The Absolut Sound Rated 4/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the February 2019 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

2020 Grammy Award Winner:
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Look Now

Once again, Elvis Costello releases an album with The Imposters. Their last album together, Momofuku, was released in 2008. This album features collaborations with Burt Bacharach and Carole King. "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," Costello says.

The album contains the songs "Under Lime" and "Unwanted Number".

"As a collection of tunes, Look Now is a triumph for Costello, a showcase for how he can enliven a mastery of form with a dramatist's eye. But as an album, Look Now is a success because of the Imposters. Unlike Imperial Bedroom or Painted By Memory, the focus isn't studio trickery or strings but rather the lean muscle of a band who has spent decades following their leader's every whim. They are a sharp, supple outfit that can swing and sigh, sometimes within the same number, as when they effortlessly pivot between bossa nova verses and a radiant chorus during 'Why Won't Heaven Help Me?' This subtle sophistication and palpable flair make Look Now more than a mere set of songs—it's a record worth getting lost within." - Pitchfork

"The production - often bass heavy, and sometimes driven by pounding beats, fleeting piano riffs, and overdriven tremolo guitar - is reminiscent of 1982's masterwork Imperial Bedroom. Costello also has reunited with tunesmith Burt Bacharach on three piano ballads that are among the album's standouts. The acerbic "Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter", co-written with Carole King, features horns and woodwinds. Appropriately, he includes his "Unwanted Number" from the soundtrack to 1996's Grace of My Heart, a film inspired by King's experiences at the hit factory the Brill Building. "I Let the sun Go down" is an elegy for the British Empire, but the ever-defiant Costello shows no sign of surrender."

- Greg Cahill, The Absolute Sound, February 2019

Tracks

Side One:
1. Under Lime
2. Don't Look Now
3. Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter
4. Stripping Paper
 

Side Two:
1. Unwanted Number
2. I Let The Sun Go Down
3. Mr. And Mrs. Hush
4. Photographs Can Lie
 

Side Three:
1. Dishonor The Stars
2. Suspect My Tears
3. Why Won't Heaven Help Me?
4. He's Given Me Things
 

Side Four:
1. Isabelle In Tears
2. Adieu Paris ( L'Envie Des Etoiles )
3. The Final Mrs. Curtain
4. You Shouldn't Look At Me That Way