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Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach ... Painted from Memory
Mercury Records/Polygram

At the Paradise in May of 1996, Elvis Costello performed a new song that wasn't attached to his latest effort, All This Useless Beauty. He explained that the call he's waited for all his life had come: he'd been asked to collaborate with Burt Bacharach on a song for a film. That song, "God Give Me a Strength" was just the beginning of a perfect union. Costello, never afraid of running in a different direction (1993's The Juliet Letters with the Brodsky Quartet is proof enough), lends his heartbreaking voice and superior musicianship to what Bacharach is famous for: elaborate, heartfelt arrangements that border on easy listening. Kudos: Unpredictable melodies that melt in your ears.