It’s their first album in ten years
Elvis Costello and The Imposters have announced today (July 27) that they are releasing a new album in October.
The new album, called ‘Look Now’ is the first album the new-wave icon has made with the Imposters since the 2008 release, ‘Momofuku’. It also marks Costello’s first album since 2013’s ‘Wise Up Ghost’, his collaboration with The Roots.
Costello, who has been teasing the album for a while, said he felt it was time to return to the studio whilst on the ‘Imperial Bedroom & Other Chambers’ US tour last summer.
Costello said: “I knew if we could make an album with the scope of ‘Imperial Bedroom’ and some of the beauty and emotion of ‘Painted From Memory’, we would really have something.”
Whilst most of the 12-songs on the album have been written by Costello, it also features two ballads – ‘Don’t Look Now’ and ‘Photographs Can Lie’ – which were co-written with Burt Bacharach.
The legendary song-writer also appears on the album, playing piano on both often songs. He also contributed to the song ‘He’s Given Me Things.’ On another, ‘Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter’, Costello co-wrote with Carole King.
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The album was co-produced by Costello and Sebastian Krys – the Latin Grammy Producer of the Year for 2007 and 2015.
Speaking about his work as co-producer, Costello said: “I had all of the orchestrations and vocal parts in my head or on the page before we played a note, so it was essential that I worked closely with Steve Nieve to maintain the light and space in the arrangements and allow him to shine.”
“Sebastian was there to make sure only the essential notes got onto the record, whether it was a fuzz- tone guitar or jazz bassoon.”
“In the final mixing, Sebastian did a beautiful job of keeping everything present but always lead by emotion or narrative, although when balancing the band, my voice and the quartet of woodwinds and horns that I’d written for ‘Stripping Paper’, I told him to “Just trust the blur.”
Fans who pre-order the 12-track standard or the 16-song deluxe album from digital retailers will instantly receive a download of two of the album’s tracks, ‘Under Lime’ and ‘Unwanted Number’.
Earlier this month, Costello was forced to cancel the remaining six dates of his European tour on medical grounds. The 63-year-old London musician had already scrapped two UK gigs last month (Southend and Plymouth) after undergoing cancer surgery in May, with his doctor recommending that he take a break from touring in order to rest.
In a statement on his website, Costello said: “Six weeks ago my specialist called me and said, ‘You should start playing the Lotto’. He had rarely, if ever, seen such a small but very aggressive cancerous malignancy that could be defeated by a single surgery. I was elated and relieved that our European summer tour could go ahead…I was almost fooled into thinking that normal service had been resumed.”
“…The spirit has been more than willing but I have to now accept that it is going to take longer than I would have wished for me to recover my full strength. Therefore, I must reluctantly cancel all the remaining engagements of this tour.”
‘Look Now’ tracklisting:
- Under Lime
- Don’t Look Now
- Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter
- Stripping Paper
- Unwanted Number
- I Let The Sun Go Down
- & Mrs. Hush
- Photographs Can Lie
- Dishonor The Stars
- Suspect My Tears
- Why Won’t Heaven Help Me?
- He’s Given Me Things
Deluxe Special Edition Tracks:
13. Isabelle In Tears
14. Adieu Paris (L’Envie Des Étoiles)
15. The Final Mrs. Curtain
16. You Shouldn’t Look At Me That Way
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