Credits:

Elvis Costello

Description:

Hey Clockface arrived quickly on the heels of Look Now, but where that 2018 album seemed constructed as classicist Elvis Costello, drawing upon his strengths as a melodicist and the muscle of his regular backing band the Imposters, this 2020 affair feels as if it was designed to surprise. It comes into focus quite slowly, with reeds and strings murmuring in a quiet drone before Costello launches into the spoken word of Revolution #49. The spell is broken in a flurry of gnarled guitars that usher in No Flag, a transition that establishes how Hey Clockface doesnt follow any particular path. Apart from the slight emphasis on poetry — it surfaces again toward the end of the album on Radio Is Everything, a track destined to be played in the dead hours of a starless night — none of the twists on the album are necessarily a new trick from Costello, but the its execution makes every new turn feel s