Elvis Costello keeps himself busy, releasing records at a breakneck pace — sometimes more than one inside a calendar year — as he has done since 1977. Look Now, released on Oct. 12 of this year, is Costello's latest full-length effort.

"I honestly considered making a record of this nature for 20 years, but it would have contained different songs if I'd made it any time in the last 20 years," Costello explains. "But the reason I haven't made it is because I've been doing other things. These other opportunities presented themselves: the opportunity to write a whole album with Burt Bacharach; the opportunity to work on a record with the Roots — that's just to mention two that are 20 years apart."

Another collaboration Costello has been involved in is the New Basement Tapes, which he describes as "one of the most fun things I've ever done."

Given his penchant for collaborative work, it's not surprising that Look Now began with Costello's desire to work with longtime friends. ""The starting point for this record is really the band, the Imposters," Costello says. "I mean, that contains two people that I've worked with for the best part of 40 years: [drummer] Pete Thomas and [keyboardist] Steve Nieves."

Notably, Look Now contains a track, "Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter," that was a collaboration with none other than Carole King. "It seemed an obvious step for me to gather together songs that I was writing currently and any songs that I felt served us well going into the studio as we did this year," Costello explains. "Among the songs was, incredibly, a song that I'd had for 25 years that I wrote with Carole King one afternoon in the '90s. Now, holding a song for 25 years might suggest it isn't a good song … it just wasn't a song that fitted on any record that I've made between '98 and right now. I'm so glad I waited and I didn't take the song out and try to bend it into the shape of the record I was making."

Look Now is out now on Concord Records.

External Link

Elvis Costello - official site

Related

• Album of the Week: Elvis Costello and The Imposters, 'Look Now' (Oct. 22, 2018)