Elvis Costello

★★★ Spanish Model

UME. CD/DL/LP

This Year’s Model. In Spanish.

Such is his keenness to press on, Elvis Costello doesn’t always have the easiest of relationships with his back catalogue. Yet, he’s rarely averse to making a seemingly bonkers idea work. And what could be more bonkers than this? For no obvious reason, he’s taken the original musical tracks to 1978’s This Year’s

Model (plus four other songs from the period) and recruited Spanish-speaking singers – from Uruguay’s finest, Jorge Drexler, to former Menudo member Draco Rosa – to add new vocals. Stranger still, the whole thing works a treat. The new singers attack each song with the gusto The Attractions’ backing warrants, so the Puerto Rican Luis Fonsi rugby tackles You Belong To Me; the Argentine Fito Paez sneers his way through Radio Radio, and Nina Diaz belts out No Action as if she’s giving birth. A breath of the freshest air. John Aizlewood never sounds less than game. Even if, like this writer, your love for Maiden remains rooted in their eponymous 1979 debut,

Senjutsu reminds that it’s not them that changed – it’s us.

James McNair