Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums!!

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sweetest punch
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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https://www.benzinemag.net/2021/09/29/e ... e-de-2021/

Elvis Costello – Spanish Model : le modèle de 1978 revisité par l’Amérique Latine de 2021
Paru dans l’indifférence générale en France, Spanish Model est une réécriture en espagnol du fabuleux This Year’s Model, chef d’œuvre absolu d’Elvis Costello : un projet délirant de plus de notre très cher « Imposter », qui s’avère une belle réussite.

En 1978, riche année musicale qui vit la pop renaître du brûlot punk, sous le nom de new wave, un album changea radicalement la donne, et fut généralement considéré comme l’une des plus grandes réussites de cette nouvelle nouvelle vague : This Year’s Model, second album d’Elvis Costello l’enragé et premier disque réalisé avec l’appui de son combo terrible, The Attractions. Des mélodies parfaites, des textes d’un niveau que plus personne n’atteignait en Grande-Bretagne depuis que Ray Davies avait décidé de vieillir, une énergie supersonique et une rage postillonnante du chanteur qui enchanta ceux que Johnny Rotten et Joe Strummer avaient réveillés, et effaroucha quand même une bonne partie du public plus timoré. Bizarrement, This Years’ Model, respectable succès commercial planétaire en 1978 – y compris dans le monde hispanique -, est rarement célébré aujourd’hui comme le monument qu’il est.

Spanish ModelEt nous voilà en 2020 : Costello a, heureusement, calmé sa rage en explorant autant de genres musicaux que possible : country, folk, jazz, musique classique, variétés internationales, trip hop, blues, hip hop… on en passe et des meilleurs. Un cancer assez méchant a failli nous priver de lui il y a quelques années, mais n’aura eu heureusement que peu d’impact sur l’énergie de ce chercheur insatiable, de ce ludion passionné : son nouvel album, Hey Clockface, totalement bizarre, s’est avéré une réussite de plus à son actif, et notre homme était prêt à affronter de nouveaux défis. Une proposition d’adapter l’une de ses chansons en espagnol (alors qu’en parallèle, il travaillait sur des versions françaises de chansons de Hey Clockface) lui donne une idée : pourquoi ne pas offrir à l’Amérique Latine (et à l’Espagne) une version en espagnol de This Year’s Model ? Le fait qu’Elvis ne parle lui-même pas un traître mot d’espagnol n’est pas un problème : il suffit de contacter une dizaine – et plus – d’artistes hispanophones à travers le monde et de leur proposer de réécrire ses textes, qu’il chantera ensuite avec eux ! Facile, non ?

Et bien sûr, Costello étant Costello, soit l’un des artistes majeurs du siècle dernier – même si en France, où il ne tourne même plus, il n’a jamais suscité que peu d’intérêt -, tous les candidats sollicités ont répondu présents, ce qui nous permet aujourd’hui de découvrir une nouvelle version de This Year’s Model (la version de référence ici est plus ou moins celle de la réédition de 1993 chez Rykodisc). Avec la même musique, puisque les titres n’ont pas été rejoués, mais qu’on repart des bandes de l’époque – énergie punk ou post-punk garantie ! -, et que les interprètes (c’est-à-dire les invités, le chant original d’Elvis réapparaissant parfois…) ne se contentent pas de chanter la même chose en espagnol, mais ont la plupart du temps réinventé les chansons. Leur conférant ainsi parfois un sens nouveau – comme Radio Radio que Fito Páez, rocker et cinéaste argentin, transforme en chanson méta sur l’art de Costello, ou encore Crawling to the USA que Gian Marco, chanteur et acteur péruvien, et sa fille Nicole Zignano, ont dû chanter comme un constat sur l’émigration désastreuse des pays les plus pauvres du continent vers les Etats-Unis. Ou leur apportant, dans d’autres cas, une richesse mélodique différente, comme sur Pump It Up, tuerie punk ultime des Attractions sur laquelle Costello a presque toujours clos ses sets, et que l’élégance de la langue espagnole et le chant du Colombien Juanes enchantent, ou encore sur Detonantes (vous savez, Little Triggers !), qui devient une torch song grâce au talent de La Marisoul, chanteuse mexicano-américaine.

Bien entendu, comme toujours avec ce genre d’exercice, on peut regretter des versions encore trop fidèles à l’esprit initial de la chanson (le groupe colombien Morat reprend Lipstick Vogue comme s’ils s’imaginaient totalement être sur scène avec Elvis en 1978 !), on sera éventuellement déçus par rapport à la version originale (La Chica de Hoy, c’est-à-dire This Year’s Girl, texte féministe virulent qui a toujours fait honneur à Costello, pas particulièrement mis en valeur par Cami, malgré la pertinence de son interprétation par une jeune femme), et on sera à l’inverse surpris par la beauté qui transparaît ici et là de manière inattendue (La Turba / Night Rally avec l’Uruguayen Jorge Drexler, ou Hand In Hand avec le duo impeccable constitué de la Chilienne Francisca Valenzuela et l’Américain Luis Humbero Navejas).

