Elvis Costello has announced a new album titled Hey Clockface, out October 30 via Concord. Accompanying the announcement, Costello has unveiled a new track called ‘We Are All Cowards Now’. Check it out below, and scroll down for the album’s cover artwork and tracklist.
Recorded in Helsinki, Paris, and New York, the 14-track LP features Elvis Costello’s longtime bandmate Steve Nieve, in addition to Bill Frisell, Nels Cline, Mickaél Gasche, Pierre-François “Titi” Dufour, and others. It includes the previously released singles ‘No Flag’ and ‘Hetty O’Hara Confidential’.
“I sang live on the studio floor, directing from the vocal booth,” Costello said of the new album in a statement. “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.”
He continued: “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,” he added.
Elvis Costello And The Imposters released the EP Purse in 2019. Their last full-length release was 2018’s Look Now.
Hey Clockface Cover Artwork:
Hey Clockface Tracklist:
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
