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<center> Preston Jones </center> | <center> Preston Jones </center> | ||
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'''''The River in Reverse'' is a dark, passionate work that channels its rage toward redemptive joy.<br> | |||
'''''The River in Reverse'' is a dark, passionate work that channels its rage toward redemptive joy. | {{3of5stars}} | ||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
An inescapable anguish pulses beneath every song on ''The River in Reverse'', as though Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint could somehow salve the wounds of the Hurricane Katrina disaster through their art. They come close, but lingering in the funereal shadows of "Tears, Tears and More Tears," "International Echo," and the searing title track robs the album of its fleeting effortlessness. Indeed, ''River in Reverse'', while littered with sturdy rockers (a go-for-broke version of Toussaint's "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?" and "Six-Fingered Man"), never truly recovers from the stinging rebukes of the title track, penned by Costello in the days following the horrors in New Orleans: ''"So count your blessings when they ask permission / To govern with money and superstition / They tell you it's all for your own protection / 'Til you fear your own reflection."'' Score one for Elvis: The album isn't an overtly political one, but it gets in a few choice swipes during its course. | An inescapable anguish pulses beneath every song on ''The River in Reverse'', as though Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint could somehow salve the wounds of the Hurricane Katrina disaster through their art. They come close, but lingering in the funereal shadows of "Tears, Tears and More Tears," "International Echo," and the searing title track robs the album of its fleeting effortlessness. Indeed, ''River in Reverse'', while littered with sturdy rockers (a go-for-broke version of Toussaint's "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?" and "Six-Fingered Man"), never truly recovers from the stinging rebukes of the title track, penned by Costello in the days following the horrors in New Orleans: ''"So count your blessings when they ask permission / To govern with money and superstition / They tell you it's all for your own protection / 'Til you fear your own reflection."'' Score one for Elvis: The album isn't an overtly political one, but it gets in a few choice swipes during its course. |
Latest revision as of 19:18, 8 May 2019
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