Bref, alors que Spanish Model vient d’entrer – une première dans la carrière de Costello – dans les Charts des « Latin Albums » -, voici un cadeau surprenant, qui conjugue la nostalgie d’une époque musicale féconde avec la pertinence d’une réécriture parfaitement en phase avec le monde d’aujourd’hui.

Une seule question nous taraude, pourquoi diable ne pas avoir intitulé ce nouvel album : « El modelo de este año ? »

3,5 stars (out of 5)
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Elvis Costello - Spanish Model: the 1978 Latin American revisited model of 2021
Released with general indifference in France, Spanish Model is a rewrite in Spanish of the fabulous This Year's Model, an absolute masterpiece by Elvis Costello: yet another delirious project by our dear "Imposter", which s turns out to be a great success.

In 1978, a rich musical year that saw pop reborn from fiery punk, under the name of new wave, an album radically changed the situation, and was generally considered as one of the greatest successes of this new wave: This Year's Model , second album by Elvis Costello the enraged and first disc produced with the support of his terrible combo, The Attractions. Perfect melodies, lyrics at a level that no one had reached in Britain since Ray Davies had decided to grow old, supersonic energy and a spurting rage of the singer who enchanted those Johnny Rotten and Joe Strummer had woken up, and still frightened a good part of the more timid public. Oddly, This Years' Model, a respectable worldwide commercial success in 1978 - including in the Hispanic world - is rarely celebrated today as the monument it is.

Spanish Model And here we are in 2020: Costello has, fortunately, calmed his rage by exploring as many musical genres as possible: country, folk, jazz, classical music, international varieties, trip hop, blues, hip hop ... there are many and the best . A rather nasty cancer almost deprived us of him a few years ago, but fortunately will have had little impact on the energy of this insatiable researcher, of this passionate ludion: his new album, Hey Clockface, totally bizarre , turned out to be another success story to his credit, and our man was ready to face new challenges. A proposal to adapt one of his songs in Spanish (while in parallel he was working on French versions of songs by Hey Clockface) gives him an idea: why not offer to Latin America (and to the 'Spain) a Spanish version of This Year's Model? The fact that Elvis does not speak a single word of Spanish himself is not a problem: just contact a dozen - and more - Spanish-speaking artists around the world and offer them to rewrite his texts. , which he will then sing with them! Easy, right?

And of course, Costello being Costello, one of the major artists of the last century - even if in France, where he does not even tour anymore, he never aroused little interest - all the candidates solicited responded. present, which allows us today to discover a new version of This Year's Model (the reference version here is more or less that of the 1993 reissue at Rykodisc). With the same music, since the tracks weren't replayed, but we are starting over from the bands of the time - punk or post-punk energy guaranteed! -, and that the performers (meaning the guests, Elvis's original song sometimes reappearing ...) didn't just sing the same thing in Spanish, but mostly reinvented the songs. Sometimes giving them a new meaning - like Radio Radio that Fito Páez, Argentine rocker and filmmaker, transforms into a meta song on the art of Costello, or even Crawling to the USA that Gian Marco, Peruvian singer and actor, and his daughter Nicole Zignano, must have sung as an observation on the disastrous emigration from the poorest countries of the continent to the United States. Or bringing them, in other cases, a different melodic richness, as on Pump It Up, the ultimate punk killer of the Attractions on which Costello almost always ended his sets, and that the elegance of the Spanish language and the song of the Colombian Juanes enchant, or on Detonantes (you know, Little Triggers!), Which becomes a torch song thanks to the talent of La Marisoul, Mexican-American singer.

Of course, as always with this kind of exercise, we can regret versions that are still too faithful to the original spirit of the song (the Colombian group Morat takes over Lipstick Vogue as if they totally imagined being on stage with Elvis in 1978!), We will possibly be disappointed compared to the original version (La Chica de Hoy, that is to say This Year's Girl, virulent feminist text which has always done credit to Costello, not particularly highlighted by Cami, despite the relevance of its interpretation by a young woman), and conversely we will be surprised by the beauty that shines through here and there in an unexpected way (La Turba / Night Rally with the Uruguayan Jorge Drexler, or Hand In Hand with the impeccable duo consisting of the Chilean Francisca Valenzuela and the American Luis Humbero Navejas).

In short, while Spanish Model has just entered - a first in Costello's career - in the Charts of "Latin Albums" -, here is a surprising gift, which combines nostalgia of a fruitful musical era with the relevance of a rewrite perfectly in tune with today's world.

We only have one question, why the hell not to have titled this new album: "El modelo de este año?" "

3.5 stars (out of 5)
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
Neil.
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

Post by Neil. »

Does anyone have the phone number of the bloke singing the Spanish version of 'Big Tears'?

