I found a copy of Elvis Costello's Deutsche Grammophon song-cycle album, "North", at the local library. I borrowed it, fully expecting to put it back on the pile after listening to the first five minutes. But you can knock me down with a feather: against all odds (and possibly against my better judgment) my inbuilt love-hate elviscostellometer is reading "love" again.
This just confirms that my philosophy of life is sound: if you set your expectations low enough, you are bound to have a large number of pleasant surprises. I first took this approach with my choice of football team: Melbourne last won a premiership when I was four months old. Since then they have played in two grand finals, both of which resulted in humiliating defeats.
But back to Elvis: why does this album work, when the collaborations with the Brodsky Quartet and Burt Bacharach didn't? I'm not at all sure; maybe in some way they were test runs for this record. Maybe he is just not a good collaborator (although I thought the recording he did with Bill Frisell worked quite well). The biggest complaint that I would aim at recent Costello is that he is all over his own records, to their detriment (which leaves someone in his position in a bit of a spot, when you think about it). This time, there is room to breathe. The arrangements are quite spare. They wander into the "classical" sphere, sure, but they nevertheless don't sound either forced or inordinately "tasteful". Costello doesn't try too hard. Steve Nieve, even since the early days, has been a good influence on Costello, and it is possible that his appearance here is what tilts the record to the good. It's a record for late at night, sure, and therefore not compatible with having young children about the house, and I may look back at this in a couple of months time in horror, but for now I'm giving it a tick.
