Elvis Costello has announced that his new studio album Hey Clockface will be released on October 30 via Concord Records.
It was recorded between Helsinki, Paris and New York and was mixed in Los Angeles by Sebastian Krys – and to mark the news, Costello has released a video for the track We Are All Cowards Now.
For the Paris sessions, Costello was joined by a group of musicians he dubbed Le Quintette Saint Germain: Steve Nieve, Mickaél Gasche, Pierre-François ‘Titi’ Dufour and Renaud-Gabriel Pion.
Costello says: “I sang live on the studio floor, directing from the vocal booth. We cut nine songs in two days. We spoke very little. Almost everything the musicians played was a spontaneous response to the song I was singing. I’d had a dream of recording in Paris like this, one day.”
The New York sessions were produced by composer, arranger and trumpet player Michael Leonhart in collaboration with guitarists Bill Frisell and Nels Cline.
Costello adds: “I wanted to write ‘Helsinki-Paris-???’ on the record jacket like this was a perfume or an advertising agency. London was a possibility for the third city but London is forever. We’ll be there again.
“Michael sent this music to me from New York at the perfect time. It connected to elements in both of the previous sessions and completed the picture.
“I wanted the record to be vivid, whether the songs demanded playing that was loud and jagged or intimate and beautiful.”
Hey Clockface is now available to pre-order.
Elvis Costello: Hey Clockface
1. Revolution #49
2. No Flag
3. They’re Not Laughing At Me Now
4. Newspaper Pane
5. I Do (Zula’s Song)
6. We Are All Cowards Now
7. Hey Clockface / How Can You Face Me?
8. The Whirlwind
9. Hetty O’Hara Confidential
10. The Last Confession of Vivian Whip
11. What Is It That I Need That I Don’t Already Have?
12. Radio Is Everything
13. I Can’t Say Her Name
14. Byline