Asking for a friend.
sweetest punch
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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https://uproxx.com/indie/elvis-costello ... ay-guitar/

Elvis Costello On Demystifying The Guitar And Taking His Music To Latin America

Elvis Costello’s motiviations, in this moment, appear to be punctuated by a want to bring more people into the circus tent that is music. These are, of course, commercial endeavors, but there’s a purity to them that feels like a friend sitting in a corner sharing secrets about the sometimes vexing but always tantalizing guitar or sliding a box of records over to you with a promise of something cool and unique.

Working with Audible with their Words + Music series, Costello has just launched How To Play The Guitar And Y, an instructional that’s a bit deconstructed, providing a more mellow and meditative experience. Costello, a master storyteller, romanticizes the instrument and the craft of learning it here, giving people a bit more meat than they’d get with a black and white technical manual.

In addition to that release comes Spanish Model, a reimagining of 1978’s This Year’s Model, but powered by a mix of the original’s music from Costello and The Attractions and a roster of Spanish language stars who put their own spin on the words, freshening a classic and giving Costello’s music an entirely new audience.

Uproxx had a chance to speak with the iconic rocker about these projects and their DNA, that effort to bring people into the tent, growing up with a sonic mixing bowl of inspirations, and whether he’s choosing to make songs of lament or songs that kick out of the box that COVID times have put us in. Here’s the result.

I am a 20-years-in terrible guitar player. I’ve never bothered to learn the technical way, I’ve tried with apps and stuff and it just never fits.

I’m 50 years into playing and you can still walk up to the guitar and point at the neck, and go, “what note is that?” And I go, “I have no idea.” And I’m not [just] saying that. That is not false modesty. I’ve deliberately kept some parts of it mysterious. And I think it’s important to keep the inner idiot alive when it comes to playing rock and roll, certainly.

What made you go down this road (an audio, non-standard demystification of the guitar) with this project?

So you probably get the idea if you’ve listened to this piece, that this is really about taking away your fear of failing… as much as I can from example. It’s not supposed to be a hard and fast foolproof instructional. It’s, as I say, a work of comedic philosophy because it’s about the state of mind. But there’s got to be something I can let people in on. Not a secret trick that’s going to make them successful, and then people love them and throw money or their underwear at them, but [something that] takes away some of that trepidation, which as you say, you can play for a long time and not feel like you’re getting anywhere, well, a lot of that is where the starting place comes.

Some people are quite happy with the three chords they can pull out at a party. Some people’s three-chord trick becomes a curiosity in which they learn every chord and they learn music more formally. I did that. I think I was in my forties before I learned how to write music down. I had written hundreds of songs, but they weren’t songs that required the writing of music. Then I started to want to do some music that did require musical coding, so to speak, which is no different than computer coding when you think about it, it’s just a mathematical diagram for ideas. But all the time, I’ve still, as I said, kept alive that idea of just playing it.

With the electric guitar, that can be very much an expression of anger, and when you play the guitar quietly, it can be your deepest sorrow or your biggest praise that you want to give, or the most heartfelt expression of love. You can do that with three chords, as well as you can with 25, if you’ve got the right song. That’s why I chose the Hank Williams song. That is such a beautiful song, but it’s only three chords. When you hear it from the outside of the music, you probably imagine anything that’s lasted that long and has mattered that much to people must be more complicated. And then actually when you get into it, it isn’t. Not technically, it’s not more, it’s where it’s phrased, and the trust that your fingers will follow you, particularly if you’re not playing in a key that’s mechanically intimidating like C, which leaves you with this great puzzle.

You mention Hank Williams and George Jones comes up in the piece. I’m fascinated by the influence of country music, specifically, that era, on UK-raised artists. When did US country music really start to influence you?

I think somebody that grew up… I’m the perfect age to be a Beatles fan. Okay. So I was eight years old when “Love Me Do” came out. I was 16 when “Let It Be” came out. So the whole of my childhood into my teenage years was the Beatles were the group. Fairly early on, they did this song and it’s like a jokey… “Act Naturally,” and Ringo’s singing it. It’s sung with a sense of humor. And I heard Jim Reeves’ [version], and that was very sentimental. Then I heard Johnny Cash and now that was something else. But I didn’t even really think that was country music as much as like some kind of rock and roll.

And then I have to say like a lot of people in my generation, The Byrds playing country music sort of made it… sort of went, hold on a second. Now they’re doing a song that I’ve heard that was written by the guy that sang “Private Number,” William Bell. Now what’s going on here, now that music just jumped out of the box that I thought it was in, and it’s walked over to this other box and jumped in there. And then I heard The Flying Burrito Brothers do “Do Right Woman.” And I go, hold on a second, now I’ve got the Aretha Franklin version of that. And that’s the thing when you shouldn’t have these signposts for the names of types of music be a barrier or a stop sign, because then you go well, oh, wait a minute, both those songs are great. They are different, but one’s got a pedal steel guitar, the other’s got an organ. But is one less felt than the other? No, not really. Aretha’s obviously technically a much better singer than Graham Parsons, but they both move me. That’s all that matters. Isn’t it? That’s how it got in.

