rev_m_costello

BURT BACHARACH / ELVIS COSTELLO
Painted By Memory

as reviewed by Jack Crompton at Amazon.com, April 30, 2008

Emotionally potent... powerful music.

‘Painted by Memory’ has moved me to tears many times upon listening. The combination of the melody with the words are just so... personally relevant.

Be warned... this music is highly emotionally charged. Elvis wrote most of the lyrics and sings them with authentic passion. And Burt, seemingly an endless reservoir of musical brilliance, has delivered once again in this collection with astounding creative compositions. The listener is taken on an emotional journey through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Every tune just sounds powerfully... heartbreaking! ‘This House is Empty Now’ being a case in point. Anyone who has ‘been there’ knows just how good this song is.

This set is drenched in unrestrained romanticism, and the pain of very real heartbreak. That theme is present in every song on here, and the culminative effect is a carthartic experience that is not to be forgotten. These songs ring inside of me as a healing soundtrack to my own real life drama, and I relive it every time I listen.

This is very honest music, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything but what it is. It gives us a full view at the inner pain most of us try to deny and/or hide from. But ultimately that is precisely what makes life worth living... for it is the pain as well as the pleasure that lets us know we have a heart that can feel such depth.

Painted by Memory is one of my highest regarded recordings... a true work of art by two exceptional artists.

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