Elvis Costello, Elvis Costello & Imposters - The Delivery Man
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CD Details
Artist: Elvis Costello & Imposters, Elvis CostelloEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2004-09-21
Music Label: Lost Highway
Product features:
- Elvis Costello - The Delivery Man Brazil Import
- Button My Lip
- Country Darkness
- There's A Story In Your Voice
- Either Side Of The Same Town
- Bedlam
- The Delivery Man
- Monkey To Man
- Nothing Clings Like Ivy
- The Name Of This Thing Is Not Love
- Heart Shaped Bruise
- Needle Time
- Judgement
- Scarlet Tide
Music reviews of The Delivery Man
Music Review: energetic and glib, but lacks punch
Rating: 3 Stars
THE DELIVERY MAN apparently began as a concept album, or song cycle, about a delivery man in the South and his affairs with three women, loosely based on an actual news story Costello came across. This theme, and the country music that seems to go with it, only partially remains in the final album. DELIVERY MAN, to my ears, is not nearly as strong as the three superb albums with the Attractions/Imposters that came before it -- BRUTAL YOUTH ('94), ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY ('96), and WHEN I WAS CRUEL ('02). When it comes to the "theme material," the duet with Lucinda Williams ("There's a Story In Your Voice") is a complete failure, painful to listen to. "Either Side of the Same Town" has a terrific vocal by Costello, approaching operatic quality, but most of the other presumed theme songs are weak ("Country Darkness," "The Delivery Man," "Nothing Clings Like Ivory," "The Name of This Thing Is Not Love").
The most frustrating thing is that in several tracks that stray from the Delivery Man story line, there are references to current events, but it's all oblique and glib. Costello is unwilling to express clearly his righteous anger at Bush and Blair in his songs, though I don't doubt that he feels it. "Needle Time," the album's strongest rocker, says "I wish I didn't hate you, least not as much as I do, and squander all my contempt for a little nothing like you," and later, "...the government deals with the most convenient thugs...", but it doesn't name names. Costello seems apologetic for his anger, but it seems to me this is no time to be standing on the sidelines worrying about one's soul. In fact it's the standing on the sidelines that endangers your soul! "Button My Lip" is a sloppy rocking mess that proclaims "Don't want to talk about the government, don't want to talk about some incident," again a frustrating cop-out. "Bedlam," another non-political political rocker, includes plenty of topical references like "Playing the Crusader who was conquering the Moors, when he knew the consequences but he won't admit the cause," and a "harlot carrying another man's child," who I believe may be Tony Blair, but neither the lyrics nor the music convey anything but wry detachment and diffuse discontentment. It's enough to make me want to hear "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding" cranked up REAL loud...
The last four tracks are the strongest. "Heart Shaped Bruise" is a lovely country ballad, a duet with Emmy Lou Harris. "Needle Time" features the closest thing to a Keith Richards riff on the album. "The Judgement," which sends the delivery man off to prison, features a powerful melody and another scorching vocal from Costello. Finally, "The Scarlet Tide" is just Costello and Harris singing over Costello on mandolin, with a new version of the song featured in the movie COLD MOUNTAIN (the soundtrack was produced by T-Bone Burnett, follow-up to the outstanding OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?). It's a beautiful song with a timely anti-war message.
I've saved "Monkey to Man" for last, one of Costello's patented misanthropic numbers with the animals singing about Man -- "Big and useless as he has become, with his crying statues and his flying bomb, goes 'round acting like the chosen one, excuse us if we treat him like our idiot cousin." "A vicious creature took the jump from Monkey to Man." Musically it sounds very '60s, with a Hammond organ. The song seems to me to represent the album as a whole -- it's entertaining and clever, but ultimately too glib to really pack a punch. 3.5 stars, and a recommendation to listen to the great albums from 1994, 1996 and 2002 if you missed any of them.
Description of The Delivery Man
With The Delivery Man--Elvis Costello and the Imposters' first release for Lost Highway--one of modern music's most admired and prolific talents has delivered a remarkable album that draws on deep American musical roots more than any of his releases since King of America in 1986. It is a collection that ranges from the ferocious, bass-driven opening track, "Button My Lip," which speaks in the voice of a desperate man on the verge of committing a terrible crime, to a tender and timely closing rendition of "The Scarlet Tide," referred to by Costello?s co-composer and fellow Oscar nominee T-Bone Burnett as an "anti-fear song."Like a lot of great things in music history, The Delivery Man can be said to have started with the late great Johnny Cash. "The Delivery Man is actually a character imported from a song I wrote in 1986 for Johnny Cash," Costello explains. "He's based on a real character. I read this story in the paper about a man who confessed to murdering his childhood friend thirty years later, having been in prison for a number of other things. I thought this story was very interesting because he'd carried this burden of guilt of this childhood crime."
Take one part This Year's Model, mix with a bit of Almost Blue, and top off with a healthy sprinkling of King of America. Voilą, The Delivery Man! Elvis Costello's first album for Lost Highway finds the musician deftly exploring American roots music, from rock 'n' roll to country to soul, with assistance from the Imposters (stalwart Attractions Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas plus ace bassist Davey Faragher) and thrushes Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams. It also finds him back digging around in the ashes of a failed relationship. One of the collection's most affecting songs is "The Judgement," a reflective collaboration with Costello's second wife, Cait O'Riordan. Meanwhile, the album is dedicated to his third wife, jazz star Diana Krall. Hmmm. Romantic upheaval may color these songs, but no more than Costello's musical restlessness. For every elegant, wistful ballad ("Nothing Clings Like Ivy," "The Scarlet Tide") there's a raucous rave-up ("Button My Lip," "Bedlam"). The Delivery Man won't make anyone forget his best work; it'll help them recall what they loved about it. --Steven Stolder
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