Critic's pick: Elvis Costello and the Imposters

By Walter Tunis Contributing Music Critic

Elvis Costello and the Imposters

Momofuku

If we are to believe the very prolific words that Elvis Costello has posted on his Web site, Momofuku takes its name from Momofuku Ando, the inventor of the cup noodle.

OK. Why?

”Like so many things in this world of wonders, all we had to do to make this record was add water,“ he writes.

Well, in truth, Costello simply added some musical acquaintances new (Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis) and longstanding (Los Lobos' David Hidalgo) as well as the support of his band, the Imposters, which is really his career-defining band, the Attractions, with flexible bassist-vocalist Davey Faragher as the only modification. Costello recorded and mixed the album in a week, then made it initially available, in this download age, only as a vinyl album. The CD version of Momofuku hits stores Tuesday.

The recording process aside,Momofuku is no retrofest. Admittedly, hearing Steve Nieve's cheesy organ runs whip around the album's opening tunes like a Jack Russell terrier conjures thoughts of the wondrously obstinate music that the Attractions cut, amazingly, three decades ago. But Momofuku is as instinctual as any record Costello has made. It boasts a mix of pop smarts and coarse rock 'n' roll cunning that brings to mind such great upstart Costello albums as Mighty Like a Rose and Blood and Chocolate. But even those comparisons trivialize the sparks that fly off these tunes.

As usual, Costello is a sucker for stories of dark melody and even darker wit, as in the way the Dickensian badlands of Harry Worth — where ”streets are paved with heaven's penance, gutters are full of suicide“ — are given mighty shoves from Nieve's piano-pounding jabs and loads of jagged, fuzzy guitar.

”I rather go blind for speaking my mind,“ Costello sings earlier in American Gangster Time, a tune whose vintage Attractions attack, along with Lewis' vocal support, creates a sense of pop urgency that is familiar yet vitally new.

And then there are instances when Costello blithely takes on the essentials of the human condition.

On Drum and Bone, he sings unapologetically over a spry acoustic shuffle from the standpoint of ”a limited, primitive kind of man.“ But on Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve, the unrest goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. There, jealousy and hypocrisy are no match for the burdens of the waiting world (”there's always someone on the outside doing all the suffering“).

A lighter turn is taken on My Three Sons, a tune that is tender in tone and autobiographical in subject matter. It's not exactly an ode to the generations-old Fred MacMurray TV show of the same name. But it's equally wholesome.

The journey concludes with Go Away, a subtle little rave-up/kiss-off rocker built around a deliriously static drum and organ roll that recalls the 1960s single 96 Tears. It's the kind of melody that will stick in your brain for days.

In the end, Momofuku comes off like a movie set on fast-forward that manages to make perfect sense. There's color, noise, passion, regret, humor, joy, melody and an incredible sense of motion. Just don't forget to add water.

Note: Elvis Costello and the Imposters perform at 8 p.m. May 7 at Louisville Palace. Tickets are $44.50 through TicketMaster, (859) 281-6644 or www.ticketmaster.com.