12.27.2018
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS ‘LOOK NOW’
Fatea Records: Nick Churchill: October 2018
It’s a decade since Costello’s last album with the Imposters – the punchy beat band workout of Momofuku – and five since his last set of original material Wise Up Ghost, an alliance with hip hop outfit The Roots. Both of those records had a startling immediacy about them, the sound of pure accomplishment, breathtakingly original music being made by the consensus of quality assembled before the microphone. The pops and crackles in both only add to the fizz of excitement each of them still brings with every listen.Look Now is not like either of those albums.
That’s not offered as any kind of criticism. Neither is it a recommendation. It’s simply an observation, for Look Now is an album of fully rounded songs and melodies that belongs with the very best of Elvis Costello’s recorded output.Such is his facility with music, words and rhythm he’s one of the few song and dance men that can successfully pull off such extremes of style and intent as the new wave venom of Armed Forces, The Juliet Letters song sequence, Blood & Chocolate’s spit and polish, the country detour of Almost Blue, North’s piano sketches and the baroque majesty of Imperial Bedroom, perhaps this record’s closest cousin.
Look Now is beautifully made, fastidiously played and superbly recorded, each part is beautifully realised, perfectly judged and lovingly delivered. It is a magnificent record that feels right at home in the Costello canon where sour notes and vinegary invective rub shoulders and leer over sophisticated arrangements, highbrow intentions and lowly assignations.