"North" Redux

[Jack of All Parades]

Have spent the last four weeks or so revisiting "North" inspired by both the best piece of writing I have encountered on EC, "Elvis Costello at Fifty" by David Hajdu from his book Heroes & Villans and by the general lack of appreciation for this album as it failed to make any best of the '00s lists including mine[though it did hover at about 26 or 27] but I do note it showed up on Alexv's list. For me it is EC's best work of the last decade and it contains a musical and emotional sophistication that merits repeated listening. What gives it power for me is that EC has gained great strength from his recent ability to write musical notation and has at the same time made a concerted effort to tone down the lyric, not jaming the lines with superflous verbal mush and painful metaphors. This reigning in of his tendency for verbal prolixity is most welcome. There are songs on this record that equal some of his strongest work, "Still", "You Turned to Me" and "Fallen". "Fallen" in particular is in my list of the five top EC songs with its image of a fallen leaf erratically decsending in the air as if EC were saying I am going my own way and you can follow me if you want.

The songs 'fall' off this album not in a rush but in a jerky, quivering recitative as musicians play the hesitant chords and are helped along by his muted baritone which often times sounds out of sync with the lyric and some very accomplished playing by two jazz professionals, Lew Soloff and Lee Konitz who have worked with my father in law in the past. EC is clearly going through his own dark night of the soul and, like a modern day Dante, has wandered into the dark wood of introspection and soul searching. The vagaries of love, emotional pain and adult relationships are approached directly and with no superfluous verbal clutter. There is a sophistication on this record that is honest and which rewards repeated listenings.

This album has also given me a greater appreciation for its predecessor "For The Stars", a much maligned album where you can clearly see EC working his way into a richer musical texture which combines both his new found ability to notate and to pen a poignant lyric as exhibited by the title song of this album which is a wonderful musical twin to Auden's "Lay Your Sleeping Head, My Love". You can hear EC recharging his musical batteries as he works through great songs by Mc Cartney, Ron Sexsmith, and Brian Wilson.

[wardo68]

I still think North is a fine album, and here's why.

[Ypsilanti]

Well said, CS & Wardo!
North is an amazing album--elegant, clear-eyed and incredibly brave. Only Elvis knows if he really "bared his soul" in those songs, but clearly he went well past the point almost any other artist (or person) would dare. Even after listening to it dozens and dozens of times, "North" still hits me like a smack in the face--he way he confronts his own vulnerability & middle-aged humanity in such an unflinching manner--the way he puts it all right out there--stuns me every time. And the melodies are so...what?...certainly wonderful, but hard to describe. I guess I'd call them lushly austere. I'd give almost anything to hear those piano-only demos Elvis recently spoke of. I'll bet those are just...Wow!

[alexv]

I agree, Chris, that this is an underrated, terrific EC effort. Don't know about the Dante and Auden connections, but I'll take your word for it. My only negative on the record is that the first few songs, the ones that deal with the pre-Diana period, are a little dull, musically, but that's a minor quibble. I really like the quiet tone of the record, and EC's restrained, direct lyrics. I'm In the Mood Again is my particular favorite.

Chris, on your comment on For the Stars, I'm afraid I disagree. The only song i like on that record is the Tom Waits/Brennan song. I can't see what EC contribute to that record other than picking the songs. His singing is minimal and the EC songs are not the best. I don't even count that record as a true EC record.

[Neil.]

I'll have to give North another listen, as I haven't for ages - and I haven't got it here at my parents', where I'm staying for the hols.

I think You Turned To Me and I'm In The Mood Again are classics - beautiful. Also, the v Cole Porteresque 'Let Me Tell You About Her' is a great, self-deprecating ditty about how we gush when we find someone new.

For The Stars - again, I'll have to give it another whirl, but I think the Elvis songs on that are excellent. No Wonder is gorgeous - and I've seen Elvis do it live, and it was fab. Also, Rope is great - 'We are at last released - like statues from marble' .... now THAT is a fantastic image. I love For The Stars, but I don't like Elvis's strained vocal on it.

[cwr]

I'd have to agree-- upon assessing EC's records in what I'd say is the third "phase" of his career (MAIT to B&C being the first, followed by the Warner Years from Spike to ATUB), NORTH stands out as possibly his best album from that time period. It's certainly the most unfairly maligned album of his entire career. (The previous "most unfairly maligned album" of his was probably Almost Blue, but people seem to have grown to like that one a great deal more over the years. Perhaps the same thing is happening with NORTH.)

It kind of took me by surprise that NORTH was my favorite of the past ten or eleven years, I have to admit. I always liked it, but as I went back and listened to the albums from PFM on, I found that there were a lot of great tracks on good-to-very-good albums, but none cohered the way NORTH did. There are lot of moments on those other records that I prefer to the songs on North, but that's the album that I'd rate the highest overall. Part of this stems, I think, from the fact that it's a very direct and honest collection of songs, while it can be hard to figure out exactly what he's trying to communicate on some of the songs on, say, WIWC, TDM, etc. Some of these albums features a lot of scraps from half-finished projects like his "Delivery Man" musical, and I still have no real sense of what story he was trying to tell with some of those songs, even ones I enjoy quite a bit.

(For instance, I LOVE this past year's SP&SC, but it's still a little bit odd how half the songs are from his Barnum operetta. Amazingly, it doesn't affect the quality of the album, but it also doesn't make it as successful an effort as NORTH, at least conceptually.)

I wish he'd release the NORTH demos on his website, since they are supposedly so raw, emotionally. It would be really powerful to hear those.

[As for For The Stars, I sort of like most of it. But I'm always struck by how much more I like the opening and closing songs-- the two tracks he wrote specifically for ASvO-- compared to all the ones in between. It would have been so much better if he'd taken a week to write her 8 or 9 more songs, Wendy James-style, instead of saddling her with ill-fitting Tom Waits and Brian Wilson tunes...]

[Ypsilanti]

During my long "listen to everything possible" Elvis Odyssey, I have been avoiding "For the Stars" because I feared it would be sort of tedious. I have read more than once that the weakness of this record is actually ASvO--not doing justice to the material and so forth. But it seems that you guys are saying the opposite. Now I'm quite intrigued...

[Jack of All Parades]

"For The Stars" is well worth a 'strong' listening session. You would not be wasting your time. ASvO should not be a deterrent, either. She is the reason this album exists as EC has stated publicly and in the liner notes his attraction to her voice. I have always liked the song cycle/salon recital quality given to this record by his production. Alexv he certainly had more to do with this record then just pick tunes. Arranging, producing, writing, playing, singing and just generally having fun are a few of his activities regarding this album. The telling item for me are the shots of EC at work at the piano throughout the album booklet. It must have been fun utilizing his new earned skill of notation. I cannot write music and can barely read a score but my wife and brother in law are quite adept at this and I am in constant wonderment at the second language they have mastered.

I always think he is working up to "North" as I play this record. There exists on this album a fine interplay of strong songs by many artists coupled with intelligent playing and singing. There is even a story line of sorts that runs through the material as the album seems to track the arc of a love affair, its ups and downs. I have often wondered what he would have done with the Billy Strayhorn and Prince pieces he states were ultimately rejected for the album.

Neil- I have always likend that line from "Rope" as a slogan for EC's subsequent career-free at last to pursue his own interest after all it has to be extremely boring to play "Pump It Up" for the zillenth time as David Hajdu says- let the artist grow up!
cwr-I hope you are right about "North" and a resurgence of appreciation for this album.