Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach - Painted from Memory

As promised, Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach's long-awaited full-length collaboration Painted from Memory bears the hallmarks of Bacharach's classic '60s work with the likes of Dionne Warwick--full-force melodies, traditional pop instrumentation, clever and occasionally pained lyrics. It finds the pair reveling in their gifts on a dozen tracks that range from concise under-three-minute gems to sprawling art songs. The result is a set of instant classics that stand head and shoulders above much of Costello's '90s recordings. --Rickey Wright Amazon.com essential recording

An Inspired Collaboration

With a reputation so rooted in the turtle-necked, nicotine-infused lounge lizardry of Hal David, Dionne Warwick and the zero consequence hedonism of Southern California affluence - the prospect of a Burt Bacharach tag-team with the much rougher and far more tumbled Elvis Costello would have seemed to be an Irwin Allen disaster in waiting - a wildly ironic vanity project with all the nervous energy and awkward body language of an arranged marriage.

Well, a strange thing happened on the way to that opposites don't attract scenario - Bacharach and Costello made a remarkable record that after a decade of repeated listening has only become more vibrant and powerful. The vastly different approach of both artists makes little difference - whether it is the caramelized melodies of Mr. Bacharach or the sly, vindictiveness of Costello's wordplay their view of relationships has always been essentially the same - love is a brutal enterprise and a harsh taskmaster.

Painted From Memory is sex music for couples with issues - serene and beautiful with innuendo and invective bubbling just beneath the surface. All of the compositions are masterful with "Toledo", "My Thief" and "What's Her Name Today?" particularly haunting. PFM is a DID - on my very short list of Desert Island Discs.

Very highly recommended.
July 21, 2008

Wonderful

I was unaware of this collaboration however once I stumbed upon it I became intriqued. Burt Bacharach's formula for beautiful music makes him a timeless producer along with Mr. Costello's writing makes this CD more enjoyable with each listen. July 20, 2008

1998 album - holds up well, to say the least

Questions from 1998:
Q: "Are her eyes still blue?"
Q: "Should she trust in you?"
Q: "Was she the one who took away your pride
-and your reason?"

(Partial) Answers from 2008:
A: 'Yes.'
A: 'No.'
A: 'In all honesty, Declan, yeah, ...still yes, buddy.' May 6, 2008

If you love both Costello and Bacharach, you obviously have to have this album. It contains beautiful songs and

is so unique, the pairing of these two geniuses. Like most people, I had feverishly high expectations for this album. Two of my favorite song-writers, one of my very favorite voices. For the most part I totally relished Elvis's voice as it delivered all the neat Bacharach twists and turns. The only thing that disappointed me about this album was that the mood of the songs was spoiled somewhat for me when the high notes went loud in the vocal. I just didn't like this treatment on a lot of the high notes. For me, it detracted from the reflective, smoky sound that otherwise pervaded these beautiful songs thanks to Elvis's one-of-a-kind sound. Sometimes Elvis used a gentle falsetto on high notes and it was fantastic. Maybe the album should have been engineered in such a way as to keep the other high notes from going loud. So that's my one complaint about this album. The album is obviously unique and very much worth having. I don't think it's either artist's best, but that's a tremendously hard standard to measure up to, and besides, it's unique for what it is. Thanks to Elvis and Burt for doing this interesting experiment. I have to say when I heard Elvis perform some of these songs live he was totally mesmerizing and fantastic, the whole audience was riveted. December 28, 2007

5 Star Album You Don't See Coming

On first exposure the songs seem like a heavy meal with their dense orchestrations, Burt Bacharach's signature stop and go rhythms and Elvis Costello's opaque, barroom syntax. The overall effect could be extremely pretentious. Over time, however, after repeating listening, the rush of the songs' emotional climaxes have great depth and an eerie simplicity about them.

Burt Bacharach appeared to be attempting something truly original and different from his smash hits of the past. I, for one, believe that he succeeded. December 19, 2007

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