Anyone who knows me personally knows that I think that Elvis Costello is the greatest songwriter of all time, so my review for North is probably a little biased. But I'd like to point out that North, which happens to be Costello's 20th album, is one of the most personal and downright beautiful albums I have ever heard in my life. Spawned from his divorce from longtime wife of 15 years Cait O'Rierdan, the first half of the album starts out with songs from Costello about losing a loved one, and the tremendous hell that can come as a result. Fantastic songs such as "Someone Took the Words Away" and "Fallen," show the utter desperation that Costello's personal trials are causing him. Costello's lyrics are always in top form, but this entire album feels like a book of poetry.

The second half of the album is about meeting and falling in love with his new fiance Diana Krall, and these songs are downright beaming with affection. "Still" and especially "Let Me Tell You About Her" are two of the best songs Costello has ever written. When he states "Friends look at me these days with fond surprise, but when I start to speak they roll their eyes...let me tell you about her" you know what he means. We've all been head over heels in love before, it's the greatest feeling ever. Never has an album for me encapsulated the feeling of Fall and Winter, being redeemed by the coming of Spring into Summer. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that Costello arranged, conducted, and composed everything on this new album? It's comparable to other classical influenced albums he's done like Juliet Letters, All This Useless Beauty, and especially Painted From Memory, but this one blows them all out of the water. Pound for pound the best album of this year so far, and Costello's best since 1986's Blood and Chocolate. Simply phenomenal.