Secret, Profane & Sugarcane is a studio album by Elvis Costello, released on 9 June 2009 through Hear Music label. It was recorded in Nashville with American songwriter and producer T Bone Burnett. The album features bluegrass, Americana and country music along with Costello's familiar garrulous lyrics. The artwork was designed by comic strip artist Tony Millionaire.
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane entered the UK Albums Chart 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.
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's 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.
Critical response
Critics looked upon Secret, Profane & Sugarcane in a generally very favourable way with some exceptions. Reviewing for Rolling Stone, 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" .Elvis Costello: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane | Album Reviews. Pitchfork (3 June 2009).
Track listing
Personnel The following people contributed to Secret, Profane & Sugarcane:
Elvis Costello – acoustic guitar, vocals T Bone Burnett – electric guitar, production Jeff Taylor – accordion Mike Compton – mandolin Dennis Crouch – double bass Jerry Douglas – dobro Stuart Duncan – banjo, fiddle Emmylou Harris – harmony vocals Jim Lauderdale – harmony vocals
Charts Chart Peakposition Australian Albums (ARIA) N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart. 73
References
External links
Official Elvis Costello website