Of course, then I understood after a while, where a lot of those cues came from. They came from George Jones, they came from Merle Haggard. And they’re more complex writers like Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote a lot of the songs for the Everly’s, and wrote those songs that Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons did: “Love Hurts” and “Sleepless Nights.” And then you discover, oh, Willie Nelson… Willie Nelson wrote that song “Funny How Time Slips Away,” which I knew as a Georgie Fame song.

So I heard it as an R&B song, first. He was covering an R&B cover of that song, not a country song. So the names for all this music all got very mixed up in England. We heard a lot of songs twice and three times over. So my familiarity with, say, the songs of Burt Bacharach were both from Dionne Warwick and people from the local music scene who were covering those songs because they were hits on the American charts. My own father was singing on the radio dance band. And I was hearing him practice songs, which I then heard sung by my favorite group. You understand, it’s confusing when you have that kind of upbringing.

What do you listen to now? Do you retreat more to things that are familiar? Are you still looking voraciously to find new influences?

Well, recently, of course, I’ve been listening to a lot of singers from Latin America because I’ve been working on Spanish Model for a couple of years. And I knew some of the artists before, and some of them were friends, and I’d worked together with Marisol and I knew Fito Páez. When I went to Argentina, he welcomed us there. But Sebastian Krys and I have worked together on a lot of different records. Some of them are available already. Some of them are still to come. And he’s also done work on things like the Armed Forces box set, where he makes four albums worth of live material to complete the reissue. So we’ve had a way of looking at different music. And one of those projects was Spanish Model, which is using the original backing tracks [from This Year’s Model] with brand new vocals by Latin artists.

This wasn’t something planned in a marketing room. This was something where I actually dreamt it up and waited for him [Sebastian] to tell me that it was crazy. And he said, “yes, it’s crazy, and that’s all the more reason why we should do it.” And we’ve worked together on finding a combination of young, successful, unknown, rising stars… people who have very artistic profiles. Some of them are very pop and would really surprise and even horrify people, even Latin audiences, that they would even be singing my song. You have to understand that I’m completely unknown in most of the countries in Latin America. So if somebody like Sebastian Yatra, who’s a big current Colombian pop star, sings one of my songs, I’m a songwriter who Yatra is singing, I’m not a famous recording artist in my own right.

So all of these different stories… the reversal of the perspective of the songs by having a young woman sing a song in her twenties that I wrote when I was in my twenties, this is all the reason why we’re doing it. That required me to become acquainted with these singers and to hear the sense of possibility in their voices. I wanted their voices to be right ones, and then asked them if they felt they could sing music that in many cases was very outside of their common experience. It wasn’t even the kind of music they sang often, and they did a great job. So that was a big lot of listening, to listen to that.

Is there a want to continue to do things like this where you work through your back catalog and work with other younger, up-and-coming artists to put a new spin on these things?

Would I do this again? Oh, I don’t know. It hadn’t occurred to me. People that want to be sarcastic about it will say, oh, what’s coming next? A Serbo-Croat version of King Of America? I don’t know. If somebody wanted to take it on and they thought there was something to be had from it, maybe, but I don’t know. This was different because Sebastian was born in Argentina and raised in Miami, which is the perfect example of a city… it’s got a huge Latin culture and you’ve got the states in America, you know the ones on the border, like Texas and California, that are as Spanish speaking as they are English speaking in some parts. That’s all represented in this record. It’s not like a political statement in any sense, it just acknowledges the reality that it’s a shared culture.

Sebastian’s worked with so many Latin artists, both northern and southern hemisphere. He was uniquely placed to suggest to me people who would really sing this well. So it wasn’t just an exercise in getting the most successful singer of that demographic to use that word and hope that they could relate to this, that we could have a conversation about what was in the songs and what we wanted that song to be in this version. Would that work in another language? I don’t know.

But we did, of course, release a French EP off the back of Hey Clockface because Steve Nieve, my cohort of 43 years, lives in France, he carries a French passport. I knew that Iggy Pop could sing in French. So I thought let’s have Iggy sing the translation. Steve then and his partner Muriel Teodori got Isabelle Adjani, who was somebody I would’ve dreamed of working with… [and she] recited one of the pieces from that Hey Clockface record. I just wanted something to offer to the French audience that was in their own language, on an EP. I have no idea whether the Spanish language record will open a door for us in Latin America where I’m currently not really very well known. It doesn’t really matter. They might just like that one song, sung by Raquel Sofia or by Jesse & Joy or any of the other artists on the record.

How has the COVID era influenced your songwriting?

