It's tiring just trying to keep up with everything Elvis Costello's up to
USA Today -
(extract)
Elvis Costello, a serial collaborator who has flitted from jazz to string quartets to Burt Bacharach, has now sidled up to Allen Toussaint. And while the match benefits the underappreciated New Orleans songwriter/producer in terms of exposure, it’s the pop hipster who profits creatively from the odd coupling. Their labor of love has warmth and emotional weight, but it’s Toussaint’s creamy vocals, funkified piano and R&B sensibilities, particularly in Gonna Help Brother Get Further, that makes this River run deep.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer -
The perfect response to the call of Elvis Costello's plain singing is Allen Toussaint's sophisticated piano style.
The emotions within the vocals are echoed with unobtrusive fills, nearly fierce chords and a lyricism seldom found in rock and pop. While Costello is an adventurous gadabout, Toussaint remains one of the geniuses behind the R&B and funk that rose out of New Orleans from the '50s through the '70s. Like Costello, he is a poet with an ear for good hooks. Toussaint's "On Your Way Down" and Costello's "Broken Promise Land" last long after listening to them.
Each contributes their own originals, and several were written together. While the post-Katrina blight is inherent in some tunes, the songwriters' broad palettes set to timeless music create universality. Themes of politics, social ills and romance come together on "The River in Reverse," making it a brilliant set.
Entertainment Weekly -
(extract)
But what truly holds the album together is the ghost of Katrina hovering over it. In its original incarnation, Toussaint's 1970 song ''On Your Way Down'' was a fairly mild put-down; in Costello's hands, it becomes a scalding tongue-lashing, clearly aimed at those responsible for the disaster. With its images of the impoverished and homeless, a buoyant remake of the 1970 tune ''Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?'' (the only track sung alone by the smooth-voiced Toussaint) feels like it could have been written last August. The same goes for a charged, Attractions-reminiscent run-through of the nearly 40-year-old ''Tears, Tears, and More Tears.''
Costello can still oversing and overwrite: The title track's idiosyncratic melody distracts from his anguished, elegiac lyrics, and he's not a natural soul belter. But even when he threatens to turn baroque, as in ''Broken Promise Land,'' Toussaint rescues him. That newly penned collaboration, with its obvious flood references (''How high shall we build this wall?''), has more musical fits and starts than a jammed highway, but Toussaint's sublime horn arrangement uplifts it. Moments like those are also reminders of what New Orleans once gave to music, and hopefully will again.
The Denver Post -
( extract)
With Costello and Toussaint sharing the songwriting and playing, this album is a shoo-in as a late-career bloom for both music legends. Their collaborations are special, including "Broken Promise Land," an accomplishment as soulful as it is playful, and "The Sharpest Thorn." But the most moving track on this sweeping, gospel-influenced disc is Toussaint's "All These Things," a lush homage to the music of his '60s heyday.
The Observer -
Angry codger Costello and New Orleans veteran Toussaint decided to work together when they met at a benefit gig for the latter's recovering city. The result, recorded there late last year, is this soulful, rocking baker's dozen with backing from the Imposters and a kicking horn section. Toussaint is an amazing pianist and you wish he was more prominent here; only on 'Ascension Day' is he alone to back Costello and the combination is gorgeous. The title track and 'Broken Promise Land' barely conceal barbs for the US government and its response to Hurricane Katrina.
Philadelphia Inquirer-
It's tiring just trying to keep up with everything Elvis Costello's up to - imagine how exhausting it must be to be him. Of all the bespectacled Brit's various and sundry projects, however, The River in Reverse is one worth homing in on. It pools the resources of the prolific songwriter with the great Allen Toussaint, elegant New Orleans songwriter, piano man and producer, author of "Workin' in a Coal Mine," among many others. Recorded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and produced by Joe Henry, it's made up of six new songs and seven lesser-known Toussaint gems. The elder songsmith's compositions such as "Tears, Tears and More Tears" and "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further" sound freshly relevant, and new Costello lyrics like those to the title cut and "Broken Promise Land" are fittingly soulful and indignant. A mutually beneficial collaboration, if there ever was one.
USA TODAY
June 05, 2006
Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, The River in Reverse (* * *)
Elvis Costello, a serial collaborator who has flitted from jazz to string quartets to Burt Bacharach, has now sidled up to Allen Toussaint. And while the match benefits the underappreciated New Orleans songwriter/producer in terms of exposure, it’s the pop hipster who profits creatively from the odd coupling. The Katrina-themed set, recorded at Piety Street Studios in New Orleans last December with The Imposters and the Crescent City Horns, unveils new songs and retrofits such lesser-known vintage Toussaint tunes as Tears, Tears and More Tears. Toussaint is the album’s heart and soul, a saving grace, since Costello has little natural old-school R&B spunk. Costello’s title track feels stiff, and despite the deliciously spiteful lyrics, his Broken Promise Land is a jumbled composition (salvaged by Toussaint’s horn charts). Their labor of love has warmth and emotional weight, but it’s Toussaint’s creamy vocals, funkified piano and R&B sensibilities, particularly in Gonna Help Brother Get Further, that makes this River run deep. — Edna Gundersen
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Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
This Week's Hot CD: Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint's 'The River in Reverse'
The River in Reverse (Verve)
The perfect response to the call of Elvis Costello's plain singing is Allen Toussaint's sophisticated piano style.
The emotions within the vocals are echoed with unobtrusive fills, nearly fierce chords and a lyricism seldom found in rock and pop. While Costello is an adventurous gadabout, Toussaint remains one of the geniuses behind the R&B and funk that rose out of New Orleans from the '50s through the '70s. Like Costello, he is a poet with an ear for good hooks. Toussaint's "On Your Way Down" and Costello's "Broken Promise Land" last long after listening to them.
