‘Dishonor the Stars,’ the ninth track on Elvis Costello’s new album Look Now, is the only love song on an album full of tracks about sorrow and regret.
I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that it’s also my least favorite song on the album. Costello isn’t exactly known for his romantic side.
“Least favorite” sounds a little harsh, though every list has to have something at the bottom. It’s more accurate to say this is the song I’ve taken the longest to warm to.
Track eight of Elvis Costello’s Look Now is the second collaboration with Burt Bacharach, and another of the album’s best cuts.
While longtime Costello bandmate Steve Nieve plays the piano on most of Look Now, Bacharach himself tickles the ivories on this track. His classy, delicate playing is a perfect compliment to Costello’s hushed vocals.
Track seven of Elvis Costello’s Look Now, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Hush’ is one of the most fun songs on the album.
This is the funkiest, grooviest track on Look Now but it doesn’t feel out of place. Costello has a way of skipping through genres on a single album without sacrificing the cohesiveness of the whole. This might be his Imperial Bedroom meets Painted From Memory album, but that doesn’t mean he can’t slip in a little Get Happy!! or Trust.
Sitting at the midpoint of Elvis Costello’s Look Now, sixth track ‘I Let the Sun Go Down’ is my front-runner for the best song on the album.
It’s also the moment I realized Look Now may well be Costello’s best album since 1986’s King of America and Blood & Chocolate. Bold statement, I know. And while I can make an argument for Spike, Brutal Youth, Momofuku and National Ransom, this album taps the vein of classic Costello in a way none of those releases did.
In track five of Elvis Costello’s Look Now, he continues some of the themes already explored on the record.
‘Unwanted Number’ is the fourth straight song sung from a woman’s perspective and the second that was written more than 20 years ago. Costello first penned this track for the 1996 film Grace of My Heart, a movie about a talented songwriter who is encouraged to record her own songs. The film was based on the early career of Carole King, who co-wrote an earlier song on this album.
Meet Me In Montauk 