Music Review: Elvis Costello and the Imposters - Momofuku - Page 2

While there are a few cuts on Momofuku that may end up as flyover tracks when the long honeymoon is over — “Drum and Bone” sounds too much like a leftover from 2004’s The Delivery Man, while “Harry Worth” recalls Dan Hicks and His Hot Influences — the coastal breeze from “Go Away” more than makes up for any and all potential lacks thereof as a cinematic hymn to hum rolls to noirish effect, cueing hoods to watch the detectives, and femme fatales to file their nails while the authorities are draggin' the lake:

In my mystery caper
As I lower the lamp
On a fey little gunsel
Who dreamed drilling that that vamp

I'm walking the shade
Of this silent parade
With my pepper and mace
And my heartbroken face

Rainy railway station
Drowns out the tearful parting
The last canister rolling
On our little melodrama

Is this one-horse opera
Or a screwball comedy?
Or just mistaken identity
Well, who do you want to be?

Chorus

It's a switch that you’re flicking
A fuse you're always tripping
A button that you're pressing
A number that you're pushing

You're always delaying
Denying
Or betraying
Why don't you come back, baby?
Why don't you go away?

To make sure insouciance isn’t ensuing, Costello sees to it that every switch, fuse, button, or number in Momofuku isn’t without cause being flicked, tripped, pressed, or pushed. But beyond that? It’s hard to say how future assessments will ultimately place this highly enjoyable album, or if revisionist critiquing and carping will come into much play. Certainly the album is not the unified production that 1986’s raw Blood and Chocolate was, or the departure that characterizes the same year’s rootsy King of America, or 1982's pop wonder Imperial Bedroom.

Still, since I myself am “always delaying / Denying / Or betraying," Momofuku won’t be straying very far from my stereo while I spend a long, long time — an inordinate amount, if I have to — figuring the whole thing out.

Article Author: Gordon Hauptfleisch

Gordon Hauptfleisch is a Blogcritics Books Editor, freelance writer, and book reviewer for the San Diego Union Tribune. For many years he worked in and managed bookstores and record stores. Email him and he'll stop talking in the third-person.
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