Elvis Costello has had his say on the past year we have had and also welcomed in the new year by releasing a short song to his Youtube channel yesterday entitled ‘Farewell, Ok 2020.’ The song is about as challenging a listen as the year has been to live through and is clearly inspired by the work of beat poets, largely spoken word and influenced by avant-garde styles of music where an atonal soundscape is created as a backdrop to the spoken lyrics.
NME describe the song as an ‘experimental, disconcerting track,’ and this is certainly a different territory for Costello who is best known for his New Wave hits like ‘Oliver’s Army,’ from the 70s and 80s. While he has always been lyrically out-spoken and unafraid to criticise the status quo, the reprove is much more subtle on this occasion, with the entire construction of the song reflecting the chaotic nature of 2020 as well as the lyrics.
While the lyrics are not wholly discernible for some of this new Elvis Costello track, the overarching seems to be of saying goodbye to the year as a whole and all of the difficulties which have been brought with it. While other songs this year have been more direct at the target of their anger, this song seems simply to be seeking to draw a line under the whole thing and move on.
It is likely an emotion shared by much of us in the UK to want to but such a bad year behind us, yet with difficult months still ahead of us it may seem that in fact the problems of the past year have not in fact disappeared with the passing of the clocks. While we continue to hope for a summer of live music and festivity, the whole country continues to struggle through a period of near-lockdown which no live music whatsoever.
It is reassuring, however, that even veterans of the industry like Elvis Costello are continuing to record and release music in their own ways despite the ongoing problems and even taking inspiration from the situation to create art. Despite over forty years in the industry, Elvis Costello is still going strong and has been productive this year, also recording an Iggy and the Stooges inspired track called ‘No Flag,’ which is unapologetic in its scathing take on Brexit Britain.
Aside from being overall more lyrically comprehensible than ‘Farewell, Ok 2020,’ in ‘No Flag,’ Costello is scathing in his criticism of nationalist jingoism with the lyrics ‘no flag waving high above, no sign for the dark place that I live,’ and simultaneously lamenting for the Britain that used to be and which could have been. Surely a sign of things to come, Elvis Costello is angry and still writing beautifully insightful lyrics and great tunes, as well as venturing into more avant-garde realms when the times dictate it.
