Elvis Costello & The Impostors, Look Now

Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Look Now

Elvis Costello emerged first as a frenetic, punk-adjacent provocateur and then morphed into a polished pop songwriter and balladeer in the within a decade.Look Now is of the latter persuasion, as Costello and his collaborators arrange most of these songs in the style of 60s and 70s pop/rock with lots of pianos, back-up singers, and a fair bit of brass. There’s a strong vocal jazz element and a bit of Broadway too. Costello’s been writing a musical with Burt Bacharach, and that shows in the lyrics as well as the music, as he’s clearly grown to love writing in character. (A number of the narrative voices on these songs are expressly female, and it works). Some of us may be inclined to long for the younger, rawer Elvis Costello on principle, but there’s no denying his pop songcraft. Highlights: “Unwanted Number,” “He’s Given Me Things,” “Under Lime”

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Ezra Furman, Transangelic Exodus

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Hop Along, Bark Your Head Off Dog

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Album Reviews by Stefan Wenger

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