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Bespoke Songs, Lost Dogs, Detours and Rendezvous- Songs of Elvis Costello (1998)

A Random CD Review from the Stutzman Memorial Archive
Bespoke Songs, Lost Dogs, Detours and Rendezvous- Songs of Elvis Costello by Various Artists (1998)

Haven’t done one of these in a while. The Excel spreadsheet gave me this album of songs written by Elvis Costello, but performed by other people. I’m sure there’s a story behind each song that explains why EC gave them away to other folks. In the case of “The Comedians” by Roy Orbison and “Hidden Shame” by Johnny Cash, the songs were written expressly for those artists. However, whatever the reasons for Costello’s creation interpreted by another performer, this is a wildly diverse album of various styles and contains some of my favorite pop music. Here are some highlights for me:

It kicks off with Dave Edmunds doing “Girl Talk,” and on this song he really commits to the melody in the pre-choruses much more than Costello did on the demo, (available elsewhere, I can’t remember where right now), bringing out the drama of some climbing chords.

Of course, you have Paul McCartney’s “My Brave Face,” the performance of which isn’t the ear worm that SR-71s punkish version is, but it’s a strong song.

Oh, man. “Miss Mary,” performed by Zucchero, who I’d never heard of before, he’s probably a legend in England or something. This is a meditation on a painting of the Virgin Mary and is soulfully sung and the screaming Hammond organ stopped me dead in my tracks the first time I heard it.

“Deep Dead Blue” is haunting in its a capella setting with several unorthodox modulations, and “Shatterproof” sounds like something you might have heard on the radio in the 80s…if radio in the 80s was awesome! This song is driving and the melody is striking. This is not music you can ignore.

And finally Chet Baker’s “Almost Blue” is a thing of dark, smoky beauty. He plays trumpet for a long time before singing on this track and it’s so minimal that when the crowd applauds at the end, it is jarring. Up until that point the sound is so intimate that you feel like this little jazz group is playing just for you, drawing out all kinds of melancholy loneliness. When you hear that crowd, it shocks you back to reality.

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve talked this album up enough that now I gotta go back and listen to it again.

posted by Mike @ 8:35 AM