Secret, Profane & Sugarcane
Encyclopedia
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane is the 2009 studio album
by Elvis Costello
. It was recorded in Nashville with American
songwriter
and producer
T Bone Burnett, and released on June 9 2009
on the Hear Music
label. The album features bluegrass
, Americana
and country music
along with Costello's familiar garrulous lyrics.
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane entered the UK album charts at number 71, where it spent one week before dropping out of the top 100. It was far more successful in the US, when it charted at number 13 on the Billboard 200
.
The artwork was designed by comic strip artist Tony Millionaire
.
King of America album. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee
in three days, Costello's 29th studio album was released on Starbucks
' Hear Music
label to generally good critical acclaim.
, Jody Rosen said that Costello was "in one of his comfort zones" and had made a "tight, uncluttered" album. Bud Scoppa, reviewing the album for Uncut
, gave it a four-star rating, saying it was a "rootsy beauty" and "...his most engaging album in a very long time". In a more dismissive review, Pitchfork Media
gave the album a 3.8 out of 10, and called the album "yet another entry in Costello's string of gestural albums"
.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
. It was recorded in Nashville with American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
T Bone Burnett, and released on June 9 2009
2009 in music
The following is a list of notable events and releases in 2009 in music. Susan Boyle's album I Dreamed a Dream became the biggest selling album in the world for 2009, selling 8.3 million copies in five weeks; more than any other artist's in the whole year...
on the Hear Music
Hear Music
Hear Music, also known as StarCon is the brand name of Starbucks' retail music concept and record label. Hear Music began as a catalog company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1990 before being purchased by Starbucks in 1999.-Concept:...
label. The album features bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
, Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
along with Costello's familiar garrulous lyrics.
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane entered the UK album charts at number 71, where it spent one week before dropping out of the top 100. It was far more successful in the US, when it charted at number 13 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
.
The artwork was designed by comic strip artist Tony Millionaire
Tony Millionaire
Tony Millionaire is an American cartoonist, illustrator and author known for his syndicated comic strip Maakies and the Sock Monkey series of comics and picture books.-Early life:...
.
Background
In the albums before Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, Costello had experimented with various styles of music including jazz, classical and others. For this album, Costello returned to an acoustic band set-up for the first time since 1986's1986 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1986.-January-June:*January 23 – The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame takes place...
King of America album. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
in three days, Costello's 29th studio album was released on Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
' Hear Music
Hear Music
Hear Music, also known as StarCon is the brand name of Starbucks' retail music concept and record label. Hear Music began as a catalog company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1990 before being purchased by Starbucks in 1999.-Concept:...
label to generally good critical acclaim.
Critical response
Critics looked upon Secret, Profane & Sugarcane in a generally very favorable way with some exceptions. Reviewing for Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Jody Rosen said that Costello was "in one of his comfort zones" and had made a "tight, uncluttered" album. Bud Scoppa, reviewing the album for Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
, gave it a four-star rating, saying it was a "rootsy beauty" and "...his most engaging album in a very long time". In a more dismissive review, Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
gave the album a 3.8 out of 10, and called the album "yet another entry in Costello's string of gestural albums"
.
Tracklisting
All tracks written and composed by Elvis Costello, except where noted.- "Down Among the Wines and Spirits" – 3:11
- "Complicated Shadows" – 2:53
- "I Felt the Chill" (Costello, Loretta LynnLoretta LynnLoretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
) – 3:59 - "My All Time Doll" – 4:09
- "Hidden Shame" – 4:14
- "She Handed Me a Mirror" –4:04
- "I Dreamed of My Old Lover" – 2:35
- "How Deep Is the Red" – 3:47
- "She Was No Good" – 3:47
- "Sulphur to Sugarcane (T Bone Burnett, Costello) – 5:59
- "Red Cotton" – 5:43
- "The Crooked Line" (Burnett, Costello) – 3:49
- "Changing Partners" (Lawrence Coleman, Joseph Darion) – 2:40
- "Femme Fatale" (Lou ReedLou ReedLewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
- Vinyl Bonus Track) - 3:53 - "What Lewis Did Last" (Vinyl Bonus Track) -4:54
Personnel
The following people contributed to Secret, Profane & Sugarcane:.- Elvis CostelloElvis CostelloElvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
– acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, vocals - T-Bone BurnettT-Bone BurnettJoseph Henry Burnett , widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue...
– electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Jeff Taylor – accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
- Mike ComptonMike Compton (Musician)Mike Compton is an American bluegrass mandolin player and former protege of the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe. He is considered a modern master of bluegrass mandolin.-Biography:...
– mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single... - Dennis Crouch – double bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
- Jerry DouglasJerry DouglasJerry Douglas may refer to:*Jerry Douglas , actor, who was on The Young and the Restless for 25 years*Jerry Douglas, country/bluegrass musician*Jerry Douglas , director and writer of adult films such as, Score...
– dobroDobroDobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar... - Stuart DuncanStuart DuncanStuart Duncan is a bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle, mandolin, guitar and banjo. Born in Quantico, Virginia and raised in Santa Paula, California, where he played in the school band, he has been a member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band since 1985, and is a much-in-demand session musician...
– banjoBanjoIn the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music... - Emmylou HarrisEmmylou HarrisEmmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
– harmony vocals - Jim LauderdaleJim LauderdaleJim Lauderdale is a musician & singer-songwriter who performs bluegrass and country music. He has recorded since 1986 and has released nineteen studio albums. Artists who have recorded his material include George Strait and Patty Loveless.-Biography:...
- harmony vocals
Chart performance
| Chart | Highest Position |
|---|---|
| UK album chart | 71 |
| Billboard Top 200 | 13 |
| Belgian Album Chart | 39 |
| Sweden Album Chart | 45 |
| Spanish Album Chart | 90 |