Elvis Costello
North
DG, 2004

by Dr. Christian Carey

North is EC's first full length release on Deutsche Grammophon, a label that is most famous for its classical releases. It appears that this is symbolic of his continued efforts to stray from pop into more "serious pursuits." The confusing thing for the listener is exactly which "serious" genre Costello is attempting to resemble here.

Some songs, such as the opener "You left me in the Dark," seem to hearken back to Painted from Memory, his 1998 collaboration with Burt Bacharach. Others, like "Someone took the World Away," with its guest saxophonist the noted jazzman Lee Konitz, flirt with the smoky "jazz + strings" genre in a kind of calculated fashion. "When Did I Stop Dreaming," on the other hand, is arranged like a Kurt Weill musical theater song.

Unfortunately, this kind of genre-spotting is some of the only fun that you will have listening to these songs, as underneath their stylistic exteriors, they all share the dreary commonality of glacial pacing and turgidly slow tempi. Most distressingly, the harmonic rhythm is very stilted; poor Steve Nieve (pianist on a number of these cuts), left to hit one chord at the beginning of each measure and glumly watch it fade away for four beats.

This is surprising, as even when EC has gone "serious" in the past, he has still retained a vestige of his rhythmic vivacity, an ear for tasty harmonies and melodies, and a rapier wit (for example, the Bacharach album was quite a bit more zesty than North). The only remotely stirring moment is the hook on "Still;" a song which sounds like it belongs on the Juliet Letters, appropriate enough given that it is a collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet (EC's partners in crime on the aforementioned album). Interestingly, the conceit of that "serious" classical album wears far better than North, despite its pretensions, simply because the material is far superior.

One can't help but think that bouncing from genre to genre with each successive song may be an attempt to supply some freshness in the face of stale material. But all of the strings, horns, and saxophones in the world won't buy a memorable tune or provide an album with the focus it needs to sustain interest for its duration. While the dearth of quality songs on this release is distressing, even more so is the apparent hubris that prevented Costello from enlisting help that he clearly needed.

Perhaps if Costello had allowed some of his superb cast of supporting players, including Nieve, the Brodsky Quartet, Konitz, etc. to aid in some of the arranging duties, we would have seen better presentation of the material. The liner notes are at pains to mention, over and over, that Costello "arranges all of the music and conducts the ensemble." Unfortunately, that means that the lack of crispness, direction, or development lands squarely on his shoulders. Has he gone soft artistically, or was this an inevitable step on Costello's path towards "seriousness?" We can only help that he will realize that indulgence is not the same thing as artistic growth, and take more care along with his creative control next time.

-Jan 2, 2004