"Momofuku" is a word that sounds vaguely Asian in origin, perhaps vulgar in tone. If you are Elvis Costello, the artist formerly known as Declan MacManus, the title of his new album is a metaphor for the immediacy of your new creation. "Well, obviously the title is a tribute to Momofuku Ando, the inventor of the Cup Noodle," Costello says. "Like so many things in this world of wonders, all we had to do to make this record was add water."
The angry young man who could be heard spitting bile on This Year's Model is the angry young man skewering the characters on Momofuku. "Next time someone wants to hurt you/Or set alight your effigy/Don't call on me to help you out/Don't come crying to me sympathy/You stay there with your daubs and scratches/While I summon up the red machine/I'll handing someone matches
and carrying a can of kerosene," he sings on "No Hiding Place."
While the bile simmers on that track, it comes to a rolling boil on "American Gangster," a song populated by whores and tricks. "It's a drag/Saluting that starry rag/I'd rather go blind/For speaking my mind/Than use it just like a gag/So wave it in anger/Just let it hang/American gangster time." Jeez, Declan, if you are wondering why you weren't invited to Sean Hannity's Memorial Day picnic, you might want to check your lyric sheet!
Costello is blessed with two bands in his arsenal - the Attractions and the Imposters. He summons up the latter to produce music that's fierce in its immediacy.
"Stella Hurt" is a gloriously sinister mess, with a bare-knuckle piano riff garnished with a frantic organ as a big rock drum tries to beat all the players into submission. "Turpentine" is another ragged rocker, galloping its way onto the list of one of the neatest Costello songs in recent years.
While this man might have been there in the delivery room for the birth of punk and New Wave, let's not forget that he has written some of the most beautiful ballads over the last 30 years.
Who can forget tracks like "Allison?" "Last rays of sunlight die/Full moon begins to rise/Reflected in your eyes/I can't believe that this is happening/You make the motor in me/Flutter and wow," he sings over an arrangement that sounds like the last call at the sock hop.
For anyone who downloads this album, and I suggest all of you do, Costello has words of warning. "Well, the real version is pressed on two pieces of black plastic with a hole in the middle," he writes on his website. "You may prefer other, more portable, less scratchable, editions that will soon become available for your convenience, but this is how it sounds the best: with a needle in a groove, the way the Supreme Being intended it to be."
When we last checked in with Elvis, he was disenfranchised somewhat by the prospect of making another album. He worked his way back into the studio through an invitation from pal Jenny Lewis to play on her next album.
"I'd been telling people that I was done with recording and believed it myself. This record reminded me that it wasn't making music in the studio that made me miserable, but the nonsense that predictably follows in what we laughingly call the music business. So I decided to change it and my mind," he says.
Once Costello was coaxed into the studio he was greeted by an old friend, and a new version of the Imposters soon took shape with the other studio session musicians.
"Davey Faragher had been playing bass on some of the sessions, so it didn't seem like too much of a stretch to call Pete Thomas to complete the Imposters' rhythm section," Costello reasons.
Once in Los Angeles, they cut tracks for Jenny's and he borrowed the band to record plus two songs of his own, one of which Costello wrote on the eve of the session.
"Some rock and roll music is better if you don't think too hard on it," he says.
Inspired by the immediacy, he says that he booked Sound City Studio in Van Nuys for six days of February and cut eight new songs that had been written in the weeks following Jenny's January session.
According to a press release, the Imposters recorded exclusively to tape, completing and mixing each song before moving on to the next. The entire record took a week to record and mix.
The spontaneity shows in the mix, making the newest batch of songs from Costello sound like a DIY garage band. Like a Cup of Noodle, the songs on Momofuku are tangy and satisfying without one wet noodle in the bunch.