First rapper Logic, now Brit rocker Elvis Costello is channeling Orson Welles on a new release.
On August 28, Costello released Phonographic Memory, described as “the B-side” of the recently released, We Are All Cowards Now. (The new release is available via digital download or streaming.)
Phonographic Memory imagines a post-war ceremony referencing moments in Welles’ career and someone identified as “President Swift.”
Here is an extract from this futuristic tale:
“After the peace was negotiated and the internet switched off, knowledge returned to its medieval cloister, in this and that illuminated volume, the jealous possession of the pious and the superstitious, who might once again wield ignorance like a scythe.”
The recording takes the form of a short story recited over an open-tuned acoustic guitar soundtrack and as such is unique in Costello’s recorded catalogue.
Phonographic Memory will only be available in this B-Side edition, in the tradition of My Funny Valentine, Big Tears and Hoover Factory, just a few of Costello’s acclaimed B-sides of yesteryear.
To stream Phonographic Memory visit https://found.ee/ElvisCostelloPhonographicMemory
(Special thanks to Roger Ryan and James Mulvaney for the heads up on this surprise release.)
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