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Review: Burt Bacharach & Elvis Costello's 'Painted From Memory'
by Jody Beth Rosen

published 11/30/98

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Jody Beth Rosen is a contributor to LeisureSuit.net based in Brooklyn.



MOST RECENT YAK ABOUT THIS ARTICLE:

Subj: Re: Vik – the next discovery or the next missed opportunity?
I tried to find out more about Avi Zemach and it appears that he only has Vik, does Avi has any other singers on his books? Vik's web site does not appear to be kept up to date and it does not appear possible to buy her CD from the site either. I tried e-mailing and to start off the mail was returned as the box was full and even when it did go through there was no reply!!!!!

-- Jeff
Apr 3, 2007 at 12:26PM

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[Cover Art]
I've been letting "Painted From Memory," the Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach collaboration, sink in for nearly a month since its purchase, and have come to the following conclusions:

1) It's not the best thing I've heard all year.

2) It's not the best thing Elvis Costello has done in the past ten years (I feel "All This Useless Beauty" is a superior song than even "Painted From Memory"'s best track, "The Sweetest Punch").

3) It is probably the best thing Burt Bacharach has done in the past twenty-five years, although I'm not familiar with most of his post-'60s output ("Arthur's Theme" is a highlight of his later work; "That's What Friends Are For" most certainly is not).

4) The ballads have a sameness to them, except for "God Give Me Strength," which was written under different circumstances, and it's a powerhouse of a song. The rest (and this doesn't apply to the more up-tempo numbers) seem to be exercises in oddball time signatures and key changes that could have been better fleshed out into seamless, rich melodies (think "The Look of Love").

5) Elvis' singing carries the album. His voice is one of drama, truth, pain, and subtle humor (quite a falsetto, too). This is why I wish I could have been behind the board during the album's recording, to say "Kill the back-up singers!" While Elvis is singing "Close the door, dim the lights, blow out the candles" (on "Tears At The Birthday Party"), it comes across with the same degree of resignation, disgust, and longing as Elvis's vocals on his 1986 I'm-just-a-jealous-guy-mantra "I Want You", where he spat/cried/seethed out the title at least, oh, thirty times as his between-chorus plaints got more and more unsettling. The back-up singers on "Tears At The Birthday Party" must have wandered in from the Geri Halliwell session in Studio B. There's nothing useful going on. No Leonard Cohen discofied tonedeafery. No desensitized irony. No hoochie-mamas yelling about how you can't always get what you want while Mick n' Keef get butt-floss panties thrown at their heads. No reason for the back-up girls. Nada. Gar nicht.

6) I'm glad Burt Bacharach is still making music, and I'm glad he's got the taste and good sense to work with one of our finest songwriters and vocalists. This album could really have been an embarrassment of a comeback (anyone remember the song Carole King "co-wrote" with Mariah Carey?). There is a surprising amount of restraint from the usual shmaltzy excesses. Strings enter and disappear at the appropriate moments. There is more acoustic piano than electronic (gotta watch out for any synthesizer made after 1978). Elvis can still turn a phrase like he was ringin' a bell, even when he's writing genuine love songs.

7) It's a collaboration born out of mutual respect. I believe that, and I think it shows in the way there isn't a half-assed note on the whole album. Even the least successful songs, the least emotional ones, sound like work went into their compositions. Good to see people are still composing in this Marcy Playground afterworld.

8) Worth buying, ultimately. Worth playing and replaying and memorizing the lyrics. But with the abundance of excellent albums that have been released in 1998, "Painted From Memory" will get edged out of my top spot by The Gourds' "Stadium Blitzer", Hole's "Celebrity Skin", maybe Son Volt's "Wide Swing Tremolo", definitely maybe Tori Amos' "From The Choirgirl Hotel", Paolo Conte's "Best of . . .", Jeff Buckley's "Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk", Charming Hostess' "Eat", and an exhaustive list of equally worthy disks.

9) Despite my criticisms of the album, "I see you share your cake with him" is the food-angst lyric of the decade, right up there with the town-without-milk folk ballad.


