Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint - The River In Reverse
It could be easy to toss The River In Reverse into that steadily growing pile of "politically-motivated hurricane response" records, but it possesses the inviting spirit of an impromptu jam session
On first appearance, the travelogue for the whole of Elvis Costello's career has played like that of a mad scientist, an enigmatic and sometimes erratic talent who stays in one genre just long enough to hawk his wares, get a feel for it and move on to conquer the next. The former Declan MacManus has hit up just about every style available to him under the sun, especially in the last decade or so, from straight up rock 'n roll (2002's When I Was Cruel & 2004's The Delivery Man) to torch songs (2003's North), opera (2003's Il Sogno), classicist pop (1998's Painted From Memory with Burt Bacharach & 1999's The Sweetest Punch with Bill Frisell) and even big band (My Flame Turns Blue from earlier this year). Even the remarkable streak at the beginning of his career was marked by a number of dynamic, if slightly less disparate exercises in style jumping.
Mr. Costello's most recent release, The River In Reverse, finds him collaborating with New Orleans R&B svengali Allen Toussaint, in a set made up partly of handpicked nuggets from Toussaint's own back catalog, as well as a handful of originals written by the pair and one new song from Costello himself, the title track. River has the deck stacked with a crack set of studio musicians, Costello's own part-time group the Imposters, and Toussaint's mainstay Crescent City Horns, who together imbue the proceedings with a warm, rich tone that jogs between subdued and righteously funky. Joe Henry's production feels a little tight and claustrophobic, free of any echo or reverb that could have lended a greater air of ease and free flow to things. As it is, the bands sound like they're playing right on top of one another, which while intimate and direct, strangle the groove a little bit.
The songs chosen and written for The River In Reverse all obviously use the devastation and resulting fallout from Hurricane Katrina as a common touchstone. Aside from a few pointed moments, however, it avoids the one-dimensional, finger-wagging polemics that have become the weapon of choice of late for Vietnam-era retreads and irritable modern popsters alike. The mood is alternately joyous, meditative and even a little frustrated, a visible result of the search for an answer to a tragedy that really doesn't have one. Costello's title track and Toussaint's "Who's Gonna Help a Brother Get Further?" (the only song Toussaint sings by himself) are the angriest salvos on the album, while the pair's co-penned "Six-Fingered Man" takes a lighter, more humorous tack.
Toussaint plays the role of ambassador for his beleaguered home region on The River In Reverse. The reinterpretations of his songs, which were already socially inclined to begin with, take on new meaning in a post-Katrina world. "Tears, Tears and More Tears" and "Broken Promise Land" play like all-new tunes, although placed next to the optimistic-by-comparison "Ascension Day," it's hard to get carried away by any of the implied recontexting that might resonate as the album goes on. Costello sometimes gets a little carried away with his role as the interpreter, stretching his vocals beyond what feels natural or comfortable. Rarely, though, does his earnestness and excessive efforting work against everyone else involved.
It could be easy to toss The River In Reverse into that steadily growing pile of "politically-motivated hurricane response" records (not to mention yet another episode in Elvis's Worldwide Tour of Musical ADD), but it possesses the inviting spirit of an impromptu jam session, heard by unseen patrons out in the street through an open door or window. It plays best when it chooses to celebrate rather than denigrate, when Elvis' occasionally overarching vocals serve to benefit a tune rather than to make it sound as if everyone involved is just not trying hard enough. It's an imperfect album, but it's admirable in the sense that its intentions are transparent even at its least. While some choose to bicker endlessly about who was to blame in the response to Katrina, Costello and Toussaint take the high road, and it's a classy testament to what New Orleans has contributed to the world rather than what's been taken away from it, flaws and all.
(Verve Forecast Records)