Elvis Costello-This Year's Model (JHO Hall Of Fame)

There is always room in my playlists for early Elvis Costello. With Costello's first four albums, "My Aim Is True", "This Year's Model", "Armed Forces" and "Get Happy!!!", he wound up and spat out enough material that would make any other band seem to have an incredible career. True the rest of his career has been indebtied to countless different musical styles and his output has been stunning. But the best and most intriguing work to me is in those first four albums, along with the absolutely beautifully compositions on "Imperial Bedroom" in 1982. Since I'm trying to cap the JHO Hall Of Fame to my favorite 100 albums of all time, it's high time I get a Costello album...pronto. And I'm going with "This Year's Model".

Costello's second release and his first with the backing band The Attractions is a culmination of nervy, edgy, new wave rock and roll. It paints its place in time along side the punk scene that was going on in Britain. "This Year's Model" bulldozes through thirteen songs with a nervous energy and a healthy dose of cynicism and nastiness. But the trick here is Costello did it without the pitfalls that quickly killed off bands like the Sex Pistols at the time. While "Never Mind The Bullocks" relied on anarchy and over the top theatrics in grand fashion, Costello and The Attractions kept the spunk but made sure in the end that rock and roll remained its most important backbone. (And the Sex Pistols will have room in the Hall some time soon).

"This Year's Model" starts off with the frenzied and rollicking two minute "No Action" with Costello snidely professing "Every time I phone you, I just want to put you down" and rarely let's the foot off the pedal from that point on. Lyrically, Costello rips through different subjects with a keen sense of self awareness and a wit matched by no one else at the time. On "This Year's Girl" he nastily rips into the girl of the moment "You want her broken with her mouth wide open/'cause she's this year's girl". He gets nasty about love and relationships on "Lipstick Vogue": "Sometimes I think that love is just a tumour/You've got to cut it out". And perhaps the most nasty truth is to all the zombies that listen to whatever the radio tells them to listen to on "Radio, Radio": "They say you better listen to the voice of reason/But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason....and the radio is in the hands of such a lot fools trying to anaesthetise the way you feel." That's just a few of the rumblings Costello ran the gauntlet with on "This Year's Model" and they work wonders.

And how do you hide that nastiness???? Hooks. Melodies. Sing along choruses. Lots of exciting energy. Songs that get absorbed like dry skin taking on aloe. Just listen to that guitar intro on "You Belong To Me"...it sets the tone for a finger snapping sixties type of go-go with Costello snidely remarking "You're easily led but you're much too scared to follow." Or how about the hop scotch bass and drum rhythm that drives along the awesome "(I Don't Want To Go To ) Chelsea" with rippling guitars that compete with the rhythm with a cocky assured mojo. Or how about the chorus that opens up in "The Beat", "See Your Friends....treat me like a stranger", that breaks the wonderful Hammond organ and wordplay of "Just the beat" in the verses. Speaking of that organ, Steve Nieve's keyboard parts throughout "This Year's Model" gives it another dimension, like a cheap keyboard from a carnival backing up and sometimes driving the nervous, amphetamine fueled sound forward. It's completely identifiable and along with Costello's lyrics are probably the two reasons I push this to the top of the heap in his catalog.

A lot of people may just be mostly familiar with "Pump It Up" from "This Year's Model". All I can say is if you like that, why not listen to and purchase the whole album. And if you like the whole album , why not listen to "Armed Forces" or "My Aim Is True" next. All of the sudden, you'll have Elvis Costello albums running amok through your music library. That's the brilliant path and starting point "This Year's Model" will lead you to.

Besides the slower, but still effective "Little Triggers" and "Night Rally", every song on "This Year's Model" retain that same great sense of urgency. I remember letting my brother borrow this a few years ago and he said "This is simply a ten on a scale of one to ten any way you look at it. It's catchy and every song begs you to like it." That pretty much sums it up. It's an album that has a middle ground where everyone can enjoy it without losing any of its edge. So "This Year's Model" gets an essential nod into the JHO Hall Of Fame. Now if there is any room left, "Imperial Bedroom" has an outside shot of making it in to the hall next.

Source: http://www.jhostation.com/2011/04/elvis-costello-this-years-model-jho.html

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