Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

The mercurial Elvis Costello's loyal fans followed him through countless stylistic turns over the decades, but over the last several years, Costello's uber-eclecticism and superhuman ubiquity have begun to rankle in proportion to his ascendance to NPR icon status. Suddenly he's got a freakin' TV show, for crying out loud! So one could be forgiven for looking askance upon hearing of his new country album featuring Emmylou Harris and a host of other country heavyweights.

Those fears are unfounded. For all his latter-day tendencies toward pretentious dilettantism, don't forget that Costello released his first country album, Almost Blue, back in 1981 when Nashville was still a dirty word in most rock quarters. And while Secret, Profane and Sugarcane is an acoustic, bluegrass-tinged affair benefiting from the picking of Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, et al, this is basically just Costello being Costello in a different environment. Case in point: "Complicated Shadows" from 1996's awesome, underrated All This Useless Beauty is happily revived here as a bluesy, contemporary-bluegrass bump-and-grind. So this time next year, when Costello announces his kabuki opera in the works, feel free to arch an eyebrow, but don't be shocked if the cheeky bugger pulls it off.