National Ransom
- Elvis Costello
- Band Name: Elvis Costello
- Record Label: Hear Music
- Release Date: Nov 2, 2010
- Critic Score
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Nov 5, 201090The album winds up with trace echoes of all eras of Costello, but that's only a reflection of how National Ransom is a masterwork in the traditional sense: he's summoned all his skills to deliver an album that summarizes his world view.
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Nov 2, 201084More than anything, National Ransom reveals that Costello is still a powerhouse writer.
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Nov 2, 201083There's never been an Elvis Costello album like National Ransom, even though nothing about the record is especially new.
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Nov 1, 201083A worthy sequel to last year's similarly Americana-leaning Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. [Nov. 5, 2010, p. 71]
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Nov 11, 201080You'd be hard pressed to find an album as varied as Elvis Costello's National Ransom (his 26th, give or take).
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Nov 4, 201080Over the course of 16 tracks, Costello flexes his stylistic muscles and exercises that famously acerbic wit.
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Nov 2, 201080If Elvis Costello's an all-timer it's because he knows what high seriousness is about. [Nov. 2010, p. 103]
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Nov 2, 20108033 years deep into his career, Elvis Costello continues to challenge both himself and his audience. If his latest is any indication he'll continue inspiring us well into his twilight years.
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Oct 29, 201080Costello is a seasoned lyricist, clearly a very smart man, and his prose throughout National Ransom is a lustrous testament to that.
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Oct 28, 201080With flurries of old-time whimsy, The Beatles gone gothic and vaudevillian storytelling, it's dense and sometimes obscure. [Nov 2010, p.84]
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Nov 17, 201077It's a lot to take in, but his aim is true as always.
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Nov 2, 201075In Costello's infinitely gifted hands, pop music circa 2010 is anything but only rock 'n' roll.
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Oct 29, 201075National Ransom isn't the midlife masterpiece that obsessives have been pining for, but its finer points are worth seeking out, in all their sepia-tinted glory.
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Nov 2, 201070Elvis Costello traffics in so many genres, it must be hard to focus on one. Here, he doesn't.
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Nov 1, 201070At 16 songs, the album can feel disorienting, but it's further proof that for an Englishman, Costello has become an improbable - and invaluable - ambassador of America's overlooked musical past.
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Oct 29, 201070With livelier playing and more memorable tunes, Costello's second straight collaboration with producer T Bone Burnett is a major improvement over last year's ho-hum Secret, Profane & Sugarcane.
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Oct 28, 201070While it's no Costello classic, this repays patience.
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Nov 1, 201063As with many of his releases the last decade, National Ransom is kind of a mess, with enough scattered gems to reward deeper investigation.
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Nov 9, 201060Perhaps National Ransom is less a randomly selected almanac, and more a series of vignettes that could potentially have relevance to any particular time and space. Costello is, inventively, trying to make musical antiquarianism a radical pursuit.
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Nov 4, 201060Recorded in 11 days in Nashville and LA, National Ransom sees Costello continuing his obsession with bluegrass and Americana, under the watchful eye of producer T-Bone Burnett. [Dec. 2010, p. 104]
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