Elvis Costello 

"Hey Clockface"

(Concord, 3 stars)

If Elvis Costello's 33rd studio album sounds a bit all over the place, that's because that's where it was recorded.

The stupendously prolific English songwriter and former angry young man began work by cutting three solo songs in Helsinki in February. He recorded nine more in Paris, working with musicians anchored by his longtime pianist, Steve Nieve.

Finally, two tracks were written by trumpeter Michael Leonhart in New York and recorded with guitarists Bill Frisell and Nels Cline, before Costello completed them post-lockdown in Vancouver.

Unsurprisingly, "Hey Clockface" lacks the cohesion of "Look Now," 2018's excellent return to form with his band the Imposters. Instead, it plays out as a melange of styles, a sampler that relates to various stages in Costello's career.

"I Do (Zula's Song)" has a smoky jazz club vibe that recalls Chet Baker's heartbreaking turn on "Almost Blue." Elsewhere, the arrangements bang and clatter with a claustrophobic rage reminiscent of 1986's "Blood & Chocolate." "No Flag" bursts with bitterness and bile: "I've got a head full of ideas and words that don't seem to belong to me," he spews. "No sign for the dark place that I live/ No God for the damn I don't give."

The stylistic smorgasbord begins with "Revolution #49," a spoken-word piece that unspools like film noir narration ("Life beats a poor man to his grave, love makes a poor man from a dagger/ Love is the one thing we can save").

The album hits a high point with the doomy, impressively realized "Newspaper Pane," creating a dark, enveloping mood in which the jaunty New Orleans strut "Hey Clockface/How Can You Face Me" feels strangely out of place. This is not Costello's most consistent work, but he still does have a head full of ideas, with most worthy of exploring.

— Dan DeLuca

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Shemekia Copeland

"Uncivil War"

(Alligator, 3-1/2 stars)

In 2018, Shemekia Copeland addressed the state of the union, and her place in it, with the no-holds-barred "America's Child." Working again with Nashville, Tennessee, producer-guitarist Will Kimbrough, who once more wrote most of the songs with executive producer John Hahn, the singer delivers another searing statement with "Uncivil War."

The title song, accented by dobro and mandolin, is an aching lament about the divisions tearing apart the country, and reveals Copeland at her most tender and vulnerable.

Elsewhere, she unleashes the powerhouse voice that has long made her one of the most commanding presences in the blues and beyond. "Clotilda's on Fire," a blues rocker with a blistering guitar solo by Jason Isbell, addresses the undying stain of slavery. "Walk Until I Ride" is a defiant gospel shouter that sounds like a long-lost civil rights anthem, while "Money Makes You Ugly" is a nasty riff rocker.

Copeland also audaciously tackles the Rolling Stones' famously misogynistic "Under My Thumb." Here it is given a sinuous swamp groove punctuated by finger snaps, which highlights her in-your-face delivery as she flips the gender dynamics.

Also addressing sexual identity and female empowerment is "She Don't Wear Pink," a tangy roots rocker with Duane Eddy on guitar. "Dirty Saint," in another vein, is an infectious, New Orleans-flavored tribute to the late Dr. John.

And, as she often does, Copeland includes a song by her late father, the blues great Johnny Copeland, ending this righteously powerful set with the easy-rolling rhythm and sweet sentiment of "Love Song."

— Nick Cristiano