One of the artistically highest points in Elvis Costello´s career, the way i see it, gotta be the album ¨The Delivery Man¨ (2004).
¨The Delivery man¨contain 14 tracks and is an absolute perfect work, perhaps I would have add ¨Watching The Detectives¨, a live track included in his previous release with ¨The Imposters¨ ¨Cruel Smile¨ (2002), but that is just a whimsical idea of mine.
The album strikes me as formidable and inspiring and according to an article in wikipedia: The album had its genesis in a conceptual story apparently written for Johnny Cash. Costello himself states:
- The Delivery Man started out as a story about the impact on three woman’s lives of a man with a hidden past. The story took the song "Hidden Shame" as its unsung prelude. Parts of the narrative ended up being displaced from the final album by more urgent songs taken from the news headlines. One of the songs moved aside was to find an ideal home onSecret, Profane & Sugarcane.
Davey Faragher ( Bass) and Pete Thomas (Drums) provide one of the most proficient rhythm sections in many a years. First time I listened the album I thought Robert Plant would jump at any moment with a microphone to join them, so strong was the playing that only Led Zeppelin at the peak of their powers and maybe David Bowie´s Tin Machine eponymous album could equal the energy of the drums and the elegant perfection of the bass playing.The riffing pedal steel guitar of John McPhee and the keyboards by Steve Nieve rock earnestly throughout the length of the Cd.
I have always maintained that Costello´s genius is kind of sparkling, an inspiration that explodes randomly to exalt his musicianship at just a precise moment in time. I obviously don´t know the way he works, I don´t know if he spends many hours trying to compose music and lyrics, but i like to imagine him jumping from his seat at some point and start playing and creating those great pieces like nobody could. There are some songs by Costello that makes the ride of his life through this world a very worthy case in my opinion because they transmit immediately a bang! a flush of emotions, fireworks through my whole self. A powerful artistic genius, but just in very defined moments.
We all know that originality is just a myth, that, no matter how hard you try, is impossible to reinvent the world at every step of the road. There are always weak moments in an artist´s life. Inspiration seems to avoid you, mediocrity sets in and you find yourself aimless facing a creative emptiness......Elvis Costello has the gift, though, to build precious gems amongst the whole load of albums he have made.
¨The Delivery Man¨ is the 21st. studio album recorded by Costello and the third with his band ¨the Imposters¨ with whom he has recorded 2 other albums, ¨Cruel Smile¨(2002), and ¨Momofuku¨(2008) and it is that precise moment in time in which Costello´s greater creative spirit sparks all over and shine in a demonic light. He produces sometimes ordinary works, for example ¨Almost Blue¨ (1981), an album made up exclusively from covers to country songs that was pointed out as a great country album in its time but that worked only to fulfill his love of this genre and nothing else in my opinion. Country stays at home and is not much appreciated outside, therefore lacks universality. Of course many may think different, this is just my idea of music appreciation.
Costello at his best can come with things like ¨the Delivery Man¨ (2004) ¨Armed Forces¨ (1979) or the excellent album of covers ¨For The Stars¨ (2001), and then you have to admit that he is one of a kind, one among millions of mediocre performers to take control of the last part of last century in music, just with a bunch of others. And still making some noise in 2009 with ¨Secret, Profane and Sugarcane¨ and in 2010 with ¨National Ransom¨.