It didn’t really influence the songwriting so much as the attitude to recording, because I had begun Hey Clockface in Helsinki just before the last tour I was able to do in 2020. I went to Helsinki, recorded three songs, went to Paris, recorded nine songs. That wasn’t quite the record I had in mind. So I came back and completed it with two more pieces, which were recorded from remote occasions. So once we had crossed that barrier off, which is purely a state of mind, because, as you know, many records are recorded instrument by instrument. I’ve made records both ways, live in the studio, instrument by instrument, both have their virtues, both have their pitfalls. But largely when you know you can’t get together, the only thing really holding you back is the feeling that you are somehow confined by the general malaise to your spirit, of being separated from those you respond to normally — producers, other musicians, your family. You’re far away from your friends and your family, you’re concerned for their well-being, particularly their mental, emotional health. And you try not to dwell on all of the implications of every piece of misinformation that might come through your window.

You’ve got two choices then: you can make music sort of, to some degree, embracing that sense of isolation and make songs of lament. Or you can say, well, what circumstances have put us in this box? Let’s kick our way out of here. I’ll let you guess which one of those I chose.
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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Neil. wrote:Does anyone have the phone number of the bloke singing the Spanish version of 'Big Tears'?

Asking for a friend.
:lol:
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
sweetest punch
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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Enter For Your Chance To Win Elvis Costello’s ‘Spanish Model’ On Double Vinyl!
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/competit ... -giveaway/
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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http://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews ... s_costello

Elvis Costello & The Attractions Spanish Model (UMe)

Leave it to Elvis Costello, long-known for surprising, confusing, and challenging his fanbase, and his collaborator/producer Sebastian Krys, to take another left turn in a career full of them, this one almost 45 years into his illustrious recording career. Instead of just reissuing his landmark 1978 2nd album This Year’s Model (of which there is a 2021 remaster paired with this release), he goes one step further and gives us a full-fledged covers album with Spanish-language artists, both stars and little known, singing their own vocals (with Elvis’ lyrics translated into Spanish!) over the original 1978 backing tracks.

Costello’s voice is sometimes heard, too, particularly in a new “duet” version of “Pump It Up” with the Argentinian singer Juanes, and occasionally on other tracks as well, such as Fito Paez’s seering version of the blistering “Radio Radio,” famously added to the original U.S. version of the album in 1978 after he performed it on Saturday Night Live in a stunt that got him banned from the show for 12 years.

Mostly, though, this is the younger singers’ show, though the vocals here are paired excellently with the music, creating something totally unique that isn’t a remix, a strict covers album, or anything of the sort. In fact, while many other artists have covered his songs over the years and there have been volumes devoted to it (see the 1998 compilation Bespoke Songs, Lost Dogs, and Detours or the early 2000s alt-country covers compilation Almost You), I can’t think of a single precedent for a record like this.

It should also be noted that the tracks on this album are taken out of order (though thankfully, it does open with Nina Diaz’s take on “No Action,” one of the best album openers ever), giving it more of a feel of a brand new album than just a straight track-by-track covers album. There are also some excellent non-album tracks included here, too, my favorite being “Running Out of Fools,” partly because Vega even replicates the false start found on the demo version included on various reissues over the last 30 years.

Elsewhere, there is a raucous take on “Big Tears” (one of several tracks featuring the contribution of The Clash’s Mick Jones on guitar to the original 1978 sessions) sung by Sebastian Yatra. There are also several remixes of the aforementioned “Pump It Up” and a dub take on “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea,” both of which are less essential than the other tracks, but still fun. Overall, if Costello’s aim here was to not only draw renewed attention to a much-loved album in his catalog, but to also draw attention to singers in the vast Spanish-speaking world, he has succeeded on both fronts. (www.elviscostello.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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https://elpais.com/icon/cultura/2021-10 ... ienda.html

ELVIS NO HA ABANDONADO EL EDIFICIO
Elvis Costello: “Me fascina el español, aunque no lo entienda”
Convertido en un mito, Elvis Costello puede permitirse excentricidades. La última es regrabar un disco de hace 45 años con vocalistas latinos como Juanes, Vega, Jorge Drexler o Luis Fonsi. Lo ha titulado ‘Spanish Model’

Habla Elvis Costello (Paddington, Londres, 67 años) desde una habitación de su casa de Canadá, en la que vive con su mujer, Diana Krall, y en la que no ha parado de trabajar desde que comenzó la pandemia. En este tiempo le ha dado tiempo a grabar un nuevo álbum, Hey Clockface, coordinar la reedición de lujo de uno de sus discos clásicos, Armed Forces, y concretar un proyecto que se puede calificar de excéntrico: reconstruir su primer clásico, This Year’s Model, de 1978, en el que le apoyaba el trío The Attractions, usando las grabaciones originales de la música y a 19 vocalistas latinos cantando en español.

