I typically find it difficult to review a brand new Elvis Costello album. They tend to take a minute to digest, as do most great albums. Typically, a first listen to an Elvis album yields a few basic hooks, and some basic impression. It takes a while, however, for some of the nuance to reveal itself.

After a mere half dozen listens, then, I offer what I emphasize is a preliminary report on The Delivery Man, released a mere week ago. Generally, I'd rate this perhaps slightly disappointing, by Elvis standards. That is, this album is merely an outstanding modern pop album, but probably not quite a Sgt Pepper or Imperial Bedroom.

I'd put this album quality wise about the middle of Elvis' catalog. This certainly surpasses his few duds, but it's not going to make anyone forget Imperial Bedroom. It would probably slide in somewhere above Blood and Chocolate and below When I Was Cruel.

About half the album could reasonably be called "country" music. Indeed, these are some of his most nearly straightforward country genre compositions ever, with a minimum of idiosyncratic Elvis weirdness. Of course, a quarter century of living on Elvis Costello albums has naturally caused me to develop a taste for exactly idiosyncratic Elvis weirdness.

Anyway, two of the best song compositions on the album are in the country songs. "Name of This Thing Is Not Love" has a strong country waltz with a narrator having a moment of guilty clarity.

There's nothing cutesy or clever or overtly wordsmithy about this, but a real direct dramatic clarity. Perhaps sometimes Elvis will lapse into intermittently clever but sometimes disjointed and not really adding up. The simpler parameters of country songform such as here bring out his most direct and emotionally real performances.

To put it differently, Elvis gets Hank Williams. I could hear this song being drug into jazz or folk mediums. Tracy Chapman could probably do something real interesting.

Probably the closest thing to Elvis' country style here would be Steve Earle, only a hell of a lot better than most Steve Earle. Lucinda Williams was certainly like a hot female doppleganger for Steve with her performance on "There's a Story in Your Voice."

This song nominally is a sad country song about a restless lover. It's a fine little song. It made me think of Gram Parsons, though I can't say just why.

Lucinda Williams really makes this song, though. She really managed to inject an aura of great charisma. She comes off like the ultimate gin soaked barroom queen from Memphis. Her pure drunken enthusiasm tickles me more and more with each listen, right down to her final exclamation.

The best of the rock songs count amongst the most compelling grooves of his recorded career. How much of this comes from the long lasting pleasures of strong melody versus the relatively cheap thrills of simple rhythms remains a question before the court.