Elvis Costello and the Imposters: Look Now (2018)

Words that pop into my head when I hear the two terms:

Rock: plodding, clichéd, Journey, noodling

Rock & Roll: vital, dangerous, Little Richard, attitudinal

Rock: “Hello Cleveland!”

Rock & Roll: Dylan turning his back and saying, “Play ******g loud!” (although I know that incident has been disputed, but why let that get in the way of a good story? )

I’m sure it’s different for others, it’s just the images that I get.

 

He was also a huge Abba fan in the 70's, so not just on hindsight like many others. I have always considered the Beatles to be pop music.
I think Elvis was really refering to the snobbery around pop music, and let's face it we know what he's talking about, there is plenty of it on here.
I remember Nick Lowe who produced the first Elvis record, when told that it had gone into the charts they were slightly disappointed that it was the album and not the single. They were both big pop fans.

 

There are enough very positive reviews to prompt me to buy, the Deluxe CD.
But went to Sunrise today and it’s CDN$24.99, tried Walmart as a last resort, they don’t have it.
Over $30 at Amazon.ca
As much as I want the disc(s) I’m not paying anywhere near $25.
What’s the going rate elsewhere?

 

No help to you but in Australia the deluxe is only $3 more than the standard.Only problem is that deluxe is not available for another 3 weeks so I'm in a holding pattern on listening to this album.

 

I've had this on regular rotation for the past few days and I feel this is his best solo record (with or w/o band) since All This Useless Beauty or even Brutal Youth. It's becoming more cohesive with each listen. Following the mixed (Cruel, Delivery Man, Momofuku, Wise Up) to downright disappointing (Sugarcane, National Ransom), Look Now is an incredible suprise - I honestly didn't think he had another such well conceived and executed record like this in him. For the record too, I think that North is a hugely underrated effort.

And with reference to the ballads of North, I really do think that post-1994, EC has been far more adept at writing slow-to-mid tempo material opposed to rocking out. Take for example, the ballads against the rockers on a record like All This Useless Beauty and I know where my preference lies. For one thing, I'm really relieved he's put the stops on trying to make something that sounds like a Howlin' Wolf or Gram Parsons record. It worked for King Of America, but whenever he's dipped back into that area the results have been pretty ropey. The up-tempo stuff on Look Now clicks a bit more for me (even "Mr & Mrs Hush" which I thought was terrible on cursory listen), but - my goodness - the slower material is some of the best he's written in...30 years??

"Look Now", "Stripping Paper", "I Let The Sun Go Down", "Photographs Can Lie", "He's Given Me Things" - STUNNING WORK.

 

Absolutely agree re: "He's Given Me Things" - this is the one that has literally stopped me in my tracks. It's been a very long time since an EC song did that. This songs is incredible: beautiful, but awfully dark and just a bit chilling.

Something that I missed mentioning from my previous post and I think is especially crucial with this record is that there's a genuine emotional charge to the material, which I think has been largely lacking from EC's work over the past 20 years. Compared to the material here, a lot of his post-Painted From Memory is more calculated than possessing heart and soul. This is why I pretty much gave up on him around the time of Sugarcane and National Ransom - way too much style over substance.

 

I’ve read no less than four forum members say that they are still forming their opinions on the album after even some repeated listens.

To me, that sounds like it’s not that captivating a record.

Anyone up for saying that it’s a great record, period?

 

$23.75 delivered from amazon uk. So you would save about $5 when tax is taken into account.

 

It's a great record. Period.

 

Every single EC record has taken weeks to fully sink in. Even things I felt were immediately great like Imperial Bedroom or KOA still took weeks to really form. There's just layers to what the guy does.

 

Look Now, the bittersweet, elegiac new album from Elvis Costello and his band The Imposters, has been 20 years in the making and sees the prolific songwriter work with his heroes Burt Bacharach and Carole King.

It also sees him reintroduce a character from his 2010 album National Ransom. In the opening track Under Lime.