Un curioso listado: Juanes, Sebastián Yatra, Pablo López, Luis Fonsi, Vega, Jorge Drexler, Fito Paez, Draco o Morat. A Costello le encantan estos experimentos: lo mismo graba un disco de versiones con la mezzosoprano sueca Anne Sofie von Otter que temas en francés o un álbum con un grupo de hip hop. Este no pasa de una curiosidad. Algunos cantantes están más acertados que otros, pero ninguno resulta especialmente memorable. “La idea surgió en un sueño, de verdad”, dice poniendo esa sonrisa socarrona que le caracteriza y que hace difícil distinguir si habla en serio. “Yo había rehecho con Sebastián una canción del disco con una voz femenina para una serie”, continúa. Mientras, el aludido, Sebastián Krys, famoso productor argentino que ha trabajado con él, le mira desde otra ventana de Zoom. “Sebastián se dio cuenta de que las canciones originales, que se grabaron en 1978, sonaban muy bien, muy compactas y eso significaba que había un montón de posibilidades. Así que se lo solté: ‘¿Por qué no hacemos el disco de nuevo? Entero. En español”.

Superada la sorpresa, Krys se puso manos a la obra. “Lo primero que buscamos fueron voces que funcionaran con cada canción. Algunas nos pedían una mujer. Otras, un hombre. Seleccionaba dos o tres, le mandaba links y él elegía”, explica el productor.

“Algunas las conocía, pero fue una oportunidad de descubrir grandes cantantes”, remata Costello. “Buscaba muchas cosas. Transformaciones como la que ha hecho Draco, pero también ver en los más jóvenes esa sensación de no tener miedo y descubrir cosas que tenía yo cuando lo grabé. Cuando oigo aquel disco de hace 45 años, escucho el debut de un grupo. Es el sonido de una banda que cuatro meses antes no existía”.

Un poco de historia. En 1975, Elvis, entonces Declan Patrick Aloysius McManus, era un administrativo de Liverpool que con 21 años ya estaba casado y con un hijo. Pero actuaba en pubs y algo debía de tener porque llamó la atención de Stiff Records, un sello independiente que le fichó en 1977. Fue el sello quien le propuso su nombre artístico: Elvis, para provocar, porque era feo y gafotas. Costello era el apellido de soltera de su madre. Al llegar la new wave, su pop sesentero y acelerado encontró un sitio. Enseguida se convirtió en una de las estrellas del momento. Hoy es el que más lejos ha llegado de aquella generación. Una estrella que toca Penny Lane en la Casa Blanca con Barack Obama y Paul McCartney sentados en primera fila. “Cuando grabé This Year’s Model jamás pensé que llegaría a eso. Solo disfrutábamos. Todo era nuevo. Cosas tan emocionantes como la primera gira por Estados Unidos”.

Hay un vídeo en blanco y negro en YouTube de un concierto en New Jersey de esa gira: Elvis Costello & The Attractions era un cuarteto compacto y electrizante. Tenían eso que los flamencos llaman poderío. “He visto ese vídeo. Es verdad que estábamos muy bien. Recuerdo que al final apareció en los camerinos un tipo con una chupa de cuero y una bandana en la cabeza. De repente le reconocí, era Springsteen. Éramos fans mutuos y de lo que hablamos basicamente es de qué sería lo próximo. Y lo próximo supongo que fue otro paso que me terminó llevando a la Casa Blanca, tocando para Paul McCartney, para quien compuse 15 canciones una vez. Otra cosa que nunca pensé que haría”.

Por si se lo pregunta, no. Costello no habla castellano: “Me fascina el español. Siempre me ha gustado el sonido de esa lengua, aunque no la entienda. Mi padre hablaba español. Era el cantante de una orquesta y en su repertorio había canciones en español. Por un motivo o por otro mi padre y yo nunca pasamos mucho tiempo juntos, pero uno de mis primeros recuerdos es estar sentado en el palco de un salón de baile, porque entonces se llevaba a bandas a tocar en directo para que la gente bailase, y él cantando en español. Me encantaba el sonido aunque no sabía qué decía. Con siete u ocho años, ver a tu padre en un escenario, aunque fuera el de una sala de baile casi desierta tenía algo de magia. Nunca lo olvidaré”.

—————————
Google translation:

ELVIS HAS NOT LEAVED THE BUILDING
Elvis Costello: “Spanish fascinates me, even if he doesn't understand it”
Turned into a myth, Elvis Costello can afford eccentricities. The last one is to re-record a 45-year-old album with Latin vocalists like Juanes, Vega, Jorge Drexler or Luis Fonsi. He has titled it ‘Spanish Model’

He speaks Elvis Costello (Paddington, London, 67 years old) from a room in his house in Canada, in which he lives with his wife, Diana Krall, and in which he has not stopped working since the pandemic began . In this time he has had time to record a new album, Hey Clockface, coordinate the luxury reissue of one of his classic albums, Armed Forces, and realize a project that can be described as eccentric: rebuilding his first classic, This Year's Model , from 1978, in which he was supported by the trio The Attractions, using the original recordings of the music and 19 Latin vocalists singing in Spanish.

