Painted From Memory (1998)

Painted From Memory (1998)

It sounds like a treacherous enough notion – Costello pairs with the towering icon of softie schmaltz Burt Bacharach on a song cycle concerning a doomed romance, all set to the elaborate horns and strings arrangements Bacharach first made famous with Dionne Warwick in the ’60s and ’70s. We’ve now come about as far from the Sex Pistols as the logical mind would allow for. In something like a shocking upset of the odds, Painted From Memory works like gangbusters, yielding some of the most poignant work of Costello’s career on tracks like the woe-begotten “This House Is Empty Now” and the downright harrowing album closer “God Give Me Strength.” If Costello occasionally overrates his own capacity as a torch singer – the tricky key changes and time signatures have a way of showcasing inherent vocal limitations – the artist more than makes up for it by passionately committing to this dark, adventurous material. A surprise triumph.