Artist  | Elvis Costello
Title   | Hey Clockface

Genre   | Rock                                 Format  | Album
Source  | CDDA                                 Time    | 49:53

Label   | Concord Records                      Store   | 2020
Catalog | 00888072202856                       Rip     | 2021

Bitrate | 242 kbps                             Size    | 91.41 MB
Freq    | 44.1 kHz                             Encoder | Lame 3.100

01. Revolution #49                                              2:41
02. No Flag                                                     3:56
03. They're Not Laughing At Me Now                              4:26
04. Newspaper Pane                                              4:10
05. I Do (Zula's Song)                                          3:49
06. We Are All Cowards Now                                      3:36
07. Hey Clockface / How Can You Face Me?                        2:56
08. The Whirlwind                                               3:17
09. Hetty O'Hara Confidential                                   4:14
10. The Last Confession Of Vivian Whip                          2:59
11. What Is It That I Need That I Don't Already Have?           3:47
12. Radio Is Everything                                         4:25
13. I Can't Say Her Name                                        2:57
14. Byline                                                      2:40

Elvis Costello arrived as a sneering spitfire, the smartest and meanest
singer/songwriter in the first wave of 1970s British punk backed by The
Attractions, a band who could match his ferocity. Soon, Costello galloped
away from the loud fast rules of punk, demonstrating his musical and verbal
facility with "Armed Forces", a 1979 album that contained "Oliver's Army",
"Accidents Will Happen," and his cover of Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny
About) Peace, Love and Understanding", a trio of singles that turned into
New Wave standards.

"Hey Clockface" arrived quickly on the heels of "Look Now", but where that
2018 album seemed constructed as classicist Costello, drawing upon his
strengths as a melodicist and the muscle of his regular backing band The
Imposters, this 2020 affair feels as if it was designed to surprise. It
comes into focus quite slowly, with reeds and strings murmuring in a quiet
drone before Costello launches into the spoken word of "Revolution #49".

The spell is broken in a flurry of gnarled guitars that usher in "No Flag",
a transition that establishes how Hey Clockface doesn't follow any
particular path. Apart from the slight emphasis on poetry - it surfaces
again toward the end of the album on "Radio Is Everything," a track
destined to be played in the dead hours of a starless night - none of the
twists on the album are necessarily a new trick from Costello, but the its
execution makes every new turn feel slightly surprising, occasionally
jarring.

Much of this has as much to do with the sequencing of the record as it does
the performances themselves. The dense, clever boogie of "Hetty O'Hara
Confidential" is followed by the torch song "The Last Confession of Vivian
Whip," and the ominous crawl of "We Are All Cowards Now" is countered by a
boisterous update of Fats Waller on the album's title track. The parts fit
together, just in ways the ear isn't quite accustomed to hearing, and the
same is true of many of the arrangements on "Hey Clockface".

The quieter moments require a listener to concentrate, then they're blown
away by the cacophony, lured back in by a generous bit of old-fashioned
merriment. It shows Costello's mastery of mood and storytelling, the kind
of skill he's acquired over the course of a long career, but the key to
"Hey Clockface" is that these techniques are applied to a record that's as
restless as anything Costello made in his younger days.