Description
After more than four decades, few artists switch musical gears as quickly and ebulliently as Elvis Costello; to this day, you never quite know what you’re getting when he announces a new project.
Two years ago, Costello resumed work with the Imposters — which included two former members of the Attractions — on the album Look Now. On his upcoming Hey Clockface, he again changes direction — but this time within the course of the same album.
Cut in Paris this past February, pre-global pandemic, the song finds Costello backed by a small jazz ensemble dubbed Le Quintette Saint Germain. Steve Nieve from the Attractions and the Imposters returns to the fold, this time joined by trumpeter Michaël Gasche, clarinetist Renaud-Gabriel Pion, cellist Pierre-François “Titi” Dufour and one-named, all-capitals drummer AJUQ. (In a better world, every band would have a one-named, all-capital drummer named AJUQ.) Whether it was the setting, the musicians or the croissants, Costello sounds comparatively light-hearted and frisky here. As if he were sitting in with a small jazz ensemble in a cramped, smokey club in Paris.
