Elvis Costello This Year's Model CD

THIS YEAR'S MODEL is packaged with a 28-page booklet that includes rare photos and printed song lyrics.

Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Elvis Costello (vocals, guitar); Steve Nieve (keyboards); Bruce Thomas (bass); Pete Thomas (drums).

Recorded between August 1977 and October 1978. Originally released on Columbia (35331). Includes liner notes by Elvis Costello.

Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Bruce Thomas (bass guitar); Pete Thomas (drum); Steve Nieve.

For his second album, Elvis Costello fine-tuned his aesthetic by abandoning the California studio cat accompanists of his debut for the more aggressive, quirky and very British Attractions, who would define EC's sound over the next several years. Where MY AIM IS TRUE highlighted Costello's rootsy influences (the Band, etc.), THIS YEAR'S MODEL wholeheartedly embraces the "new wave" out-with-the-old mindset, favoring tightly wound ferocity over back-porch-isms.

Irresistibly catchy, in a twitchy, neurotic, white-knuckled way, THIS YEAR'S MODEL is Costello at his edgiest. The classic "Pump It Up" pummels the listener with garage-band organ, pounding drums, and HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED-style ranting. "Radio, Radio" turned into something of an anti-authoritarian anthem for Costello. The snaky guitar and reggae-tinged drums of "I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea" complement his verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown vocal performance nicely. Come to think of it, so does nearly everything else here.

Where My Aim Is True implied punk rock with its lyrics and stripped-down production, This Year's Model sounds like punk. Not that Elvis Costello's songwriting has changed -- This Year's Model is comprised largely of leftovers from My Aim Is True and songs written on the road. It's the music that changed. After releasing My Aim Is True, Costello assembled a backing band called the Attractions, which were considerably tougher and wilder than Clover, who played on his debut. The Attractions were a rock & roll band, which gives This Year's Model a reckless, careening feel. It's nervous, amphetamine-fueled, nearly paranoid music -- the group sounds like they're spinning out of control as soon as they crash in on the brief opener, "No Action," and they never get completely back on track, even on the slower numbers. Costello and the Attractions speed through This Year's Model at a blinding pace, which gives his songs -- which were already meaner than the set on My Aim Is True -- a nastier edge. "Lipstick Vogue," "Pump It Up," and "(I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea" are all underscored with sexual menace, while "Night Rally" touches on a bizarre fascination with fascism that would blossom on his next album, Armed Forces. Even the songs that sound relatively lighthearted -- "Hand in Hand," "Little Triggers," "Lip Service," "Living in Paradise" -- are all edgy, thanks to Costello's breathless vocals, Steve Nieve's carnival-esque organ riffs, and Nick Lowe's bare-bones production. Of course, the songs on This Year's Model are typically catchy and help the vicious sentiments sink into your skin, but the most remarkable thing about the album is the sound -- Costello and the Attractions never rocked this hard, or this vengefully, ever again. [Universal's 2007 edition includes one bonus track.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Producer: Nick Lowe.

Reissue producers: Gary Stewart, Val Jennings.

Personnel: Elvis Costello (vocals, guitar); Elvis Costello; Steve Nieve (keyboards); Pete Thomas (drums).

Recording information: Eden Studios, London, England.

Photographer: Chris Gabrin.

Additional personnel: Mick Jones (guitar); Davey Payne (saxophone).Rolling Stone (p.60) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "The music is surprisingly lush and pretty....Yet it's all punk rage, thanks to Pete Thomas' drums and Steve Nieve's cranky organ."
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.118) - Ranked #98 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...The most 'punk' of Costello's records....Costello vs. the world. And Costello wins..."
Rolling Stone (2/28/02, p.61) - 5 stars out of 5- "...Loosed punk's bilious hyperactivity upon the soul-based virtuosity of pub rock....uncoiling with an intensity Costello rarely equaled afterward..."
Spin (12/03, p.122) - "...Some of the most stinging songs ever committed to record...'
Spin (p.102) - "His nastiest and most awesome record..."
Entertainment Weekly (2/22/02, p.149) - "...Redefined the quirky troubadour as bilious rocker...For those alienated by his C&W and classical forays, this is a reminder of the black-hearted virtuoisty they fell for in the forst place." - Rating: A+
Q (6/00, p.62) - Ranked #82 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums"
Q (5/02 SE, p.135) - Included in Q's "100 Best Punk Albums".
Q (11/93, p.143) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...THIS YEAR'S MODEL shows the benefits of [Costello] establishing his own band..."
Uncut (p.84) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[H]e delivered a scathing attack on everything from his own status as Next Big Thing to celebrity culture to boy-girl romance itself, all backed with The Attractions' wired intensity."
Uncut (1/03, p.97) - Included in Uncut's "100 Best Albums of the Year"
Mojo (Publisher) (p.120) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t still dazzles....His goggle-eyed legacy remains inspiring."
Mojo (Publisher) (3/02, p.122) - "...The petulant intensity strikes you first. It's all gall. With his part Dylan, part Lydon, part, ahem, Graham Parker delivery, he was so 'cross'..."
Record Collector (magazine) (p.90) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "THIS YEAR'S MODEL was the post-punk distillation of the times, especially in its portraits of London."