09.22.2020
PUNCH THE ‘CLOCKFACE’: ELVIS COSTELLO ON MAKING ALBUMS IN A STREAMING WORLD
Billboard: Robert Levine: September 18th 2020
The legend’s new album sounds both current and timeless — and he’s looking back at his catalog, too.
Elvis Costello has always worked in a variety of genres, and he chooses his collaborators accordingly — in the last decade alone, he has teamed with T Bone Burnett, The Roots and Carole King.
This February, after recording three songs by himself in Helsinki, he immediately traveled to Paris to record a dozen more with a small ensemble of musicians who “came recommended as people who liked adventure,” says Costello, 66. The result is Hey Clockface, out Oct. 30 on Concord, with songs that alternate between withering and whimsical. “It’s much closer to the approach of a jazz ensemble,” says Costello, “playing like that without scoring every note.”
Hey Clockface also explores a comforting past (the title track sounds like something out of the American Songbook) and the disturbing present. On “Hetty O’Hara Confidential,” Costello – who sang about the creepiness of mass media on songs like “Radio Radio” and “Watching the Detectives” – now turns on new media.
In the song, he tells the story of a vindictive gossip columnist undone by a mistake and a world in which everyone has the power she did. “It’s one of the great dangers of the speed of communication,” says Costello, “being faster than the ability to reason.”
It’s one of the many things currently occupying Costello’s mind; before his upcoming album is even out, he’s already preparing to reissue some of his previous albums with bonus material. Here, he discusses how Hey Clockface came together, what more fans can expect and the importance of ownership.