Each contributes their own originals, and several were written together. While the post-Katrina blight is inherent in some tunes, the songwriters' broad palettes set to timeless music create universality. Themes of politics, social ills and romance come together on "The River in Reverse," making it a brilliant set. (Roberta Penn)
GRADE: A
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Entertainment Weekly
The River in Reverse
Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint
Reviewed by David Browne
You know the drill by now: Another year, another chance for Elvis Costello to dabble in a genre that doesn't come naturally to him. I know that sounds cruel; after all, we should be encouraging musicians to stretch out. But in light of his derivative classical pieces and torturous jazz experiments, you have to wonder if anyone around Costello has the guts to tell him his ideas aren't always worth preserving on record.
The River in Reverse, Costello's collaboration with revered New Orleans songwriter-producer-pianist Allen Toussaint, could have fallen victim to some of the same problems as his previous side projects: How easily would the Big Easy come to him? But Costello's longtime love of R&B, dating back at least to the Stax-tinged Get Happy!!, saves it from self-indulgence (and the vocal strain heard on some of his other forays). The album is roughly divided between covers of old Toussaint songs and new tunes written by both men, and Costello sounds at home in Toussaint's steady-rolling supper-club funk. The men have worked together on and off since the '80s (that is Toussaint's piano playing on Spike's ''Deep Dark Truthful Mirror''), and their camaraderie is evident in the record's confident tone.
But what truly holds the album together is the ghost of Katrina hovering over it. In its original incarnation, Toussaint's 1970 song ''On Your Way Down'' was a fairly mild put-down; in Costello's hands, it becomes a scalding tongue-lashing, clearly aimed at those responsible for the disaster. With its images of the impoverished and homeless, a buoyant remake of the 1970 tune ''Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?'' (the only track sung alone by the smooth-voiced Toussaint) feels like it could have been written last August. The same goes for a charged, Attractions-reminiscent run-through of the nearly 40-year-old ''Tears, Tears, and More Tears.''
Costello can still oversing and overwrite: The title track's idiosyncratic melody distracts from his anguished, elegiac lyrics, and he's not a natural soul belter. But even when he threatens to turn baroque, as in ''Broken Promise Land,'' Toussaint rescues him. That newly penned collaboration, with its obvious flood references (''How high shall we build this wall?''), has more musical fits and starts than a jammed highway, but Toussaint's sublime horn arrangement uplifts it. Moments like those are also reminders of what New Orleans once gave to music, and hopefully will again. Grade: B+
The Denver Post
June 6 '06
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint
"The River in Reverse"
With Costello and Toussaint sharing the songwriting and playing, this album is a shoo-in as a late-career bloom for both music legends.
Costello has waxed prolific lately, but this subtle work, laden with B3 organ, is his most significant project since 2002's "When I Was Cruel." Toussaint, who penned R&B hits "Working in a Coalmine," "Get Out of My Life Woman" and "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On)," has performed for five decades, going back to his days with producer Dave Bartholomew laying down tracks at recording sessions for Fats Domino.
Their collaborations are special, including "Broken Promise Land," an accomplishment as soulful as it is playful, and "The Sharpest Thorn." But the most moving track on this sweeping, gospel-influenced disc is Toussaint's "All These Things," a lush homage to the music of his '60s heyday. |Ricardo Baca
Sunday June 4, 2006
The Observer ( London)
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint
The River in Reverse (Universal)
Angry codger Costello and New Orleans veteran Toussaint decided to work together when they met at a benefit gig for the latter's recovering city. The result, recorded there late last year, is this soulful, rocking baker's dozen with backing from the Imposters and a kicking horn section. Toussaint is an amazing pianist and you wish he was more prominent here; only on 'Ascension Day' is he alone to back Costello and the combination is gorgeous. The title track and 'Broken Promise Land' barely conceal barbs for the US government and its response to Hurricane Katrina.
Molloy Woodcraft
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Sun, Jun. 04, 2006
Philadelphia Inquirer
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint
The River in Reverse
(Verve Forecast ***1/2)
It's tiring just trying to keep up with everything Elvis Costello's up to - imagine how exhausting it must be to be him. Of all the bespectacled Brit's various and sundry projects, however, The River in Reverse is one worth homing in on. It pools the resources of the prolific songwriter with the great Allen Toussaint, elegant New Orleans songwriter, piano man and producer, author of "Workin' in a Coal Mine," among many others. Recorded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and produced by Joe Henry, it's made up of six new songs and seven lesser-known Toussaint gems. The elder songsmith's compositions such as "Tears, Tears and More Tears" and "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further" sound freshly relevant, and new Costello lyrics like those to the title cut and "Broken Promise Land" are fittingly soulful and indignant. A mutually beneficial collaboration, if there ever was one.
- Dan DeLuca
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Vh1, Mon, 05 Jun 2006
1 Week, 10 Songs: Editors' Picks
Every week our music writers choose 10 must-hear, must-have tracks. Keep coming back to hear which tunes we're hot about.
by Jim Macnie & C. Bottomley
(extract)
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint "Ascension Day" The River In Reverse
The masterful New Orleans pianist reworks the classic "Tipitina" melody in a minor key as EC emotes about an eerie situation where "not a soul was stirring and not a bird was singing" - you know, like big blast of evil was about sweep through town. It did, of course. And here at the start of a new hurricane season, ghosts haunt their families, survivors shake their fists at the skies, and hollow apologies fall on enraged ears. The chilling voice and piano affair is the most touching track on Costello and Toussaint's Katrina connection.