Rating: NNN
Inspired by Buddy Guy’s rootsy raw Sweet Tea recording, Elvis Costello went south to Clarksdale, Mississippi, to get the Imposters’ mojo working again. The results pieced together for The Delivery Man indicate that he was only partially successful. There’s an endearing roughness here that our favourite fusspot usually smooths over after the demo stage, and that works marvellously well on groovers like Button My Lip, Bedlam and the Southern Culture-style Monkey To Man. But he runs amok when trying to recreate his favourite soul music moments, as with Either Side Of The Same Town (see Dark End Of The Street) and The Judgement (8 Men And 4 Women), and trying to sing a mountain ballad with Emmylou Harris while strumming on a ukulele is just plain wrong.
