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Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
 King of Americana June 3, 2009
Richard Hine
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Elvis Costello returns to Nashville (scene of 1981's "Almost Blue" recordings) and links up again with producer T. Bone Burnett (who produced Costello's classic "King of America" and 1989's "Spike" and co-wrote with Costello the Oscar-nominated "The Scarlet Tide," sung by Alison Krauss in the movie Cold Mountain.) It's thirty-two years since the blistering debut of "My Aim Is True" and the stellar sequence of Costello (and the Attractions) albums that followed. Depending on your perspective, it's somewhere between 10 and 20 years since the release of a Costello album qualified as a bona fide musical event. For all his brilliance, Costello is still criticized for his genre-hopping ways. But throughout his brilliant career, three things have been (pretty much) constant: 1) Costello's musical intelligence and inquisitiveness; 2) his choice of great collaborators; 3) his incredible voice. For fans old and new, "Secret, Profane and Sugarcane" displays all three traits. It's an acoustic collection of rootsy, bluesy, "back-porch" Americana, with dobro, fiddle, mandolin and accordion supplied by some great backing musicians. "Complicated Shadows" (from 1996's "All This Useless Beauty") gets reworked here, along with "Hidden Shame" (a Costello song recorded by Johnny Cash, and previously available as a Costello demo from 1996). Among the ten previously unrecorded tracks are two bluegrassy numbers written with T.Bone Burnett -- "Sulphur to Sugarcane" and "The Crooked Line" -- plus Costello's second collaboration with Loretta Lynn, the classic-country-sounding "I Felt the Chill Before the Winter Came." There are also four songs from Costello's unfinished Hans Christian Andersen opera. If you're not already a Costello fan, this is not the album to start with. But if you are (like me) always willing to follow Costello on every step of his musical journey, there's a swing-seat on the porch waiting for you. Enjoy.
out of the spotlight but in form July 10, 2009
Ian Teague (london)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Elvis seems largly ignored by the media just now - which seems to be doing him no end of good - just getting on with making music that he enjoys and so do we. Delivery Man was a real return to form, Momofuku was even better and this to me is the most completly enjoyable Elvis album since King of America.
Another Gem July 5, 2009
Slim (Surrey, England)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
There is so much music produced in the Noughties which only dulls the mind.
Elvis has produced a series of exquitely crafted gems in this decade, mixing genres and collaborators. The thing that all his records have in common is great songwriting. And this latest gem is packed with wonderful songs. I could praise them in similar terms to the other reviewers, but why waste key depressions.If you do not have this disc, you deprive yourself of the opportunity to listen to I Felt The Chill, which makes you a complete muppet.
Always good August 3, 2009
J. fletcher (lancashire U.K.)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this for my husband who has always been a fan of Elivis Costello-he was not disappointed, he loves it!
Rootsy Americana June 29, 2009
prisrob (New EnglandUSA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Elvis Costello is a man for all seasons, and the seasons come and go and he just keeps getting better. In this new CD he dives into the roots of Americana with T-Bone Burnett, the king of country folk. This is an amazing CD, his voice suits this genre and the tunes sound better with each listen.
It is said that he wrote 'I Feel The Chill' with Loretta Lynn, and this could be one of the best songs on the CD. I am partial to 'I Dreamed of My Old Lover', it is a ballad in the sense of the old time longing of a love gone by. 'Sulphur To Sugarcane'has the bouncing beat of the rockabilly of long time yore. And,we have all heard the closer, 'Changing Partners', but not with the tenderness and country honed voice of Elvis Costello. I was surprised this was a tune sung first by Bing Crosby. 'Something happened to my heart'. My favorite of all is 'The Crooked Line'-a song about marriage and lifetime companion.
Elvis Costello sings these tunes with the aid of Emmy Lou Harris and T Bone Burnett. Burnett has brought along fiddler Stuart Duncan, dobro ace Jerry Douglas, mandolinist Mike Compton and upright bassist Dennis Crouch, to round out the best of Americana music.
It sounds like Elvis Costello is having the time of his life and he has brought some old friends with him to make it complete. He has finally reached his roots.
Highly Recommended. prisrob 06-08-09
The Best of Elvis Costello: The First 10 Years [DIGIPACK]
Momofuku
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
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