12.10.2020
ONE-ON-ONE WITH ELVIS COSTELLO AS HE LOOKS AHEAD TO NEXT YEAR’S MODEL
With an album of new material, an expanded edition of his acclaimed 1979 recording “Armed Forces” and a musical debuting next year, the singer-songwriter remains as busy and inspired as ever.
Houston Chronicle: Andrew Dansby: December 9 2020
About halfway through his new album, Elvis Costello looks to the wall and addresses the clock.
“Hey Clockface,” he sings, “Why is it when we’re apart you always take it so slow? And when she’s here, you always say, ‘It’s almost time to go.’”
Just three minutes long, the song is a structural marvel. Costello the lyricist wields masterful efficiency conveying something nearly impossible to describe: the wibbly-wobbly ways we feel the passage of time. Costello the musician also plays tricks befitting a Time Lord. For this new song released in 2020, he employs a loose, brassy arrangement that plays a borrowed bit of melody from an old Fats Waller tune recorded around 85 years ago.
“Hey Clockface/How Can You Face Me?” provides an intriguing key guide to Costello’s career with its knowing nod to Waller, whose career in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s spoke to the creative breadth of American vaudeville for its engaging sounds, witty words and entertaining presentation. Like others of his era, Waller’s work endures, even if his name has faded. “Ain’t Misbehavin’” — to cite just one song — has been well codified in culture long after it was written.