As ever, a new offering from Elvis Costello weighs heavy with expectation and Secret, Profane & Sugarcane is no exception. The more so since it reunites EC with King of America producer T-Bone Burnett and that matchless album’s expansive sound.
It’s very much an acoustic album as Elvis offers passionate pleas for real and imagined lovers past, present and future on perfectly judged pieces like She Was No Good and Changing Partners. Hidden Shame is a song he wrote for Johnny Cash whose shadow is cast over Elvis’ reworking of his own Complica-ted Shadows; while I Felt the Chill is co-written with Loretta Lynn.
Honest to a fault, this is a heartfelt record by a seriously restless musical soul who never fails to raise the interest of the discerning.
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