- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Entertainment WeeklyFeels like a mash note to autumnal Manhattan. [26 Sep 2003, p.93]
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BlenderIt's art music first and pop second. [Oct 2003, p.115]
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North moves with an inevitable constancy, and could have perhaps benefited from one or two more upbeat tracks. But such consistency is certainly a forgivable flaw, especially when it's done as elegantly and earnestly as presented here.
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Costello stays away from pop hooks here, concentrating instead on a tentative but engaging marriage of words and melody.
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North exudes a consistent, subdued beauty that, at times, is almost too delicate to make a true impression.
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MojoNorth radiates a humanity that wasn't altogether apparent on, say, The Juliet Letters or When I Was Cruel. [Oct 2003, p.104]
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Unlike The Juliet Letters, North never feels like an exercise, nor does it feel like Costello has something to prove.
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While Elvis is quite the crooner, an entire album of achy-breaky heartache is too much for the casual Costello listener to bear.
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An interesting, if flawed work.
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FilterThink piano, think cabaret, think somber. [#8, p.104]
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With every play the album becomes, like love itself, impossible to fight off.
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Costello has eschewed all sense of melody and humor in favor of rambling, mock-jazz noodling.
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Q MagazineAll very creditable though, for a man who once oozed vitriol, a tad bloodless. [Oct 2003, p.103]
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Bereft of melody and short on memorable lyrics (a Costello first), North is background music in the least appealing sense: Brought to the fore, it falls to pieces.
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UncutArid and mannered. [Nov 2003, p.112]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 8
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Mixed: 1 out of 8
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Negative: 1 out of 8
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Nov 5, 2020
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dariuswSep 26, 2004My fave EC record of recent years....Sam K is a fool
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samkOct 26, 2003A bit of a shocker. Lyrically and musically unappealing, Costello's voice is rudely exposed on this record.