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.
‘Stripping Paper,’ track four of Elvis Costello’s Look Now, is my favorite on the album so far. It is top notch both musically and lyrically.
Costello’s songs are often hard to analyze, between the British aphorisms (mostly lost on a Yank like me) and his flights of linguistic fancy. ‘Stripping Paper’ is a refreshing exception, easy to decipher and emotionally resonant.
Track three of Elvis Costello’s Look Now is another song told from a woman’s perspective. More notable is that it was co-written by one of the great songwriters, man or woman — Carole King.
Costello and King wrote this track 20 years ago and he has played it live over the years, but this is the first time the cut made its way onto an album.
Meet Me In Montauk 