''Hey Clockface'' is the 31st

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by English singer-songwriter

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

, released on 30 October 2020 by

Concord Records Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists ha ...

Critical reception

''Hey Clockface'' received generally positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 78, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 9 reviews.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

of ''AllMusic'' gave ''Hey Clockface'' a positive 4-star review, stating that the record shows "Costello's mastery of mood and storytelling". Writing for

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

, Daniel Felsenthal noted that ''Hey Clockface'' merges the "potentially divergent sensibilities" of "driving, ageless rock" and "conventions of the American songbook" into "an adventurous set of songs about time's ceaseless march....Alone, either style might have seemed like predictable genre play for Costello at this stage in his career, but together, they make for an album that's energetic and consistently surprising."

Track listing

Personnel

Helsinki recordings (tracks 2, 6, 9) *Elvis Costello – all voices and instruments Paris recordings (tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14) *Elvis Costello – voice, guitar, snare drum, bass, piano Le Quintette Saint Germain: * Steve Nieve – grand piano, upright piano, organ, mellotron, melodica *Mickaël Gasche – trumpet, flugelhorn, serpent *Renaud-Gabriel Pion – contrabass clarinet, bass clarinet, B♭ clarinet, tenor saxophone, bass flute, cor Anglais *Pierre-François "Titi" Dufour – cello, foot stomps *AJUQ – drums, percussion, harmonies New York recordings (tracks 4 and 12) *Elvis Costello – voice via electrical wire * Michael Leonhart – trumpet, drums, guitar, synthesizer, bass, organ, trombone, piano, surdu *

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist. He first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts, notably as a participant ...

– guitar, loops * Nels Cline – guitar * Nick Movshon – drums *Emily Hope-Price – cello *Chris Bullock – alto flute *Danton Boller – acoustic bass fill

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2020 albums Elvis Costello albums Concord Records albums