Hi °C | Lo °C T-Bone Burnett's been busy: as well as the Elton & Leon album, he's marshalled the forces behind National Ransom, a collection of typically thoughtful, occasionally verbose songs from Elvis Costello whose range of subject-matter – from apologetic assassin to spiritualist séance to regretful runaway – is matched by the varied musical styles.
"Jimmie Standing In The Rain" couches northern decline in Depression-era oompah minstrelsy, "One Bell Ringing" is a Kafkaesque nightmare shrouded in horns, and "Slow Drag With Josephine" a nimble retro-Americana exercise of guitar, mandolin and fiddle. The most impressive piece is "You Hung The Moon", with subtle strings and bass clarinet shading a tale of a family trying to contact the spirit of a First World War soldier.
DOWNLOAD THIS Jimmie Standing In The Rain; Slow Drag With Josephine; You Hung The Moon
