone will draw many of these artists right grind.
Elvis Costello is different, and it's not just about his versatility and the empathy he almost always invest in their performances. Above all, it falls back to the songs as such, if it's solid craftsmanship. He writes real songs, not just throwing out air mattresses to keep his Key Poem liquid. The melodies are almost always strong and demonstrates time and again Costello's ingenuity, but equally important is how he builds his songs harmoniously and how he is looking to create its variation in the composition itself. Sound, instrumentation and production can amplify everything, but actually counterproductive.
Therefore, it is such a joy to meet one-man orchestra Costello. Song structure exposed, and often prove to be more refined than what is seen in the recordings, which sometimes is a bit cluttered and overworked. You discover new things that have been hidden.
In just over two hours in the Concert Hall, he pulled through nearly 30 of his songs, supplemented by borrowing goods from everyone from Nat King Cole and Arthur Alexander to Neil Young. Oh yes: he began his "Town Cryer" with a vanishingly short snippet of Young's Love In Mind ", perhaps to demonstrate that even his songs sometimes ordinary right: Neil Young has gone this route thousand times, and often better.
But the examples of the brilliantly designed pop song why was more. "Church Underground", from 2010's "National Ransom" was never like this crystal clear in the studio version. The way he built up "Poor Napoleon" is cruel ingeniously, and with its balanced vocal attack, he saw that every slight variation had the intended effect and took the song to the next step. And then we had the "Veronica '- written with the help of Paul McCartney, possibly in a kind of mutual smart safety contest - with tempo shifts and modulations en masse.
Costello went out a little rushed with the rarely played " Jack of All Parades", but soon found a tone that worked on the verge of sold-out venue. Mellansnackens anecdotes and snappy comments were amusing and amazing turns. The only thing that really worked was his new box of effects boxes, which he tried to make friends with when he looped his electric guitar. It was thickly.
But he sang superbly almost through the evening: from whispers to soul tinted falsetto, from singing to biting attack; his voice sounded hilarious and dejected about every other field, to the songs demanded. The vibrato, he has creditably toned down.
More highlights? "Shipbuilding", one song at the piano. " Stations of the Cross", one of those who never really sunk into the public consciousness. "Oliver's Army", the hard stop.
And, finally, his evergreen "Alison" as a long time suffered for the singer's desire to renew the rhythm and melody. But instead he challenged himself by leaving the mic and sang right out over the edge of the stage. Faced with a dead silent listening audience that took in every breath and nuance he devoutly sang beautifully and sounded very very sad.
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