Elvis Costello North CD

NORTH was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

This is a Super Audio CD playable only on Super Audio CD players.

Few artists in pop history have displayed as many different musical sides as Elvis Costello. Over the years, he's ventured in new wave, country, jazz, R&B, and more, and collaborated with everyone from Burt Bacharach to opera star Anne Sofie Von Otter. So those who've followed his twists and turns shouldn't be taken aback by EC following his excellent, groove-based rock album WHEN I WAS CRUEL with a disc full of gently orchestrated piano ballads.

This is Costello's debut release on the classical Deutsche Grammaphon label, and though he's ventured into the classical world on such projects as his JULIET LETTERS album with the Brodsky Quartet, this is a different beast. With a muted backing that splits the difference between jazzy combo and modern orchestra, NORTH finds Costello aiming for a modern variation on the classic standard format. Using traditional structures, he spices things up by adding seemingly Schubert-inspired art song-like harmonies and melodic intervals. The lyrics follow a man on the path from romantic disillusionment to the sparks of a new love, mirroring the songwriter's personal journey at the time of the recording. The only question at the end is--where to next?

Recorded at Nola Studios, Avatar Studios, New York, New York and Air Studios, London, England.

Personnel: Elvis Costello (vocals, piano); Pamela Sklar (alto flute); John Moses (clarinet); Roger Rosenberg (bass clarinet); Dave Mann, Lee Konitz (alto saxophone); Andy Snitzer (tenor saxophone); Lew Soloff (flugelhorn); Bobby Routch, Bob Carlisle (French horn); Conrad Herwig, Dave Tahlor (trombone); Steve Nieve (piano, celeste); Bill Ware (vibraphone); Michael Formanek, Brad Jones (bass); Peter Erskine (drums); Brodsky Quartet.

Rolling Stone (10/16/03, p.88) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...The album is filled with haunted, piano-centered ballads and elegant string and horn arrangements that tease out subtleties in the songs' already understated melodies..."
Entertainment Weekly (9/26/03, p.93) - "...With Costello somewhat in let's-be-Frank mode, it's as if Capitol reissued the despairing SINATRA SINGS FOR ONLY THE LONELY and the ebullient SONGS FOR SWINGIN' LOVERS! on one disc..." - Rating: A
Q (10/03, p.103) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Fans of Costello's Burt Bacharach collaborations will revel in the elegant melodic gearshifts of 'You Turned To Me', while champions of his classical dalliances will welcome the return of the Brodsky Quartet on the poignant 'Still'..."
JazzTimes (11/03, p.113) - "NORTH, his first full-length foray into jazz crooning, should eventually be regarded as the apex of the 49-year-old musical chameleon's mid-career."
Mojo (Publisher) (10/03, pp.104-5) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The most remarkable thing about NORTH is the slightly concussed air of the man singing on it....NORTH radiates a humanity..."