''Hey Clockface'' is the 31st
studio album by English singer-songwriter
Elvis Costello, released on 30 October 2020 by
Concord Records
Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists have ...
.
Critical reception
''Hey Clockface'' received generally positive reviews from critics. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 78, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 9 reviews.
of ''AllMusic'' gave ''Hey Clockface'' a positive 4-star review, stating that the record shows "Costello's mastery of mood and storytelling".
Writing for
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
, Daniel Felsenthal noted that ''Hey Clockface'' merges the "potentially divergent sensibilities" of "driving, ageless rock" and "conventions of the American songbook" into "an adventurous set of songs about time's ceaseless march....Alone, either style might have seemed like predictable genre play for Costello at this stage in his career, but together, they make for an album that's energetic and consistently surprising."
Track listing
Personnel
Helsinki recordings (tracks 2, 6, 9)
*Elvis Costello – all voices and instruments
Paris recordings (tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14)
*Elvis Costello – voice, guitar, snare drum, bass, piano
Le Quintette Saint Germain:
*
Steve Nieve
Steve Nieve ( "naïve"; born Stephen John Nason, 21 February 1958) is an English musician and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Nieve has been a member of Elvis Costello's backing bands the Attractions, the Imposters and Madnes ...
– grand piano, upright piano, organ, mellotron, melodica
*Mickaël Gasche – trumpet, flugelhorn, serpent
*Renaud-Gabriel Pion – contrabass clarinet, bass clarinet, Bb clarinet, tenor saxophone, bass flute, cor Anglais
*Pierre-François "Titi" Dufour – cello, foot stomps
*AJUQ – drums, percussion, harmonies
New York recordings (tracks 4 and 12)
*Elvis Costello – voice via electrical wire
*
Michael Leonhart
Michael Leonhart (born April 21, 1974) is an American jazz trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist.
Solo career
In 1992 Leonhart was honored with the first Grammy Award for outstanding high school musician in the US (he attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia ...
– trumpet, drums, guitar, synthesizer, bass, organ, trombone, piano, surdu
*
Bill Frisell
William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Frisell first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts ...
– guitar, loops
*
Nels Cline
Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been the guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004.
In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex, a percussionist. He has w ...
– guitar
*
Nick Movshon – drums
*Emily Hope-Price – cello
*Chris Bullock – alto flute
*Danton Boller – acoustic bass fill
Charts
References
External links
*
2020 albums
Concord Records albums
Elvis Costello albums
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