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It's enough to give Elvis Costello fans heart failure.
There he is on the cover to his new album, his face painted up like a clown and grinning from ear to ear.
On top of that, two of the 15 new tracks were co-written with Paul McCartney, whose music over the past decade has been closer to a juvenile weenie roast than to Costello's scorching satire.
All signs point to Costello trading in critical acclaim for the cold, hard cash of commercial success.
Fret not, fans.
Costello's creativity has seldom been sharper. He has spiked his latest intoxicating punch with every ingredient at his fingertips.
As always, his lyrics are acerbic gems that poetically and passionately dissect life and love. His subjects range from sex, capital punishment and capitalist power to a dialogue between God and one of his priestly comics ("with a joke for the flock and a hand up your fleece").
And never has Costello's style on an album varied more. Spike includes everything from pure pop and blues to riveting ballads and funky jazz, with a little help from New Orleans' The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
It also features exotic instrumentation ranging from the ethereal sound of Uileann pipes to somebody banging on a metal pipe like a reject from one of Tom Waits' bands.
However, at over 60 minutes in length, Spike is too much.
There is so much diversity that one almost wishes for the creative consistency of 1986's King Of America or Blood & Chocolate which divided his acoustic and electric leanings onto two separate releases.
However, the more one listens the more one marvels at Costello's depth and breadth. He has proven again why he's considered one of rock's most challenging songwriters of the past decade.
Besides, anybody who can co-write a song with McCartney and still sound good, has got to be worth checking out.
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