Elvis Costello, the Roots Recorded Album Due In 2013

Elvis Costello has made three appearances on 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' over the years, and each time, he's played with house band the Roots. It's that trio of TV gigs that Roots drummer and bandleader Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson says led his group to collaborate with Costello on a new album they recently finished recording and plan to release later this year.

"It was really love at first sight," Thompson, speaking to Billboard, said of Costello's first of three 'Late Night' performances, adding that things just blossomed from there. "The second time he came on, we surpassed the first one. So by the third time, [Elvis] was like, 'Let's stop messing around and do something together.'"

Originally, they planned to merely ay down a few songs together, but their sessions together were so productive that things quickly become more ambitious. "We had 13 or 14 songs [done]," Thompson adds, "but then we said, 'Ooh! Wait a minute! Let's replace four of these songs with four better songs! And now we have the tightest 12-14 song collection out of about 20 songs that we made."

Elvis and the Roots plan to reconvene in the near future to mix and master their collaborative recordings, although details of the release -- including when it will surface and what label will release it -- remain sketchy. "We kind of have the freedom to take it around, whether it's to Elvis' people or Def Jam's people," says Thompson. "I can just say that it is brilliant."