With Berg and a stellar cast of players (including keyboardist Patrick Warren from Fiona Apple's studio band), Costello has made an album that, she says, is "much more guitar and rhythm based than my first record - a direction I'm totally thrilled about." A glimmer of Lamplight comes early with "Ashes Ashes", a superb song that combines a sweet, intricate melody with dense layers of sonic icing and some celestial Brian Wilson-styled vocal harmonies, Costello's smoky voice the ideal counterpart to Berg's imaginative arrangement. "I think of every album as a very particular period of time and thematic contemplation in my life," reflects Costello. "I write what has happened to me and what I have felt, simply because I want to understand it."