A curious list: Juanes, Sebastián Yatra, Pablo López, Luis Fonsi, Vega, Jorge Drexler, Fito Paez, Draco or Morat. Costello loves these experiments: the same makes a cover album with Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter than songs in French or an album with a hip hop group. This is nothing more than a curiosity. Some singers are more successful than others, but none are particularly memorable. "The idea came from a dream, really," he says, putting on that sly smile that characterizes him and that makes it difficult to distinguish if he is serious. “I had remade with Sebastián a song from the album with a female voice for a series,” he continues. Meanwhile, the aforementioned, Sebastián Krys, a famous Argentine producer who has worked with him, looks at him from another Zoom window. “Sebastián realized that the original songs, which were recorded in 1978, sounded very good, very compact and that meant there were a lot of possibilities. He so he blurted it out to him: 'Why don't we make the album again? Whole. In Spanish".

Surprise overcome, Krys went to work. “The first thing we looked for were voices that would work with each song. Some asked us for a woman. Others, a man. He would select two or three, send him links and he would choose ”, explains the producer.

"Some of them I knew, but it was an opportunity to discover great singers," concludes Costello. “I was looking for many things. Transformations like the one Draco has done, but also seeing in the younger ones that feeling of not being afraid and discovering things that I had when I recorded it. When I hear that record 45 years ago, I hear the debut of a group. It is the sound of a band that did not exist four months before ”.

A little history. In 1975, Elvis, then Declan Patrick Aloysius McManus, was a clerk from Liverpool who at the age of 21 was already married with a son. But he performed in pubs and he must have had something because he caught the attention of Stiff Records, an independent label that signed him in 1977. It was the label that proposed his stage name: Elvis, to provoke, because he was ugly and wearing glasses. Costello was his mother's maiden name. When the new wave arrived, his sixties and accelerated pop found a place. He immediately became one of the stars of the moment. Today he is the one who has come the furthest from that generation. A star playing Penny Lane in the White House with Barack Obama and Paul McCartney sitting in the front row. “When I recorded This Years Model I never thought it would come to that. We just enjoyed ourselves. Everything was new. Things as exciting as the first tour of the United States ”.

There is a black and white video on YouTube of a New Jersey concert from that tour: Elvis Costello & The Attractions were a compact and electrifying quartet. They had what flamingos call power. “I have seen that video. It is true that we were very good. I remember that at the end a guy with a leather jacket and a bandana on his head appeared in the dressing room. Suddenly I recognized him, it was Springsteen. We were mutual fans and what we basically talked about is what would be next. And the next thing I suppose was another step that ended up taking me to the White House, playing for Paul McCartney, for whom I wrote 15 songs once. Another thing I never thought I would do ”.

In case you're wondering, no. Costello does not speak Spanish: “Spanish fascinates me. I've always liked the sound of that language, even if I don't understand it. My father spoke Spanish. He was the singer of an orchestra and in his repertoire there were songs in Spanish. For one reason or another, my father and I never spent much time together, but one of my first memories is sitting in the box of a dance hall, because then bands were taken to play live so that people could dance, and he singing in Spanish. I loved the sound even though I didn't know what he said. At the age of seven or eight, seeing your father on a stage, even if he was in an almost deserted dance hall, had some magic. I will never forget".
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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https://www.npr.org/2021/12/02/10610859 ... ms-of-2021

Alt.Latino looks back at the best albums of 2021

Each year the Alt.Latino crew parses through hundreds of new Latin music releases in the hopes of finding the best of the genre, and each year this task gets even more challenging. The breadth of sonic experiences Latin artists have brought us this year are more diverse than ever.

The chasm between projects by artists like C. Tangana and his internationally inspired pop-urbano homage to Madrid El Madrileño, and The Marías' genre-bending soundscape inspired by Pedro Almodóvar's film Hable Con Ella entitled CINEMA, is expansive. But the diversity also serves as an exciting starting point for conversations about the extensive range of talent that sits under the Latin music category.

Here at Alt.Latino we know that we can't get to all of the incredible projects that floored us in 2021, but we brought together a panel of incredible Latin music critics to discuss a few of our favorites. Special thanks to Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, Stefanie Fernández, Catalina Maria Johnson, Marisa Arbona-Ruiz and Anamaria Sayre for joining this discussion.

Our 2021 list, in alphabetical order:

Alborotá, Alea
Baiuca, Embruxo
CINEMA, The Marías
Como La Piel, Rita Payés, Elisabeth Roma
El Alimento, Cimafunk
El Madrileño, C. Tangana
Far In, Helado Negro
Lyke Mike, Myke Towers
Maré, Rodrigo Amarante
Mendó, Alex Cuba
Spanish Model, Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Various Artists
Tempo, Dom La Nena
The Return of..., Pachyman

Una Rosa, Xenia Rubinos

Vice Versa, Rauw Alejandro

42, Sech
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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https://magnetmagazine.com/2021/12/14/b ... llections/

