Wise Up Ghost Deluxe

This is the best Elvis Costello album since the under-rated  When I Was Cruel  from 2002 (see my five-star review). The sound produced by Costello with Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, the Roots, and producer Steven Mandel is unique. Costello, Thompson & Mandel share both songwriting and production credits.The best song is "Cinco Minutos Con Vos," featuring the beautiful guest female vocals of La Marisoul along with Costello. One of five songs featuring the Brent Fischer Orchestra, it reminds me of the fantastic David Byrne album  Rei Momo  from 1989. Other stand-out tracks include "Wake Me Up," with an insistent funky groove, "Come the Meantimes," "Wise Up Ghost," and the poignant ballad "If I Could Believe," which is stripped back to just Costello's voice with a piano trio. Two of the three bonus tracks on the Deluxe version are also among the best -- "My New Haunt" and "Can You Hear Me?" -- so definitely pick it up rather than the standard version.If the quotient of strong tracks was a little higher WISE UP GHOST would attain five-star greatness, but as it is too much of the album is at the level of mood and texture lacking powerful hooks and melodies. Costello's lyrics are cryptic and suggestively dark -- "Tripwire," for instance evoking the endless sequence of acts of U.S. military aggression around the world -- and are included in the booklet, which is designed to look like the City Lights Pocket Poets series, which famously included Alan Ginsberg's "Howl." (There is no jewel case -- the CD is slipped into the back cover of the book.) I've named the review from a line in the title track that suggests working people rising up against their capitalist overlords -- suggests, but only cryptically.Starting with  The Delivery Man , (see my three-star review), Costello was focusing on country-inflected styles for several years, and I felt that it was an uninspired period. WISE UP GHOST is much better. It grows on me with repeated listening. If I had reviewed it a couple of weeks sooner I might have given it only three stars, rounding down from 3.5. Now I have to round down a bit from closer to 4.5.?uestlove and the Roots prove to be excellent collaborators, and the music is rich and complex, revealing more and more with repeated spins.(Review #24)

For this long time fan, Costello's aim has been more haphazard than true since he ditched The Attractions. There are exemptions in Brutal Youth (featuring The Attractions) and an underrated When I Was Cruel. But since Spike have felt him as inconsistent, overwrought, self-conscious as he's been intermittently brilliant. Sometimes, all you need is a right hook and a punch line you can feel. As for his collaborations, from Bacharach to Otter to Toussaint---they've all been eye rollers in my book.That said, it sounds like Costello has finally wised up. Ghost is his most straightforward, least contrived in decades. One would think a pairing with the Roots and their brand of eclectic Hip Hop and Funk would be an awkward one. But if anything, they live up to their moniker by keeping things grounded. The Roots provide an eerie, hypnotic Funk to the proceedings. At times reminiscent of early Beck. Which really doesn't do them justice as they're hardly imitators. Its more sinister cocktail music and laid back Funk than Hip Hop. Despite, his usual brand of vitriol, Costello sounds much more at home and playful here than in the other musical hats he's doffed and juggled. Everybody hates a tourist but as Get Happy proved, R & B and Soul suit Costello far more than any forays south of the Mason Dixon line.Vocally, this is his most restrained in years. But that restraint doesn't come at the expense of edge. I always felt Costello's lower register was eerily effective on classics like I Want You, Beyond Belief and Almost Blue. Mercifully he's left the cringe inducing Broadway belting at the door. And even if he lacks his usual caustic hectoring, don't expect the crooning claustrophobia of North. This is a far more moody, dark and varied affair.Seasoned devotees will pick up snippets of Pills & Soap along with strains of Hurry Down Doomsday on Stick Out Your Tongue. Here's Costello and The Roots organically "sampling" from his back catalog. And it works. There are also a lot of Musical "in" jokes. You can tell ?uestlove is a genuine fan. The opening of Tripwire is from Spike's Satellite. There's a mix of Radio Silence and High Fidelity in the bonus track, Can You Hear Me. (She Might Be A) Grenade is a reworking of Delivery Man bonus track, She's Pulling Out The Pin. Lyrically, things typically veer between the outraged and the arcane. But in terms of the delivery and backing the collage approach on Ghost is refreshingly unpretentious.While I found a lot to like off National Ransom, it lacked cohesion. Here, all the eclectic elements including the Deluxe bonus tracks come together to make this Costello's strongest cuff on the ear since the turn of the century.

Wise Up Ghost is definitely a grower, that's not to say there's nothing to enjoy on the first listen. It's just that this is another new Elvis sound and it takes time to acclimatise to this. The Roots appear to be in the driving seat musically, with a crisp clear sound.There are some great tracks on this album that begin to show themselves to you on repeated listening, with my current favourites being 'I Refuse To Be Saved' and 'Tripwire'. I Refuse To Be Saved is especially good when the volume is up.Others have commented on Elvis vocals here and I have to agree that he sounds better than he has in a while. There are always moments on his releases that leave you feeling he is trying a little too hard to hit that note, but on Wise Up Ghost I have not been left with that feeling.Another above average if not great album by EC. Looking forward to the documentary on BBC4 on Friday (8th November 2013) and Saturday (9th November 2013) night

A great collaboration in the truest sense. Like a cross between Tom Waits and the final recordings by Bobby Womack (Bravest Man in the Universe era). Good packaging with decent liner notes and reprinting of lyrics. Nice to see it’s on the Blue Note label (think 60s Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Art Blakey). Very enjoyable record at a very reasonable price (currently £5)!

I am delighted that Elvis Costello can still surprise and enlighten me after all these years. Sometime he experiments and it does not succeed. Here he triumphs. A great deal of the album is courageous and funky re-workings of melodies from his neglected classic "North" album. It should not work. It does. His lyrical talent has lost nothing over the decades. Brave words that I am happy to carry as a commentary on the world as we find it. "If I could believe" could speak for me even in the sadder months of a bereavement.

This is a great CD. I saw him in concert in July and it inspired me to check out more of his music. There is loads!!!

I bought this for me wife who liked the snippet she heard on the radio. I have to say Costello's gruff voice and the soul/r&b/roots rhythm go very well together. If you only like traditional Costello, stay clear. But for anyone who's open minded to new collaborations, give it a go.