Receive Weekly Email and Text Message Updates:
Sign up for latest info on concerts, dining, promotions and more!
Go!

Related Stories ...

Most Popular

Reader's Picks

Top Recommendations

A short list of San Francisco's most popular hot spots.
user content provided by: LikeMe.net & SF Weekly

National Features >

  • City Pages

    Michele Bachmann, Unmuzzled

    You don't need to read Sarah Palin's book to hear the ravings of a mad woman.

    By Matt Snyders

  • Miami New Times

    Pimp Daddy

    The rise and fall of a chubby sex-cult leader.

    By Natalie O'Neill

  • Riverfront Times

    Babe 'n' Arms

    Tom was a hot-tempered cross-dresser with a garage full of guns--and then he became Rachel.

    By Nicholas Phillips

  • Dallas Observer

    The Fight for Texas

    Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are locked in a battle over the soul of the GOP. They're also running for governor.

    By Sam Merten

Every Year's Model

Share

  • rss

By Nicholas Hall

Published on July 08, 2008 at 11:59am

Okay, so perhaps Elvis Costello has become a bit precious over the years, preferring to dabble in "grown-up" genres of jazz, standards, and classical music rather than to churn out rock 'n' roll. His dalliances with pretense are part of his charm, though, especially when tempered by his wit and comic sensibility. The essence of this dynamic was captured brilliantly in his Austin Powers cameo of a Carnaby Street busker duet with Burt Bacharach. Costello makes such pairings seem natural, with a knack for blending contradictory stylistic choices, which in turn work perfectly with the edgy rock that first linked him to the '77 punk explosion.