|
In recent years, Elvis Costello has thought nothing of sliding from nouveau new wave on one album to neoclassical song cycle on another - and touching upon film scores, gospel, avant-cabaret, and Celtic balladry in between. What's boon to some can seem bane to others, though, and during his near-decade with Warner Bros., this polyglot ambition made Costello seem increasingly like a square peg in a round hole.
But now it seems as if Costello has found a home where he can make the most of his manifold aspirations. Last week he signed a bold new deal with PolyGram in the form of multi-album contracts with PolyGram Classics & Jazz and its pop sister, Mercury Records. The arrangement is designed to channel Costello's versatile output through whichever label seems best suited to market the music, under a single corporate umbrella.
Starting off in a low-key way, Costello makes his Mercury bow with the sly new rocker "My Mood Swings," the first single from the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski, due Feb. 24. But the first full-fledged Costello album will feature his much-touted collaboration with tunesmith Burt Bacharach and is due later this year on Mercury. Along with that release there may be a pendant project on PolyGram's Verve label that features jazz interpretations of those Costello/Bacharach compositions.
Next year may bring an encore of
| 
