(0 users) 
Cover NOT yet available in
Join Patreon for 4K upload/download access
Your Rating (Click a star below)
Track List
01) National Ransom
02) Jimmie Standing in the Rain
03) Stations of the Cross
04) A Slow Drag With Josephine
05) Five Small Words
06) Church Underground
07) You Hung the Moon
08) Bullets for the New-Born King
09) I Lost You
10) Dr. Watson, I Presume
11) One Bell Ringing
12) The Spell That You Cast
13) That's Not the Part of Him You're Leaving
14) My Lovely Jezebel
15) All These Strangers
01) National Ransom
02) Jimmie Standing in the Rain
03) Stations of the Cross
04) A Slow Drag With Josephine
05) Five Small Words
06) Church Underground
07) You Hung the Moon
08) Bullets for the New-Born King
09) I Lost You
10) Dr. Watson, I Presume
11) One Bell Ringing
12) The Spell That You Cast
13) That's Not the Part of Him You're Leaving
14) My Lovely Jezebel
15) All These Strangers
4:06
4:17
5:00
2:44
4:46
5:03
3:56
3:36
2:57
3:42
3:39
2:33
4:44
2:33
5:52
Data Complete
70%
Total Rating
70%Total Rating
(3 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
2010
Pop-Punk
Passionate
Rock/Pop
---
---
Album
0 copies
Album Description
Available in:
National Ransom is the 2010 studio album by Elvis Costello. It was recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles with American songwriter and producer T-Bone Burnett, and was released on October 25, 2010 (November 2 in the U.S.) on the Hear Music label.
Featured musicians include Costello's recent backing bands The Imposters and The Sugarcanes and guest appearances by Vince Gill, Marc Ribot, Buddy Miller, and Leon Russell.
User Album Review
Elvis Costello can’t be accused of genre-fear. Over an illustrious career of inspiring Bret Easton Ellis titles he’s also attempted opera, punk, jazz and soul. He can be forgiven then for making two consecutive studio albums which stick to a core of country and Americana. To focus on the trappings (and the list of "respected" players) however, is to miss the point. Whatever the stylings, the crux of Costello remains his songs, voice and words. It’s these which have enabled him to survive dips over decades, and avoid stagnation. His blatant craving to be identified within the Great American Songbook has also helped him to float above fashion. Last year’s Secret, Profane & Sugarcane sold much more strongly in the US than in the UK, and this is effectively its sequel.
Like its predecessor, it was produced by T Bone Burnett in Nashville in under a fortnight. Musicians include recurring cohorts The Impostors and The Sugarcanes, plus cameos by Vince Gill, Marc Ribot, Buddy Miller and Leon Russell. Inevitably then, it’s "rootsy", with all the lap-steel that entails. It never works magic with such elements the way Robert Plant seems able to, but it’s a solid, generally impressive hour.
It suggests topical themes of deprivation and bankruptcy, but the lyrics play fast and loose, often digressing into standard, if dark, love ballads. The title song rages at Wall Street, a little foggily. Indeed several songs chug by placidly, hamstrung by Burnett’s generic tropes. Stations of the Cross is the first number to entice and enthral, with some of the broodiness of Pills and Soap. It breaks the rut, and the album then ascends and transcends through Five Small Words and Church Underground: Costello at his best, the music freeing up his unique voice rather than turning him into any old bar-room bluesman. (The nadir is Russell’s My Lovely Jezebel, which could be Cliff fronting Status Quo.)
Then he’ll sing something as literate and brutal/wounded as All These Strangers and remind you of his gimlet eye and keen ear. So, while it’s no Costello classic, this repays patience.
External Album Reviews
None...
User Comments
Available in:
National Ransom is the 2010 studio album by Elvis Costello. It was recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles with American songwriter and producer T-Bone Burnett, and was released on October 25, 2010 (November 2 in the U.S.) on the Hear Music label.
Featured musicians include Costello's recent backing bands The Imposters and The Sugarcanes and guest appearances by Vince Gill, Marc Ribot, Buddy Miller, and Leon Russell.
User Album Review
Elvis Costello can’t be accused of genre-fear. Over an illustrious career of inspiring Bret Easton Ellis titles he’s also attempted opera, punk, jazz and soul. He can be forgiven then for making two consecutive studio albums which stick to a core of country and Americana. To focus on the trappings (and the list of "respected" players) however, is to miss the point. Whatever the stylings, the crux of Costello remains his songs, voice and words. It’s these which have enabled him to survive dips over decades, and avoid stagnation. His blatant craving to be identified within the Great American Songbook has also helped him to float above fashion. Last year’s Secret, Profane & Sugarcane sold much more strongly in the US than in the UK, and this is effectively its sequel.
Like its predecessor, it was produced by T Bone Burnett in Nashville in under a fortnight. Musicians include recurring cohorts The Impostors and The Sugarcanes, plus cameos by Vince Gill, Marc Ribot, Buddy Miller and Leon Russell. Inevitably then, it’s "rootsy", with all the lap-steel that entails. It never works magic with such elements the way Robert Plant seems able to, but it’s a solid, generally impressive hour.
It suggests topical themes of deprivation and bankruptcy, but the lyrics play fast and loose, often digressing into standard, if dark, love ballads. The title song rages at Wall Street, a little foggily. Indeed several songs chug by placidly, hamstrung by Burnett’s generic tropes. Stations of the Cross is the first number to entice and enthral, with some of the broodiness of Pills and Soap. It breaks the rut, and the album then ascends and transcends through Five Small Words and Church Underground: Costello at his best, the music freeing up his unique voice rather than turning him into any old bar-room bluesman. (The nadir is Russell’s My Lovely Jezebel, which could be Cliff fronting Status Quo.)
Then he’ll sing something as literate and brutal/wounded as All These Strangers and remind you of his gimlet eye and keen ear. So, while it’s no Costello classic, this repays patience.
External Album Reviews
None...
User Comments
No comments yet...
Status
unlockedRank: External Links
