Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Elvis CostelloEdition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1993-10-19
Music Label: Rykodisc
Soundtracks:
- No Action
- This Year's Girl
- The Beat
- Pump It Up
- Little Triggers
- You Belong to Me
- Hand in Hand
- (I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea
- Lip Service
- Living in Paradise
- Lipstick Vogue
- Night Rally
- Radio, Radio [*]
- Big Tears [*]
- Crawling to the USA [*]
- Running Out of Angels [*][Demo Version]
- Green Shirt [*][Demo Version]
- Big Boys [*][Demo Version]
Free Music Notes for This Year's Model
Free Music Review: You better listen to the radio
Hit: 5 Stars
This, the first album Costello recorded with his long running backup band - the Attractions - is a strong contender for the best recording in a long and varied career. Not as tight or melodic as the classic follow-up Armed Forces, this 1978 album is certainly the dirtiest, punkiest album Costello had ever pulled, and the Attractions are given more space here to roam than in any of the latter, more tightly arranged albums; drummer Pete Thomas is especially wonderful here, adding a savage beat to wonderful, infectious songs like This Year's Girl and Pump It Up.
Elvis's excellent debut, My Aim Is True, signaled the arrival of one of the freshest artists of his time; but This Year's Model makes My Aim Is True sound more like practice for the real thing. This Year's Model indeed shows him to be one of the freshest recording artists of the 70's, and though it's generally labeled as punk rock - and punk's influence is certainly there - it remains fresh today like few punk albums have. Like the Beatles in the psychedelic era, Costello was not an integral part of the punk movement but instead used it to create music that's new and fresh; and This Year's Model is true timeless music, more than a bit thanks to Costello's intelligent, sarcastic lyrics. Songs like This Year's Model and the single Radio, Radio are statements that are powerful today as they were back then.
Each and every song on This Year's Model is a classic, successful singles and undiscovered gems alike; Costello drew immense amounts of depth from songs that are akin to punk in their compactness, tightness and simplicity. In less than three minutes of songs he says more than many other artists can in a forty minute album - and the songs on This Year's Model are as infectious and straightforward as they are deep, intricate and intelligent. From the incredibly short, fast and furious No Action, through dark non-conformist anthems like Lipstick Vogue, Night Rally and Lip Service, to the unbelievably catchy classic Pump It Up with its infectious groove and Dylan-ish lyrics, it's an album that flows by quickly and strongly, not leaving any listener indifferent and making them want a whole lot more.
You get some more with the bonus tracks, which are good, though not entirely essential, and the album actually works better as a whole without them. Other than the essential classic Radio, Radio - which was not part of the original album but is there on all CD versions and makes a perfect ending for the album - there's also Big Tears (the Clash's Mick Jones playing guitar), Running Out of Angels and Crawling to the USA - all good songs, though not quite as good as the original album tracks; also included are acoustic demos of two excellent songs from the Armed Forces LP - Big Boys and Green Shirt. All of the bonus tracks are worth having, but on repeated listening I usually tune out after Radio, Radio.
This Year's Model Poster
THIS YEAR'S MODEL is packaged with a 28-page booklet that includes rare photos and printed song lyrics. For his second album, Costello fine-tuned his aesthetic by abandoned the California studio cat accompanists of his debut for the more aggressive, quirky and very British Attractions, who would virtually 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 Costello's verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown vocal performance nicely. Come to think of it, so does nearly everything else here.
With his second album, Elvis Costello firmly established himself as one of rock's--not just punk/new wave's--premier singer-songwriters. Building on the promise of his '77 debut, My Aim Is True, Costello put together a backing touring trio, the Attractions (keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas, and drummer Pete Thomas), and their versatility helped Costello define himself as a punk-fuelled power-pop force. Sporting influences ranging from Bob Dylan (the stream-of-consciousness "Pump It Up") to Burt Bacharach (the Dusty Springfield-worthy "Little Triggers"), this '78-released collection also features such righteously angry anthems as the anti-conformist "This Year's Girl," and the anti-MOR classic, "Radio Radio." --Billy Altman
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