Elvis Costello

Although his catalog swelled with a series of compilations and the horn-punctuated Allen Toussaint collaboration, the last time Costello bristled with as much energy was 2004's The Delivery Man. Like that LP, Momofuku opens with guns a-blazing, blowing off steam with a trio of rockers before settling down. The back half of the LP recalls everything from the repose of his late-career jazz influence to the organ-driven scream of the Attractions. It doesn't have the continuity of his greatest records, but taken individually the songs are crafted with his expected precision.

As the recent reissue of This Year's Model proved, no one can turn vitriol into art better
than Elvis Costello. This fact is reconfirmed by Momofuku — a name the singer's latest album
shares with a Manhattan restaurant and that, fittingly, resembles an excellent
English-language expletive. "In the not very distant future/When everything will be
free/There won't be any cute secrets/Let alone any novelty," Costello spit-croo... More >