Brighton Magazine, September 23, 2018

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Brighton Magazine

UK & Ireland magazines

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Look Now


Mike Cobley

Elvis Costello returns with a little help from Burt Bacharach and his Imposters

Look Now is the first album Elvis Costello has made with The Imposters since the 2008 release of Momofuku, and his first new album since the acclaimed 2013 Roots collaboration, Wise Up Ghost.

Costello's suspicion that it was time to return to the studio was confirmed while on the Imperial Bedroom & Other Chambers tour of the USA, last summer, and he realised the power and sheer musicality of The Imposters had never really been fully captured on one record.

"I knew if we could make an album with the scope of Imperial Bedroom and some of the beauty and emotion of Painted From Memory, we would really have something", said Costello.

Look Now is a twelve-strong addition to his song catalogue. Most of the titles were written solely by Elvis Costello although, "Don't Look Now" and "Photographs Can Lie" were co-written with Burt Bacharach, who makes a guest appearance, leading The Imposters from the piano for those two ballads.

Another song to which Bacharach contributed, "He's Given Me Things" features some of the best singing Elvis has ever recorded, while "Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter" was written with Carole King and closes with a serpentine horn line winding around Steve Nieve's atmospheric keyboard parts.

The album was co-produced by Elvis and Sebastian Krys.

Sebastian had worked extensively with band members Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher in the Los Angeles studios, so it's no surprise that this dynamic rhythm section was incredibly well-prepared for the recording sessions.

"When Pete and Davey are in this kind of rare form, it"s wise to get on the back-beat with your Telecaster and stay out of their way", said Costello.

Speaking of his own role as co-producer, Costello said:

"I had all of the orchestrations and vocal parts in my head or on the page before we played a note, so it was essential that I worked closely with Steve Nieve to maintain the light and space in the arrangements and allow him to shine."

Costello completed the picture by adding both guitar and his own vibraphone or celesta parts to his orchestrations but remarked, "Sebastian was there to make sure only the essential notes got onto the record, whether it was a fuzz-tone guitar or jazz bassoon."

"In the final mixing, Sebastian did a beautiful job of keeping everything present but always lead by emotion or narrative, although when balancing the band, my voice and the quartet of woodwinds and horns that I'd written for "Stripping Paper", I told him to "Just trust the blur."

Asked for a further comment on the "Instant Gratification" phenomenon, Costello said:

"That"s just the latest record business gimmick-speak for something you can get right away.

I have to be straight with you; that sounds like a personal service that you might be offered in a dubious massage parlour."

Elvis Costello and The Imposters' new album Look Now is released on 12th October 2018.

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Brighton Magazine, September 23 2018


Mike Cobley reviews Look Now.

Images

2018-09-23 Brighton Magazine.jpg


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