- Record Label: Blue Note
- Release Date: Sep 17, 2013
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Sep 18, 2013If you've ever fallen in love with a Costello record, be prepared for a new obsession.
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Sep 13, 2013Only the schmaltzy If I Could Believe left me unmoved. Otherwise, this is a very cool, politically charged collaboration which finds the Roots and Costello at their thrilling best.
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Sep 13, 2013the overall sense is that they [The Roots] have reignited him [Costello], the combination of one of England’s great lyricists and production from arguably America’s most forward-thinking band resulting in a crisp, funky, even dangerous sounding album as political and as relevant as anything this year.
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Sep 12, 2013Wise Up Ghost is a fearless, invigorating gut-punch of a record, one that never settles and surprises from start to finish.
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Sep 17, 2013That this collaboration would end up working so well should really be of little surprise to longtime fans of Costello. His ‘70s and ’80s work often bore the influence of the same R&B, soul and funk records that the Roots clearly adore.
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Sep 16, 2013It’s rare that a record comes along that so boldly states its own greatness, and it’s rarer still that such an album actually lives up to that promise. Wise Up Ghost does.
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Oct 30, 2013A high watermark in the canons of all involved.
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Q MagazineOct 11, 2013Scouse grump and Philadelphia radicals were made for each other. [Nov 2013, p.104]
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Sep 25, 2013It may not be quite the meeting of musical minds that fans and critics had anticipated, but that just makes it better.
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MojoSep 19, 2013Thanks to The Roots, Costello has new access--and Wise Up Ghost should bring new listeners to mess with. [Oct 2013, p.94]
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Sep 17, 2013The result is an album that pops with attitude, relaxed but never lazy, a groove-driven album structured around Quest's minimalist drum attack, Kirk's old-school rhythm n' blues licks and wahs, some Curtis Mayfield-style string arrangements, and a lead singer whose voice sounds oddly youthful, as though channeled from his Imposters days.
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Sep 17, 2013Take it or leave it, Wise Up Ghost is great.
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Sep 16, 2013It's not exactly alienating but Wise Up Ghost does require work from its audience, and the more you know--and the more you listen--the better it seems.
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Sep 16, 2013Not only is it one of Costello’s best collaborative efforts, it’s also one of his best albums full stop. Recommended for Costello newcomers and long-time believers alike.
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Sep 16, 2013Well, they already have the careers. With Wise Up Ghost, though, they now also have a great album.
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Sep 16, 2013There’s something artificial and experimental in the project’s very DNA, but that need not be a bad thing, and it isn’t.
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Sep 13, 2013You’ve got to give it to perennial over-achievers: sometimes they even know how to make extra-credit assignments sound like A+ work.
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Under The RadarSep 12, 2013In all, Wise Up Ghost achieves something much greater than the sum of its parts. [Aug-Sep 2013, P.90]
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Sep 12, 2013The album's sound is frugal and full of space, but doesn't feel airy so much as eerie. There's a queasy, drugged feeling about the music on Wake Up Ghost that fits both the fragmentary lyrics and at least one of their themes.
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Sep 16, 2013Tempos drag in the Latin-flavored "Cinco Minutos Con Vos" and the static "Viceroy's Row," and the title track is a mood piece that never climbs out of neutral. But even these misfires feel like experiments that fell short, while the rest of "Wise Up Ghost" revels in its uneasiness.
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Sep 12, 2013This isn’t mere dilettantism, and while it’s likely to net both acts new fans from the other side of the great genre divide, it holds up more than capably on its own terms.
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Sep 25, 2013Of the two acts, Costello’s pinch of dry spice makes this set more his vehicle to champion, but both show a mutual, practical affinity.
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MagnetSep 19, 2013This could have been Costello's urban album, or his funk album, or his black album--but instead, it's simply his new album. [No. 102, p.54]
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Sep 17, 2013While a few of the experiments feel a little arid, the best songs balance menace and buoyancy, melody and groove.
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Sep 17, 2013It's the sound of a savant songsmith trying to impress the world's best backing band.
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Sep 16, 2013Its only disappointment is the absence of Roots rapper Black Thought to joust with him.
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Sep 19, 2013Some of the songs are undercooked, or at least they begin to feel that way as the grooves stretch out past five minutes.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 17 out of 20
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Mixed: 1 out of 20
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Negative: 2 out of 20
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Sep 19, 2013
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Sep 17, 2013
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Feb 9, 2016