Elvis Costello closes out the year with new song 'Farewell, OK 2020’

Elvis Costello is sending one final message this pandemic year with his surprise new song 'Farewell, OK 2020,' shared on YouTube mere hours before 2021.

“The Shape Of Things To Come 2021,” he tweeted of the song. “Farewell, OK / You’ll be on way / You’ll be on your own now / Much to my dismay,” Costello sings. “I can’t go on / After what you’ve done.”

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the singer released his 31st studio album Hey Clockface in October – largely recorded in studios around the US and Europe prior to Covid-19. Later, he shared a reworked version of the album’s 'No Flag' - now featuring Iggy Pop.

Costello also released a massive reissue dedicated to his 1979 masterpiece Armed Forces.

Reviewing Hey Clockface for Hot Press, Pat Carty writes:

"It takes serious chutzpah to unleash your latest album just as one of your most treasured (Armed Forces) is being reissued, but Elvis Costello has never been lacking in the cojones department. Just listen as he opens studio album number twenty-something with solemn spoken words - “love is the one thing we can save” - over music that wouldn’t be out of place on a Tinariwen record, and then barrels into 'No Flag', combining Attractions-era twang with percussion lifted from Tom Waits’ ‘Big In Japan’. “I’ve had no epiphany, why should anybody listen to me?” he howls. We should listen because Costello continues to blaze away fearlessly, following his own path."

Listen to 'Farewell, OK 2020' below: