London Observer, October 14, 2018

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London Observer

UK & Ireland newspapers

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Kitty Empire

Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Look Now
3 stars (out of 5) reviews3 stars (out of 5) reviews3 stars (out of 5) reviews3 stars (out of 5) reviews3 stars (out of 5) reviews

"I sang every note of the new record after I got the diagnosis," Elvis Costello confided recently. Last July, he cancelled a handful of dates after he toured too soon after surgery to remove a small tumour. Unsurprisingly, at its best, Look Now – Costello's 31st album – comes freighted with vivid feeling as well as sophisticated instrumentation and arrangements.

"Stripping Paper" is a tremendous vignette that peels back the layers of a relationship, from the first flushes of a liaison ("my back against the rococo wall") through the kiddy wallpaper to latter-day blankness. The excellent single "Unwanted Number," meanwhile, details a fraught process of romantic mismatching with Motown-style backing vocals. In 2017, Costello toured his Imperial Bedroom album of 1982; Look Now bears some resemblance to that first chamber-pop outing, in which relationships loomed large.

Costello has collaborated here with Burt Bacharach (two tracks) and Carole King (one), and in bowing to these giants of American song a surfeit of schmaltz creeps into his narrative voice. The album's title speaks of urgency; its nearest song, "Don't Look Now," details the unwanted advances that bedevil a model. But the episode twinkles a little too prettily for the subject matter.


Tags: Look NowLook NowStripping PaperUnwanted NumberMotownImperial BedroomBurt BacharachCarole KingDon't Look Now

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The Observer, October 14, 2018


Kitty Empire reviews Look Now.

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Look Now album cover.jpg

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