My Amazon Reviews: Elvis Costello "National Ransom"

The Big Payback  
4 Out Of 5 Stars

After the mediocre "Secret Profane and Sugarcane," Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett recapture a groove on "National Ransom." Better songs, airier production, Elvis in good voice; it's the best he's done since "The Delivery Man." He's back to being angry again, as the burning wolf running off with the money painted on the cover would indicate. Angry at the hucksters that troll history and how we never seem to wise up to them. "National Ransom" picks up an acoustic guitar and let's fire with six strings.

Wolves and ravens at carrion appear several times through the CD, as Elvis skims through a cast of characters through the ages. There's the washed up singer who can't understand why his time has passed in "Jimmy Standing In The Rain." The conversation with Doctor (Doc?) Watson (and harmonies with Vince Gill). Or the villains plotting a coup on "Bullets For The New Born King." With such a cast of the downtrodden, Costello still breathes life into each one.

He also refuses to let them all be victims. On "Five Little Words," the jilted lover sounds more at fault than the woman who left, and it's more than difficult to imagine the line in "Stations Of The Cross" that reads "He's buying his way into heaven I suppose...down in a location that we can not disclose," not being about Dick Cheney. Or to hear "Unusual suspects shake down, shake down, shake down, various dubious character" and not link it to the Senator who 'apologized' to BP after their disastrous Gulf Oil spill. Even if the descriptions are murky, there still are no pulled punches. Which is exactly what Costello does at his best.