Wise Up Ghost

Elvis Costello is one of those musicians who seems to be on a quest to full explore the universe of music. From his start as a punk he's dabbled in almost everything, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. I admit I've kind of lost interest in him along the way.

But his new album, a collaboration with the hip-hop/funk/jazz hybrid band The Roots, is amazing. The Roots are best known as the house band of The Jimmy Fallon Show, but are a respected band in their own right--I dare say they are just as respected in certain places more than Costello is.

The result of their collaboration, Wise Up Ghost, is a haunting, at times gritty record. The songs are mostly in a minor key, with words that are despairing or of warning. The liner notes, by Ben Greenman, indicated that the composers and producers, Costello, Steven Mandel, and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, were interested in the climate of America following Barack Obama's election, and the resulting fracture of political discourse.

Indeed, there are some dark statements in this record. The opening song, "Walk Us Uptown," while having a great groove (there are no shortage of those on the album) contains the lyric:

"Will you walk us uptown
Will you gather us near
As cowards flee and traitors sneer
Keep a red flag flying
Keep a blue flag as well
And a white flag in case it all goes to hell"

My favorite song on the album is "Refuse to Be Saved," with Costello's vocals down and dirty:

"The Liberation forces make movies of their own
Playing their Doors records and pretending to be stoned
Drowning out a broadcast that wasn't authorized
Incidentally the revolution will be televised
With one head for business and another for good looks
Until they started arriving with their rubber aprons
and their butcher's hooks"

There are also songs about the never-ending tussle between the sexes. In "(She Might Be a) Grenade," Costello sings:

"She's taping up her hands just
like a boxer will
And they started laughing
But if looks could kill
She'd take them down right now
She's covering her mouth
With some unholy vow
There's nothing more to say
This is her wedding day
Full of shattered glass and mayhem
Not some softly whispered Amen"

Other excellent songs on the album include "Tripwire," the title track, and of the three "bonus" tracks, I especially liked the last, "The Puppet Has Cut His Strings," with a haunting piano riff played by Ray Angry.

The style is a melange of jazz, rock, R&B and funk. I suppose I liked it because it dispensed with hip-hop, which I don't care for because of it's usual lack of melody. Instead, these songs are bursting with melody, but do have the raw emotion of the best hip-hop. I suppose it could be called "thinking man's rock" a deplorable phrase that usually means boring, but in the case of Wise Up Ghost, is anything but.