I\u2019m not sure if Elvis Costello has ever sounded this old. My uncertainty lies in the fact that I haven\u2019t listened to every Costello album (if you include his collaborative albums, that\u2019s more than 30 records). And what do I mean by old? As Stephen Thomas Erlewine put it so well, Costello reinvents \u201cthe past in his own image,\u201d but that doesn\u2019t sound like the case with Secret, Profane & Sugarcane<\/i>. This time, roots music has taken Costello into the past. You could make that argument for other albums, such as Almost Blue <\/i>(where Costello covers 12 country songs), but the difference is that you won\u2019t hear any drums on this record.<\/p>\n
Honestly, I\u2019m not a roots music expert on any level, so there will be no more insight than this: Secret, Profane & Sugarcane <\/i>is an interesting and sometimes fun listen. <\/p>\n
\u201cSulphur To Sugarcane,\u201d the best track of the second half, is a savage collection of dirty lines: \u201cDown in Bridgeport \/ The women will kill you for sport \/ But in Worchester, Massachusetts \/ They just love my sauce.\u201d His sauce. And what would a Costello song be without wordplay: \u201cWomen knock upon my door \/ In odd and even numbers \/ But none of them as well as I discovered in Columbus.\u201d Jim Lauderdale\u2019s careful harmony vocal is an effective foil to Costello\u2019s unabashed style throughout the album, but he is especially important to \u201cSulphur To Sugarcane.\u201d It\u2019s like you\u2019re being asked to sing along, preferably with the integrity of a wino and the scruples of a wild cat. <\/p>\n
But the first great moment of this album is a sad one. \u201cI Felt The Chill\u201d marks the second album in a row that country music icon Loretta Lynn has co-written a song with Costello. The lyrics sting enough (\u201cBut I knew that we would go wrong \/ Just as they do in all those old tragic songs\u201d), but Costello also knows how to vocally wring you in moments of defeat (just like one of his influences, Gram Parsons). If you\u2019re especially pathetic, the dobro playing of Jerry Douglas is another reason to cry. <\/p>\n
Authenticity has never been a problem for Costello. In all likelihood, you\u2019re going to believe every damn word he says on this album, but sometimes the stories aren\u2019t engaging. I concluded that the woman in \u201cShe Handed Me A Mirror\u201d is a bastard, so obviously I\u2019m not going to feel any sadness, and the song doesn\u2019t go anywhere interesting anyway. \u201cHow Deep Is The Red?\u201d is another track that could\u2019ve been cut \u2013 it\u2019s neither fun nor provocative. At the same time, I find myself admiring how stubborn Costello can be, as he whiningly asks the question again and again toward the conclusion.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a Costello addict, a shameless whore for his work. And if you are as well, it\u2019s easy to appreciate this album as another showcase of his versatility. If you simply have an interest in roots music, this is probably a solid purchase, notwithstanding that you might find the middle of the album (from \u201cShe Handed Me A Mirror\u201d to \u201cShe Was No Good\u201d) boring like I did. But my advice is to pick up one of Costello\u2019s early albums if you haven\u2019t \u2013 hell, get the debut, My Aim Is True<\/i> \u2013 and then listen to Secret, Profane & Sugarcane<\/i>. Whether you like the music or not, it is remarkable to note the evolution, as lame as that term has become. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":29917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5662],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41624","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-elvis-costello","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41624","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\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41624\/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=41624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41624"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41624"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}