Elvis Costello & The Roots: Wise Up Ghost - 2013
On this album, Elvis Costello is backed by hip/hop band The Roots, a group from a much younger generation to Costello and one who I will freely admit to having no prior knowledge of. They can play, however, and considerably enhance the musical ambience of the album. They add a muscular, punchy staccato rhythm to the backing which matches Costello's vocals perfectly. It is perhaps a surprising union, but it really works.
Walk Us Uptown is a rumbling, rhythmic and bassy grinder of an opener, underpinned by some excellent brass and industrially-jangling guitars. At the end it even uses a bit of melodica (better known in dub reggae). Costello's vocal sounds a bit older, more gruff, but still bearing that trademark cynical sneering tone.
Sugar Won't Work is a pulsating, mysterious number, once again with a deep, solid bass line. It is slightly funky in its insistent groove. In a similar, shuffling beat comes Refuse To Be Saved, which quotes from 1991's Invasion Hit Parade (non-stop Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes...). Wake Me Up brings back echoes of Chewing Gum from 1989's Spike in both its slow funky groove and its brass interjections. Costello seems to attempting to reconnect with older material of his, while giving it an updated feel. Indeed, Tripwire blatantly uses the intro from Satellite, also from Spike. It is a great song, though, with a sumptuous bass and infectious chorus.
All these songs have a real feel of Costello from days gone by, yet also feels completely contemporary. In that respect it is a really enjoyable, successful album. It really breathes. I love it. Check out the buzzy guitar, drums and vocals on the afore-mentioned Come The Meantimes. Excellent stuff.
(She Might Be A) Grenade is a quirky, bassy slow burner of a track, one of the album's most beguiling and inventive. It also samples an earlier Costello song but try as I might, I can't remember what it is. It is in the acoustic guitar riff part. Cinco Minutos Con Vos is an interesting, atmospheric number with some sultry female Portuguese vocals as well as Costello's crooning delivery.
Viceroy's Row sees Costello revisiting that late-night jazzy feel he has done regularly over the mid-later period of his long career. Some jazzy brass accompanies the bassy, slow, chugging beat. Costello sings in a falsetto voice in places, which is unusual, but it works. Wise Up Ghost is another infectious, slow, shuffling number and If I Could Believe ends the album in a low-key fashion.
Overall, this is an innovative, appealing piece of work. Certainly one of Costello's finest latter-era albums.
