After the release of his roots and country record Secret, Profane & Sugarcane (2009), Elvis Costello went on tour with the guest musicians of this CD. Most of them had never played with each other live and Costello noticed that they got along perfectly. While the tour was just underway, the new backing band, renamed The Sugarcanes, inspired the bespectacled singer to make a new record. He booked
… another session with producer T Bone Burnett and started writing songs. He has partly abandoned the original concept, because National Ransom is arranged much more extensively than originally intended. Drummer Pete Thomas, absent from Costello's previous work, is present in quite a few songs. National Ransom is a good collection of songs, as we are used to from the experienced writer. Born from a haze of inspiration and enthusiasm for his latest band, the joy radiates from the sixteen songs. With another hour of well thought-out music, the predicate 'most important British songwriter of the last decades' now undoubtedly applies to Costello. (JE)more
