It must be very satisfying to reach a place in your career where anything goes. College rock constant Elvis Costello has hit that apex and his new album National Ransom shows off that freedom in spades. I’ve never been a die-hard Elvis Costello fan, I always saw him as a guy who got the respect Joe Jackson actually deserved.
However, as Costello’s career began to mature I became much more interested in what he was doing. His ability to reinvent himself within the walls of jazz, modern pop and even soul was more alluring to my musical sense than Oliver’s Army ever could be. With American Ransom, Costello lets his musical inspirations hang out and accomplishes some of his best material to date.
Costello opens National Ransom by letting us all know he can still write a rock jam. The title track is a driving anthem built on blues guitars and harmonica, the kind of song the new generation doesn’t want to or know how to write. Costello peppers the entire album with these kind of bluesy rock numbers, as if he’s splitting up the more experimental material. “Five Small Words” and “The Spell You Cast” are the two best examples of that. Both songs are built on the blues but Costello injects some of his original style into them. It’s the kind of work that made Elvis Costello famous but written through the filter of a matured songwriter.
The rest of National Ransom is a random jukebox of styles and flavors. There is no overall theme or texture to the album, it’s everywhere at once, it’s ten styles in one place, and it’s something that a lesser musician would’ve screwed up big time. Take the swing pop style of “Jimmie Standing In The Rain” and compare it to the folk/jazz hybrid of the “Stations Of The Cross”. None of this should work; it should sound like a guy trying too hard to be different.
Instead it blends together seamlessly and allows National Ransom to create a multi-layered challenging musical experience. Costello has always been a master storyteller through lyrics, now he’s at an age where he can use that same expertise in the music. To me Costello’s older work lacked the musical punch his lyrics had, as if it was all just background noise. I don’t really know why, over the years, he’s decided to level that playing field but the results are beyond reproach.
Elvis Costello has always been a modern folk singer. Beneath the glasses, the clothes, and the musical attitude, was a folk singer aching to come out. National Ransom has some great stripped down folk tunes on it. “A Slow Drag With Josephine” is just Costello singing over an acoustic guitar but it’s wonderful, one of my favorite tracks on the whole album. Same with “Dr. Watson, I Presume”, which brings an old southern blues twang to the folk setting. Costello knows the walls between these genres are thin and he does his best on this record break them all down.
Where Costello’s maturity really shines is with the more experimental work. The dissonant and haunting “Church Underground” comes across as elemental, like the musical equivalent of a dark autumn night. When I say experimental I don’t necessarily mean odd times or weird atonal textures. It’s more that Costello will drive right off the road National Ransom is on without hesitation. “A Voice In The Dark” is a cabaret tune, while “My Lover Jezebel” screams of a fifties nightclub. It’s clear when inspiration hits Costello listens, no matter what his last thought was. National Ransom constantly teeters on the verge of not working, which is what makes it great art. Nothing comes without risk and Costello risks everything here on every song.
I love when an album like National Ransom drops so close to the end of the year, it completely disrupts my top ten plans. This is a dark album, a bright album, a jazz record, a folk record, an experimental record and a straight rock record. How many albums this year have even come close to that kind of variation? If I had to criticize anything it would be the disconnect that Elvis Costello still seems to have. It feels at times like he’s observing himself making this album instead of being invested in it. That’s always been part of what people love about Costello, I’m just not one of them. Regardless of nitpicking, National Ransom is a flawless effort from a man who, unlike most of his peers, has gotten better with age.
CRAVEONLINE RATING 9 OUT OF 10
