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Momofuku
by Elvis Costello & The Impostors


7.1

based on 15 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Official Artist Site

Elvis Costello and the Imposters recorded and mixed the album in a week.

LABEL:	Lost Highway
RELEASE DATE:	06 May 2008
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Rock

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Observer Music Monthly

This is easily Costello's most instinctive, least self-conscious record of original songs in over a decade.

Entertainment Weekly

Soul ballad 'Flutter & Wow' might be the best of his rare love songs, and harmonies from Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis add elegance to this garagey mix. [23 May 2008, p.122]

Uncut

It's not a ballet or a string quartet, but Costello sounding more "Attractions"-like than he has in over 20 years. [Oct 2008, p.83]

All Music Guide

As it makes these digressions seem funny, not fussy, and that's ultimately the charm of Momofuku: it's captures a loose, natural Elvis Costello, somebody that hasn't been captured on record in years. It's still a Costello that plugs Lexus, writes operas and plays jazz festivals, but here he's not trying to prove anything, he's just making music and that's why it's one of his most enjoyable latter-day records.

Boston Globe

Costello gives us Momofuku, titled in tribute to the inventor of the Cup Noodle, and this collection goes down as easy and tasty as its namesake's ingenious snack.

Los Angeles Times

Some of the songs toward the end seem downright slight ("My Three Sons," "Song With Rose," "Go Away"), but in all it's a rewarding, rambunctious ride.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

It would be a stretch to call anything on Momofuku great, but it's the breeziest, most immediate record he's made in years.

No Ripcord

Momofuku has glorious fragments and plenty of passion.

Rolling Stone

Among his sharpest sets in years, Momofuku was first released on double-disc vinyl.

PopMatters

Momofuku is the kind of more-than-solid effort that reaffirms a great artists’ relevance, but doesn’t quite prove it all over again.

Tiny Mix Tapes

Where other reborn acts seem to revel in the sheer formal reconstruction and forget songwriting entirely, Costello gets it backwards and winds up with a listenable record as a result.

Austin Chronicle

Like some of his best work, Momofuku feels thrown together, loose and natural.

The Phoenix

Costello’s flubbed lines are left intact and the album’s mixes can be wildly uneven, but missed perfections make for a pretty riveting whole.

NOW Magazine

This second album for Lost Highway isn’t radically different from 2004’s return to sneering form The Delivery Man, only the rockin’ tracks sound slightly less raucous and the ballads not quite as bitter. So he’s back in Attractions mode, sans the old piss and vinegar.

The New York Times

It’s effortfully tossed off; it’s a middling record battling against his built-in high standards.

The average user rating for this album is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jackson M. gave it an8:
A really fresh rocking Elvis album. I'm loving the rhythms and the melodies. Not too long either(although if he'd dropped 'Drum and Bone' and 'Mr Feathers' I'd have give the album 9). Too early to say where it will rank in a career littered with highlights, but definitely the best album I've heard this year.

Scott S. gave it a10:
His best album since "When I Was Cruel". I know that's not saying a whole lot as that album came out in 2002. People are always complaining Elvis Costello doesn't make records that sound like his first 4 or 5. Well, this one does, so everyone can shut up.

Iman L. gave it a7:
There is something so depressing about old rock stars past their prime. Costello, who changed my life with "This Year's Model", makes another predictably iffy rock ordinaire like his opera ordinaire and his jazz ordinaire. Ok here, less so there. It's a sad state of affairs when Jonathan Rice's latest cuts EC at his own game.

scott K gave it a3:
I wish Elvis had thrown a couple of dollars he got from that Lexus ad towards a producer. This album sounds terrible. The Imposters are one of the greatest bands around but you wouldn't know it from this lazy affair. I bought the Mudcrutch album and it was done live with flubbed vocals and 1st takes, but sounds like a million bucks. What gives? Instead of sounding urgent and alive, it just sounds like Elvis doesn't really care. I guess this wouldn't be such a problem if the songs were great. Nothing here is.

Tom Thornton gave it an8:
Very good stuff. Wasn't really expecting it to be as good as this.

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Momofuku by Elvis Costello & The Impostors

Momofuku
by Elvis Costello & The Impostors