Review: Glasgow
The Herald (Glasgow) Oct.8 `03
(From Print Edition, Transcribed by John Foyle)
If the performance of Accidents Will Happen (from way back in 1979 and a long-established Costello and the Attractions set starter) was intended to reassure fans it was both a tease and a truth , because it immediately set the context for the bulk of the set-renditions of tracks on North , the new disc of beautifully-crafted love songs. If it is relatively easy to map the trajectory that has brought EC the songsmith to this point , by way of Almost Blue the song, the Bordsky Quartet, and Burt Bacharach , it is still almost a surprise how well he delivers.
The North songs are delivered in batches of five, three , and two. He omits only one , but includes the title track , which , with characteristic perversity, is not on the album. Beautifully sung , they are undoubtedly a departure , but listen hard and that skilled kleptomania is still at work. When Did I Stop Dreaming ? , for example , is a cunning obverse of the Billie Holiday song Gloomy Sunday , which he covered many moons ago , the lyrical parallel mirrored by a reversal of the same major/minor musical trick on the middle eight.
The evening held many such delights for the attentive ear. A sequence of anti-war songs , just in case we thought he`d gone soft , and the segue from North (the song) into other terrains of country (from the Nashville set of yore). The variety show also encompassed the virtuosity of pianist Nieve on Man Out Of Time and Sweet Dreams (and the best use of melodica since Augustus Pablo) , some stand-up in God`s Comic ,and enthusiastic community singing. The beloved entertainer may be loved up , but so were we all.
Keith Bruce (4/5 stars)