A lot of water has flowed under the musical bridge for Elvis Costello in the last thirty-plus years. He has transitioned from angry young punk\/New Wave rocker to soul to country. His extensive soundtrack work since the early \u201890s has attracted a new generation of fans. His interpretation of the old Charles Aznavour song \u201cShe\u201d from the movie Notting Hill<\/i> and his Academy Award-nominated \u201cScarlet Tide\u201d from the film Cold Mountain <\/i>showed his softer side <\/p>\n
His latest release, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, <\/i>finds him in fine form. It is also a thinking person\u2019s album. \u00a0His talent as a lyricist has continued to develop and evolve. There is now a\u00a0 denseness to his lyrics that leave the stories he tells and weaves open to interpretation. As such, they need repeated listens as the meanings are sometimes elusive and open to change.<\/p>\n
If you hope to find a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll Costello here, you will be disappointed. A lot of the music falls squarely into the country category. Many of the tracks feature a dobro, mandolin and fiddle to support Costello\u2019s acoustic guitar playing. The constant absence of drums pushes the sound in a bluegrass direction on many of the tracks. <\/p>\n
There are two wonderful ballads contained on this album. \u201cI Felt The Chill\u201d is a country ballad at its best with a mournful fiddle to support the sad story of love\u2019s failings. \u201cI Dreamed Of My Old Lover\u201d deals with the eternal topic of love\u2019s secrets.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the coin, \u201cShe Handed Me A Mirror\u201d is just some old-time foot-stomping music, yet the lyrics are complex and create two listening experiences at the same time. \u201cSulphur To Sugarcane\u201d is an interesting fusion of country and blues. <\/p>\n
The songs that I have returned to a number of times are \u201cHow Deep Is The Red?\u201d and \u201cRed Cotton.\u201d Both songs have some bite to them. I\u2019m not sure if the first is an anti-war song or an anti-love song, but it is fascinating. The second is a song of judgment and ultimately damnation that is hidden within a story of the slave trade. <\/p>\n
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane <\/i>is not background music because it requires \u2013 and in many ways demands \u2013 your full attention. It presents Elvis Costello at his best and that is very good indeed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":29917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5662],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41539","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-elvis-costello","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41539"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}