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Name: Jeff
Subject: Re: Vik – the next discovery or the next missed opportunity?
-- Apr 3, 2007 at 12:26PM
I tried to find out more about Avi Zemach and it appears that he only has Vik, does Avi has any other singers on his books? Vik's web site does not appear to be kept up to date and it does not appear possible to buy her CD from the site either. I tried e-mailing and to start off the mail was returned as the box was full and even when it did go through there was no reply!!!!!

Name: avi zemach
Subject: Vik – the next discovery or the next missed opportunity?
-- Jun 22, 2006 at 7:21AM
Vik – the next discovery or the next missed opportunity?

Probably one of the biggest potentials of the world's light classical music industry, lives in a one bedroom apartment in Haifa, Israel, still waiting for the real break-through, which she hopes will come some day.

Vik (born Victoria Lazerovich) is a singer in the level of Sarah Brightman and Emma Chaplin, and some even claim that she has better qualities. Each of her rare performances brings more curious people to inquire who is this stunning young lady, and how come a singer of her level is not worldwide known.

Vik started her artistic way in her native town of Nikolayev, Ukraine, until one day decided to leave everything behind and immigrate to the promised land. However, with no financial support and no family, in the industrial town of Haifa, Vik soon found herself struggling to survive the day rather than promote her singing career.

Israeli producer Avi Zemach took her under his custody, however he too cannot change the circumstances that make it so hard for Vik to pave her way up, though she already performed in some major events, including the millennium celebration and stage shows in Russia, Germany and Spain. "These were just sporadic moments that didn't lead to anything except many compliments." Explains Zemach, "We live in a small country, where most of the entertainment is based on popular music and locally-oriented artists. Vik is like a diamond on a remote island – it's precious and beautiful, but what can you do with it here? If we lived in a central town in Europe it would have been much easier to reach a wide range of audiences, yet here I'm afraid that this amazing potential will eventually be wasted, unless some significant factor will enter the scene, willing to combine efforts with us"

To see a video clip of Vik, click here:
http://video.goo gle.com/videoplay?do cid=-321880452026651 0343&pr=goog-sl

And you can also visit Vik's website: http://www.vik.co.il


Name: Anna
Subject: God give me strenght
-- Oct 20, 2003 at 4:50AM
HI, I am wondering if you have any music notes for God give me strenght or any ide of where I might find them, best wishes from Sweden

Name: thrillracer
Subject: painted from memory
-- Dec 2, 2002 at 11:02PM
I just checked it out from the library. At first listen I thought it was boring, but after further listen I love "The Long Division" and "Toldedo." And the opening track. I must listen further.

Name: Sonztwin
Subject: Painted From Memory - addendum
-- Oct 21, 2002 at 1:12AM
Oh one more thing: no one I know so far has mentioned the irony of "Such Unlikely Lovers" - as it applies to BB and EC. No, I'm not suggesting they're closet lovers (are they?), but what an unlikely collaboration! "Tear off your own head. Revolution!"

Name: Sonztwin
Subject: Painted From Memory
-- Oct 21, 2002 at 12:38AM
Burt is and has been one of the guilty pleasures of a lot of Boomers, spoken or not, but Elvis and Burt? Really. When I first heard this album, I thought, "nice try, but no cigar". Elvis' edgy singing (and somewhat strained, when it comes to the higher registers in ballads) is the antithesis of everything Mr. Bacharach has been throughout his career (can you even imagine anyone more remotely different from, say, Dionne Warwick, than Mr. C.?) So I chalked it up to another victim of those music club, get xx CD's never-mind-whether-i t's-good-music. But I stuck with it, and I dare say I've been rewarded. Is it the best album I've heard? Not really. Has it finally got me hooked? Yeah!! The melodies and arrangements are equally irresistible. And really, I decided to venture this far for one reason only: the work Burt did with Swingout Sister. So, I'm humming these tunes and grooving to them, and enjoying myself. Why don't you do the same!


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