OK, when an artist’s new release is a concept album about written correspondence performed entirely with a string quartet, he’s admittedly opening himself up to charges of pretentiousness. So yes, The Juliet Letters is sort of by definition a pretentious album.
But the thing is, it works. I’ve never listened to a string quartet in my life but I love every minute of this album. And of course that’s due to the songwriting, which is uniformly excellent on this collection. At least half of these 20 songs are as melodically sublime and lyrically clever as anything Costello has written for guitars and pianos as opposed to violins and cellos.
Meet Me In Montauk 