11.17.2020
THE BIG LISTEN: ELVIS COSTELLO – HEY CLOCKFACE
Guitar.com: Gary Walker: 2nd November 2020. Photo By Jim Dyson.
The prolific songwriter, Jazzmaster enthusiast and uncompromising innovator returns with a new solo album recorded in three separate sessions across the globe. Does it work as a coherent whole?
Half a century into a career of angry, eloquent and frequently challenging expression, is there any chance that Hey Clockface represents Elvis Costello easing into his creative dotage? Nope. It’s a complex, multifaceted album that spits venomously and ruminates weightily, all the while defying easy categorisation.
Last time out, on 2018’s Look Now, the famous Jazzmaster-toting Rock and Roll Hall of Famer collaborated with Burt Bacharach and Carole King on a wholly engaging batch of classic songwriting, and again there are notable guests on the follow-up. It’s ostensibly three records spliced into one, partly due to the constraints of Covid and partly because, well, why the heck not? By this stage in his career – as if it were ever different – Elvis Costello is doing whatever he damn well pleases.