
ELVIS COSTELLO & BURT BACHARACH
The Songs Of Bacharach & Costello (UME)
This huge collector’s item is a real treat for fans of Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach’s 1998 album Painted From Memory. But the four disks on offer cover all the works these perhaps unlikely writing partners have penned since 1995. Costello, he of the snarled lip and heavy glasses, and Bacharach – whose death last month aged 94 saw him remembered as a writer of some of the greatest popular music of the last 60 years – began working on a stage version of Painted From Memory and wrote a clutch of songs for it that are a big part of this box set.
In fact, Audra Mae’s rendition of I Looked Away is probably the standout track on this 45-song collection. Elsewhere, there is a lot of Costello’s louche delivery over arrangements so melancholy they border on noir. There are moments of lightness in the rare live performances that feature both artists together like I’ll Never Fall In Love Again – and Anyone Who Had A Heart shows just what a great sense of pitch and timing Costello has. But a listener’s enjoyment of this set may be determined by how much they like his voice more than the standard of songwriting, which is unquestionably stellar throughout.
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES
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