BEST OF 2021: REISSUES/COLLECTIONS

MAGNET’s A.D. Amorosi picks the best reissues/collections of the year

1) Gang Of Four 77-81 (Matador)
2) John Coltrane A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle (Impulse!)
3) Various Artists VMP Anthology: The Story Of Philadelphia International Records (Vinyl Me, Please/Legacy)
4) Frank Zappa 200 Motels 50th Anniversary (UMe)
5) George Harrison All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary Edition (Capitol)
6) The Sorrows Pink Purple Yellow And Red: The Complete Sorrows (Grapefruit)
7) James White And The Blacks Melt Yourself Down (Sundazed)
8) David Bowie Brilliant Adventures (1992–2001) (Parlophone/Rhino)
9) Elvis Costello Spanish Model (UMe)
10) Nick Lowe The Convincer (Yep Roc)
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... z-1270315/

The 35 Best Spanish-Language and Bilingual Albums of 2021

(...)
24.
Elvis Costello, ‘Spanish Model’
The idea behind Spanish Model, dreamed up by Elvis Costello himself, was ambitious: Costello wanted to recreate This Year’s Model entirely in Spanish while using the original backing tracks from his seminal LP. In the wrong hands, such an undertaking may have produced a hokey cover album, but Spanish-speaking artists were carefully paired with each track, producing compelling performances that not only extend the lifespan of several classics but also give them entirely new meaning. Fito Páez brings “Radio Radio” into the modern age, Francisca Valenzuela and Luis Humberto Navejas make “Hand In Hand” a burning duet, and Draco Rosa injects “Yo Te Vi (“On The Beat)” with his signature spontaneity. —J.L.
(...)
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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The NPR Podcast: It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders presents a special episode in which Alt.Latino host Felix Contreras talks to Elvis Costello and Grammy-winning producer Sebastian Krys about Costello's classic 1978 album, This Year's Model. It was reimagined as Spanish Model this year by a score of Latin artists. And unlike its predecessor, all the songs are in Spanish.

NPR: It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders.
Sebastián Krys, Nina Díaz and Elvis Costello
Sebastián Krys, Nina Díaz and Elvis Costello
elvis-costello-junto-a-sebastian___dPDOSF6RO_720x0__1.jpg (75.08 KiB) Viewed 14422 times
MOOT
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/cult ... 1-81884588

50 best albums of 2021

Before beginning the countdown, we should also take a moment to acknowledge fantastic re-recordings of albums that had been previously released.
(…)
And Elvis Costello in 2021 decided to take the original tracks from his 1978 classic, “This Year’s Model” and pass them off to Spanish-language singers for a new work called "Spanish Model." You probably never thought you needed to hear Juanes sing “Pump it Up,” Luis Fonsi sing “You Belong to Me,” or Raquel Sofia and Fuego’s stunning version of “I Don’t Want to Go to Chelsea,” but you do. This is some fresh cross-cultural and cross-generational karaoke that shouldn’t work on paper but astoundingly succeeds in reality.
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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https://floodmagazine.com/97452/the-bes ... s-of-2021/

The Best Reissues and Box Sets of 2021
10 LP packages that kept our eyes and ears busy over the past year.

At a time when austerity rules and excess is verboten, I say turn up the volume—loudness, bulk, intensity, magnitude—and tend to the most gi-hugic of box sets and multiple-edition musical collections when it comes to defining the releases of 2021. Ripe with the possibilities of endowing any music lover and/or curator with unique arcs, grace notes, and completism, for the stay-at-home pandemic worrier, these collections are essential.

Here are 10 oversized box sets to satisfy any and every brand of musical curiosity.

(…)
Elvis Costello – Spanish Model (UMe)

A man without ego, Costello strips his voice off of his first true angry album, This Year’s Model, and welcomes the finest names in Latinx music to tackle ire with a Spanish accent.
(…)
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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https://ultimateclassicrock.com/grammy- ... ned-covid/

(…)

In spite of the ongoing pandemic, music soldiered on

40. Elvis Costello, 'Spanish Model'

Spanish Model, Elvis Costello's new spin on his landmark 1978 album, This Year's Model, utilized tapes from the original sessions, but stripped away Costello's vocals and replaced them with contemporary Latin American artists including Juanes, Luis Fonsi and others. Costello's own newly recorded and slightly sneering voice can be heard from time to time on the record, but the spotlight here is on the Spanish singers as they offer sharp and snappy renditions of these classic songs. The album's original track listing is rearranged, too, resulting in a work that sounds brand new.
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Re: Spanish Model, Sept 10, 2021 - New release based on one of Elvis Costello and the Attractions most celebrated albums

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https://www.wyso.org/show/middaymusic/2 ... t-pavilion

Studio Session: Cuban-American songwriter Elsten Torres performs at Dayton's Levitt Pavilion

(…)
Elsten also spoke with Evan about working with Elvis Costello on his 2021 album, Spanish Model, which reimagined his 1978 album, This Year’s Model, with Latin pop and rock artists. Elsten translated five songs from the original album into Spanish for Spanish Model. “It was challenging, because, as you know, he’s a very detailed writer,” he said. His favorite song he translated for the album was "(Yo No Quiero Ir A) Chelsea," originally "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea." He told Evan, “You can’t really translate ‘Chelsea.’ Chelsea is a place. There’s no Spanish version of Chelsea.”
(…)
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