Late Night All-Stars Band: Elvis Costello & The Roots - "Walk Us Uptown" (Blue Note Records)

Not incredibly unlike their previous collaborative efforts with John Legend, Jay Z, and Al Green, The Roots take the "big band backseat" role on their upcoming record with Elvis Costello, Wise Up Ghost. It's stark-looking, minimalistic cover was supposedly modeled after Allen Ginsberg's Howl, more specifically it's infamous City Lights Pocket Poets Series rendition (1955). Questlove Jenkins defined Wise Up Ghost as a "document of music of 9 cats... Helmed by 2 music dweebs & their hero," which was reportedly released on a few as-yet-undiscovered Record Store Day white label 12-inches. "Walk Us Uptown" was unleashed mid-Monday afternoon in the form of a Soundcloud stream and Mariana Blanco-directed sparse lyric video. Legendary American Jazz imprint Blue Note Records plans to issue Elvis Costello & The Roots' long-rumored Wise Up Ghost on Tuesday, September 17th.


The album first came to fruition after Costello jammed with The Roots at their weekly home-base, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on 3 separate occasions; vaguely described in a May press release as "the shortest distance between here and there... It's a moody, brooding affair, cathartic rhythms and dissonant lullabies [that's] stark and dark." Wise Up Ghost was seemingly recorded at 2 non-existant or highly secretive studios, Feliz Habitat and Elvis Costello's own personal headquarters, Hookery Cookery. But anyways... "Walk Us Uptown" almost seamlessly meld's Costello's 80's Post-Punk-goes-Alt. Country aesthetic with The Roots' glorious 8-piece Hip-Hop band. Although, it's in no way executed in that inherently cheesy Death Grips/2013 kinda way you might expect ha.