Elvis Costello Teams With T Bone Burnett for June's "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane"

Just over a year after Elvis Costello released 2008's Momofuku, the rocker-TV host will return with a new album, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, on June 2nd. Recorded in Nashville with Raising Sand producer T Bone Burnett, Secret will feature 13 tracks, including one co-written by Loretta Lynn and two songs Costello originally wrote for Johnny Cash. The album features 10 previously unrecorded tracks, though some of the songs were previewed when Costello toured with Bob Dylan in 2007.

The album will mark Costello's third collaboration with Burnett following 1986's King of America and 1989's Spike. Several of the album's tracks were inspired by an unfinished commission about Hans Christian Andersen that Costello was to write for the Royal Danish Opera, while other songs are about singer Jenny Lind, who had a relationship with Andersen.

Costello, who initially released his Momofuku on vinyl before compact disc, continues to give fans an extra incentive to pick up the vinyl version: Due to the extra room from having four sides, Costello adds two songs, his cover of the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" and another song called "What Lewis Did Last," a sequel of sorts to the Appalachian murder ballad "Omie Wise." Plus, a 7'' single of Secret's "Complicated Shadows" will hit independent retailers as part of Record Store Day on April 18th.

For much more on Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, as well as upcoming albums from Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Wilco, Willie Nelson and many more, be sure to check out Rolling Stone's exclusive Spring Music Preview for your first listen to 2009's biggest releases:

• Spring Music Preview: Inside 45 of the Year's Biggest Albums

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• Inside the Rockers Studio: On the Set of Elvis Costello's "Spectacle"
• Elvis Costello Updates Website, Talks Momofuku

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

More Song Stories entries »

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