The Independent (London) review of RFH , Oct.11
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/musi ... ory=453219
Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve, Royal Festival Hall,
London
Growing up, but all too gracefully
By Gulliver Cragg
14 October 2003
Too often, rock stars aren't as good as they used to
be because they're too old. Elvis Costello's problem
is different: age hasn't harmed his singing ability,
and it's only enhanced his cerebral, bespectacled
image. Elvis Costello isn't as good as he used to be
because he's too grown up.
Costello has always been a plunderer of musical
genres, but while you felt that he made the country
album Almost Blue (1981) just because he wanted to,
his recent work seems to be driven more by the hope
that it would be interesting. His collaborations with
Burt Bacharach (Painted From Memory, 1999) and the
Brodsky quartet (The Juliet Letters, 1993) certainly
are interesting and innovative. But they don't have
the indefinable, fascinating urgency that made
Costello's early records so brilliant. The later music
is born more of intelligence than of inspiration.
Costello's new album, North, recalls Painted from
Memory in that it is a collection of torch songs in
stylistic and lyrical homage to his new lady, Diana
Krall. It's very serious. Hence this pared-down
concert at the South Bank's Mind Your Head festival,
with Costelloaccom-panied only by Steve Nieve.
It is a relief, then, to see the man bound onstage and
launch straight into "Accidents will Happen" from
1979's Armed Forces. There's even a distortion pedal
on his acoustic guitar. Nieve, meanwhile, is
captivating: looking like a mad professor, he treats
the piano as though it's been giving him electric
shocks. He gets to shine especially on the spooky
"Shot with his own Gun".
The first track from North is the fifth number.
Costello can't resist explaining what the song,
"Someone Took the Words Away", is about: it's about
how falling in love can be scary. The tone is perhaps
a little didactic, but fair enough. The next four
songs get the same treatment, and Elvis strikes an
operatic pose as he sings.
Which brings us to the voice. It infuriates me when
people say Bob Dylan can't sing, and I know some love
Elvis Costello's voice just as much, so I say this
with hesitation. It's clear that Costello has great
technical skill and control as a singer, and he takes
pride in it. Tonight, with "Look mum, no hands" glee,
he does several songs off-mic. But the fact is, it's a
whiny voice. Costello's real skills as a vocalist lie
in spitting out rapid-fire rhymes or sneering through
angry choruses. Rocking renditions of "Man out of
Time" and "What's so Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and
Understanding" demonstrate this tonight. The long
vibratos that characterise North, meanwhile, are just
not pretty. This seems like the work of an ambitious
adult taking on a challenge.
"God's Comic" from 1989's Spike (an ironic choice,
given the Mind Your Head festival's New Meanings in
Sacred Music subtitle) comes as a welcome relief. It
gets a long, spoken interlude: "This song proposes a
view of the afterlife that is not entirely
theologically correct." It's funny! At moments like
these, the Costello and Nieve show becomes vaudeville
entertainment, chiming well with the storytelling of
the songs from North.
The Brodsky quartet appear and deliver a fantastic
version of "Pills and Soap" from Punch the Clock
(1983). For once, Costello's classical pop sounds as
good live as it looks on paper. They then return to
North, and Costello and Krall's affair gradually
unfolds through the songs. But it goes on for too
long. When he sings "Let Me Tell You about Her", with
its line "When I start to sing they run for miles", I
feel like doing the same. Yet that song's evocation of
the desire to tell all explains the album. Costello
appears genuinely, sincerely grateful to us for
listening to the new songs. "It really means a lot to
me," he admits.
So much so that he keeps leaving the stage, then
returning. Suddenly he's not a boring grown-up, but an
infuriating child, unable to resist doing just one
more - and it becomes clear that North is in fact not
another cold, experimental project for Costello, but
an emotional attempt to capture a personal experience.
It's touching to see such a well-established and
successful performer so anxious to communicate with
his audience. But in this self-consciously
sophisticated genre, Costello's abilities don't suit
his ambition.
), it was great comedy. For a moment I thought it was Jackson Monk, making a surprise appearance.