"It's the continuation of a story that I wrote about a travelling songwriter called Jimmie who appears in a song that I wrote about eight or nine years ago called Jimmie Standing in the Rain and I just picked up the story of this character 20 years on.

"He's on a TV show, he's not a very likeable person and he's put in the charge of a young woman. And, you know, he's a bit of a liability and given a drink he could be unpleasant."

They told a young girl with a clipboard/"Just keep him amused"/ "Whatever you do, don't tell him your name"/ "Whatever you think, don't let him drink"

Read the rest: Elvis Costello revives an old friend on Look Now

 

I recommend Costello's output to no one. Not for years now. I fear I may have no critical perspective.

e.g. -- There are times when I think North might be his most enduring work. And I love most of the Roots material. And I sometimes feel that Bullets For the New Born King may be the greatest song ever written.

Like that.

 

Best record in over 20 years. Period.

 

Wondering how the sq is on this before I buy...
Is it "jacked up" and "in the red?"

 

All or most of what I'm seeing is 'I really like this record' and 'it's his best since (fill in the blank of a record that listener likes)'...
I was 'on the fence' as far as personal preference goes but after hearing the 1st 6 songs in a row I was convinced I was enjoying what I was listening to and want to hear more and revisit what I've heard
I see I didn't say it was a great record though! Shame on me...

 

The FLAC download is at a DR 6 average.

Run away! Run away!

 

I'm not an analytical numbers kind-of guy -- but, yeah -- it sounds like it's pretty jacked up.

I think, anyway.

 

I can relate.

 

My condolences.

 

The vocals on this album are grade-A. Really fine stuff. The production is great, but production on EC records is always great. I think the one variable that separates his good records from his great records is the character of the vocals. Wise Up Ghost was *almost* a great record, but all his vocals were out-of-key and possibly even one-takers. But this? This is fantastic.

A separate thought: I rolled my eyes when I saw that he dug up "Unwanted Number" for this one, which is a song I've known of his for years and years. But man, if it took him 20 years to muster up the energy for this version, then so be it. What a cut. The production is spectacular, and his voice sounds amazing. He sings with purpose and conviction. I've pretty much been singing this song in my head non-stop for the last 3 weeks now.

 

North is an underrated gem. I'll defend that record to my grave. No idea why it gets scorn. Just 'cause it's a genre exercise maybe? Yeah it's definitely that, but it's masterfully executed. And furthermore, about half his great records are genre exercises (well yeah, about half his bad ones too).

And Wise Up Ghost could have been better, but it's great. I could have used more polish on the vocals, and more Black Thought (he only appears on the remix EP). This was a bold new direction for his sound that still made sense for him, and I wish it had gone further.

But all that is off-topic. Look Now is a latter-day masterwork. I didn't think he had this kind of album in him anymore, so I'm pleasantly surprised.

 

It's too early for me to say this is a great record, I've been listening to it since Friday, but it takes a couple of weeks or longer to fully evaluate an album. What I can say about Look Now is that the songs I didn't notice so much at first keep sounding better with each listen, and there doesn't appear to be any obvious weak cuts on the album. As Sprocket Harry says, Costello has made many good/almost great records since his glory years. The last Elvis album I bought was The Delivery Man, which is a 'very good' record flawed by the inclusion of two really poor songs. I'm not noticing any similar drops in quality here. Another thing - the album is 12 songs long with 4 bonus songs, as opposed to 16 songs. So it's 12 songs we're evaluating really. Seems like he's finally realised how to sort the wheat from the chaff but still release all of the material he wants out there. I think a lot of Elvis's 'almost great' albums have suffered from being too long. He appears to have taken that on board.

 

Ouch.
That’s what I feared after listening on Tidal.

Definitely not the worst I’ve heard but I seem very susceptible to finding crushed music with no dynamic range quite irritating and soulless.

.sjb

 

It's a truly moving composition. I'd love to see another full Costello/Bacharach album someday.

 

Seeing "rock" and "rock and roll" as two different things is neither uncommon nor obfuscation. It's not terminology I personally use (it's all pop music, as far as I'm concerned), but I get what he's saying.