Music for Grownups Reviews: Elvis Costello, Alex Cuba
By: Richard Gehr | Source: AARP.org | 2008-05-07
Richard Gehr is a veteran music critic based in New York City.
Elvis Costello and the Imposters
"Momofuku"
Lost Highway
Written and recorded only a few months ago in an analog flash, and released initially on heavy vinyl, Elvis Costello's 34th (or so) album is his sturdiest rock collection since 2002's "When I Was Cruel." “Momofuku” covers a lot of ground in 12 strong songs. Costello's opening salvos excoriate the digital culture in "No Hiding Place" and numbskull nationalism in "American Gangster Time." There are deftly drawn portraits of relationships gone severely awry, as in "Harry Worth" and "Stella Hurt." Singers Roseanne Cash, in "Song With Rose," and Loretta Lynn, in "Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve," earn cowriting credit on two contrasting country-rock tracks. And the thrice-married singer delivers probably the most earnestly autobiographical tune of his career with "My Three Sons," a humble apology for things that can't be undone.
Alex Cuba
"Agua del Pozo"
Caracol
Alex Cuba (born Alexis Puentes) is a soulful, 30-year-old Cuban-Canadian performer whose music owes as much to the rich harmonies of Havana's filin movement of the 1940s and American R&B of the '70s as it does to the island-nation's familiar, rhythm-oriented dance music. Hence come the jazzy singer-songwriter vibe of "Amor Infinito" (“Infinite Love”) and "Mariposa" (“Butterfly”), and the sexy Earth Wind & Fire-like falsettos in "Euforia." But Alex also pays homage to his roots in the montuno grooves of "Y Que Bongo" (“What a Bongo!”) and the sacred rumba rhythms of "Fiesta Religion" (“Religious Celebration”).
"Momofuku"
Lost Highway
Written and recorded only a few months ago in an analog flash, and released initially on heavy vinyl, Elvis Costello's 34th (or so) album is his sturdiest rock collection since 2002's "When I Was Cruel." “Momofuku” covers a lot of ground in 12 strong songs. Costello's opening salvos excoriate the digital culture in "No Hiding Place" and numbskull nationalism in "American Gangster Time." There are deftly drawn portraits of relationships gone severely awry, as in "Harry Worth" and "Stella Hurt." Singers Roseanne Cash, in "Song With Rose," and Loretta Lynn, in "Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve," earn cowriting credit on two contrasting country-rock tracks. And the thrice-married singer delivers probably the most earnestly autobiographical tune of his career with "My Three Sons," a humble apology for things that can't be undone.
Alex Cuba
"Agua del Pozo"
Caracol
Alex Cuba (born Alexis Puentes) is a soulful, 30-year-old Cuban-Canadian performer whose music owes as much to the rich harmonies of Havana's filin movement of the 1940s and American R&B of the '70s as it does to the island-nation's familiar, rhythm-oriented dance music. Hence come the jazzy singer-songwriter vibe of "Amor Infinito" (“Infinite Love”) and "Mariposa" (“Butterfly”), and the sexy Earth Wind & Fire-like falsettos in "Euforia." But Alex also pays homage to his roots in the montuno grooves of "Y Que Bongo" (“What a Bongo!”) and the sacred rumba rhythms of "Fiesta Religion" (“Religious Celebration”).
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