Much like fellow Brit David Bowie, Elvis Costello has spent much of
his career trying on and casting off different musical personas. Recent
years have found Costello being a classical music dilettante, getting
his jazz jones on, and delving into New Orleans R&B alongside Big
Easy heavyweight Allen Toussaint. And while the fiftysomething
singer-songwriter broke into the music industry with a punk-size chip
on his shoulder, country music has always been a special love of his
dating back to his late-1970s duet with George Jones. For this return
trip back to the twangy side of the pool, Costello reunites with
King of America producer and erstwhile Coward Brother T-Bone
Burnett. Additionally, the Attractions get swapped out for the
Sugarcanes, whose members include notable Nashville sidemen Jerry
Douglas, Stuart Duncan, and Jim Lauderdale.
Unfortunately, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane ends up being
a repository for a far-flung clutch of songs. Cuts ranging from
remnants of an unfinished Hans Christian Andersen/Jenny Lind opera to
an unlikely Bing Crosby cover and some dusted-off Costello reworkings
make for a stitched-together project that lacks spark. Songs like “I
Felt the Chill,” an old-timey waltz co-penned with Loretta Lynn, and
“Sulphur to Sugarcane,” a nod-and-wink shuffle that’s a Burnett
co-write, give this collection some personality. But when Costello
delves into those opera songs — “She Was No Good,” “Red Cotton,”
“How Deep is the Red?,” “She Handed Me a Mirror” — the album’s
flow gets stilted amid a morass of dobro, squeezebox, and mandolin. Not
even “Hidden Shame,” a snappy outtake from his 2004 Southern song cycle
The Delivery Man, is enough to make this latest dalliance with
country music as compelling to the ear as it might look on paper.(Hear
Music)
