It was four years before Costello released another solo album — 2008’s Momofuku. He did put out an album with Allen Toussaint in the middle there, but I haven’t heard it enough to feature it here. I’ve been meaning to give it a listen but haven’t gotten around to it.

Momofuku was as spontaneous a recording as Costello has yet put out. Far from the high concepts and meticulous production of previous albums, this one happened almost by accident. Costello was recording some songs with Jenny Lewis for her album Acid Tongue when he got the bug to lay down some tracks of his own. So he quickly wrote a new batch of songs and recorded them with Lewis on backing vocals and her session players, which included members of his band The Imposters.

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