4/5
Imposter Syndrome.
'Smokin' Fish' is the perfect place (no pun intended) in Yokohama to get a bite to eat or a drink at the bar on just another Saturday night. Sure, this writers home for the last two years away from England may be most famous for tires (see Chelsea football clubs sponsor) and nowhere near as on the map as its neighbour in neon Tokyo. But neither is my hometown of sunny Southport (that still has the too pricey to post cinder block of Elvis Costello's 'Unfaithful Music' memoir waiting for me when I can cross the borders and see my family. Thank you, Mum and Dad) of the Great British coast when compared to Liverpool. Which coincidentally is the same distance on the train from home that Tokyo is my new one. "From Liverpool (Southport) to Tokyo (Yokohama), what a way to go", as John and Yoko once said. Southport may be known for the Royal Birkdale golf open and some top bizarre to be believed theory that the Parisian who designed the Champs-Élysées was inspired by Lord Street. But Liverpool is the home of The Beatles...and by way of a move from Twickenham (like the Fab Four to the Apple Studios rooftops for an impromptu lunch to 'Get Back' with 'Lord Of The Rings' Peter Jackson), Elvis Costello making his way at 16, close to his mother's home in Birkenhead. Anyway, this bar in Yokohama was so slick it was decked out in vinyls and turntables and even had classic dust jackets for its menu covers (which to a wax purist may be tantamount to sacrilege). And the owner knew how to spin a tune or two for me and an old flame, setting fire to something romantic. Bjork's jazz album. Some classic Elvis Costello music with The Attractions and those drums that still sound as crisp as the day they came stampeding in like elephants in 1979 like a Smashing Pumpkin. But forget the main attraction. Just a calendar and a little bit of change after Costello said 'Hey, Clockface' to the year that was 2020, the man from Paddington is back to bear arms with The Imposters on an album that is anything but an imposition.
Johnny Cash may rule everything around me, Man in Black, y'all, but forget 'A Boy Named Sue', 'The Boy Named If' is the best Costello collaboration since he laid down new ground with The Roots like Jimmy Fallon for 'Wise Up Ghost'...if I do say so myself. In a new year were we have new albums from the stripped down Lumineers for your 'Brightside', Mister, this is the selection to spin the wheel of fortune for. The oil painting artwork is back as Elvis rock and rolls with The Imposter for the first time since his 30th studio album 'Look Now' in 2018. Now four years later with his 32nd, proceedings get started with 'Farewell, OK' that rocks you out of nowhere. A heavy record that is not to be listened to in a library when you forget that your headphones were turned all the way up. Just trust me on that one. After that kick start, the title track of this album affair comes into play. But it's the storytelling of one Lady 'Penelope Halfpenny' that really takes us away like Parker. "Penelope she came and went/We assumed that all her savings were spent/Her style of drama and her shape of face/Disappeared with the dot of a decimal place/While Beckett in blue and Ruth in red/Might for all I know be dead/And to the church door both were driven/Or could be somewhere, happily living/Just in time to be forgiven", Elvis tells us of his new muse that he could have called 'She', if Penelope was not gone as the blowin' in the wind answer to a letter that just says, "return to sender". The spectacle continues on 'The Difference', before Costello takes off his hat and lays it down on 'What If I Can't Give You Anything But Love', an ode with dedication that he makes his home. "Once hearing confession was my profession/Telling me things I don't need to know/So he opened up that door for you/The kind of thrill we'll never have/What if I can't give you anything but love?/Do you love me?/It's dangerous to answer in the dark/Do you need me?/Hold on while I negotiate that spark." One humble abode set alight.
'Paint The Red Rose Blue' for a devotion as true and you really have some of the best songwriting from one of the leaders of this school for the record, in years. But don't fall for the masquerade like the carnival of Guillermo del Toro's 'Nightmare Alley' with Bradley Cooper. On 'Mistook Me For A Friend', Elvis takes it the wrong way before making 'My Most Beautiful Mistake' for the albums prettiest picture of songwriting prose. "She was a part-time waitress with a dream of greatness/That nobody knew of or even suspected/Though it was sometimes reflected in the slant of a mirror/It was buried so deep and so dear", he storytells us like he was going for the gold of another Grammy for his trophy cabinet's family. Its the kind of perfectly painted picture of a crooked frame that leads to a 'Magnificent Hurt' that in its art for this discography gallery is jusg that decadent. Singing, "I speak low and intimate/Like a cardboard sophisticate/What if this is true love?/Not some town hall certificate/It’s the way you make me feel/Magnificent Hurt." Oxymoronic in the beauty of its ugly truth to be told. With lyrics like these there's no way this could be 'The Man You Love To Hate'. Just ask jazz legend Diana Krall, who married Costello in none other than Elton John's home. It's a little bit funny, how wonderful life is. And now we have 'The Death Of Magic Thinking' in the world. The mask is off in a time were we need to keep ours on. "Sullen as a Summers day/Even as a Winter's evening." It's the kind of dare of a reveal that 'Tricks Out The Truth'. And just like that, it's a treat. Like the classic closer 'Mr. Crescent' before this LP's moon. Dynamite Dylan and Springsteen storytelling under the rim of his glasses writing, "Heard the song of both the lark and the linnet/Played them both upon a parlour spinnet/One with only nine strings in it/Clinging to the sounding board/For that was all he could afford." But this album pays more in full. And boy can you already name it one of this years best, not three weeks into the New Year. No if about it and to that notion no imposter. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Penelope Halfpenny', 'Paint The Red Rose Blue', 'My Most Beautiful Mistake'.
No comments:
Post a Comment