173-708: This Year's Model is the second studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello , released on 17 March 1978 through Radar Records . After being backed by Clover for his debut album My Aim Is True (1977), Costello formed the Attractions —keyboardist Steve Nieve , bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation)—as his permanent backing band. Recording sessions took place at London's Eden Studios in eleven days between late 1977 and early 1978. Nick Lowe returned as producer, and Roger Béchirian acted as engineer . Most of
346-540: A BAFTA award, an ASCAP Founders award and a Gemini award. In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . In 2016, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame . From 2008 to 2010, he hosted a television show, Spectacle: Elvis Costello with... , on which he interviewed other musicians. In 2015, he published a well-received memoir, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink . Elvis Costello
519-470: A "paranoid universe, where everyone is being watched." St. Michael similarly writes that the record "provokes and invokes" the listener as much as it entertains. In The Words & Music of Elvis Costello , Perone calls This Year's Model one of the "strongest sophomore efforts of any singer-songwriter", arguing that it affirmed the seeds that outlined on My Aim Is True that predicted the artist's future projects. The author also comments that it debuted one of
692-464: A 2020 revised list. In lists compiling the 100 greatest albums of all time, Mojo , NME and Spin ranked This Year's Model at numbers 69, 40 and 8 in 1995, 1985 and 1989, respectively. NME listed it at number 256 in their 2013 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time . In a 2018 issue selecting 70 landmark albums of the past 70 years, Record Collector chose This Year's Model as their pick for 1978. In 2004, Pitchfork 's Sam Ubl ranked it
865-449: A 28-date UK tour between March and April. The dates were plagued with problems, including Bruce Thomas cutting his hand smashing a glass bottle, requiring Lowe to substitute for him; Thomas wore bandages for the filming of promotional clips for "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and "Pump It Up". Costello grew more exhausted from constant touring but continued writing new material. By the tour's end, This Year's Model had reached number 4 on
1038-503: A Whisper to a Scream " (a duet with Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze ) became the first Costello single in over four years to completely miss the chart. Costello also co-produced Squeeze's 1981 album East Side Story (with Roger Béchirian ) and performed backing vocals on the group's hit " Tempted ". October saw the release of Almost Blue , a cover album of country music including songs written by Hank Williams ("Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used to Do?)"), Merle Haggard ("Tonight
1211-554: A band that would be an important influence on him. While in Rusty, Costello wrote an early version of a song he would record in 1980 as "Ghost Train", although by then little remained of the Rusty version except the central narrative idea of a married double act making their way through the low end of show business. In 2022, Costello reunited with Mayes to record and release an EP called The Resurrection of Rust . The EP contained songs that were typical of Rusty's shows in 1972, including
1384-421: A career in music, partly because his upbringing had made him aware of the potential pitfalls involved. The shock of witnessing a teenage friend's death in a traffic accident changed his mind. He would later write, "Suddenly, everything but music seemed like a waste of precious time." Costello completed his formal education in 1972 and, still living at home with his mother, set out to find a job that would earn him
1557-476: A cloud. The Island deal failed and Dave Robinson regained control of the newly independent label in 1985. Hits by The Pogues and Furniture helped Stiff to survive another twenty months, but the underlying causes for the failure of the Island deal finally became too burdensome for Stiff and it was sold to ZTT in 1987. In 2007, ZTT and its parent company SPZ Group reactivated the label. Stiff quickly broke one of
1730-634: A division of the Concord Music Group , holds the American rights to the Stiff catalogue. The British rights to the Stiff catalogue were held by BMG Rights Management under Union Square Music until 2022, when Universal relaunched the Stiff and ZTT labels. Robinson and Riviera were well-known London music business characters. Robinson had briefly worked for Jimi Hendrix in the late 1960s and also managed minor pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz in
1903-492: A duo, with Mayes and Costello singing and playing acoustic guitars. For a little over a year, Rusty played regularly in small venues like pubs, clubs, schools, and community centres, mostly in and around Liverpool, unpaid or for small amounts of money. In Mayes's estimation, Costello was already a talented songwriter, able to quickly write songs in a variety of styles, and could sing like Neil Young or Robbie Robertson . Mayes has said he introduced Costello to Brinsley Schwarz ,
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#17327913187562076-404: A fall from grace. According to Rachlis, "Chelsea represents Costello's nightmare world of success, where deceit is masked by propriety and last year's model is thrown out with yesterday's wash." "Lip Service" represents a culmination of Beatles influences into a track that contains sexual innuendos, both in its lyrics and title. It is primarily led by Bruce Thomas's bassline, which Hinton compares to
2249-584: A few weeks later, were inspired by film scores Bernard Herrmann had done for Alfred Hitchcock . Costello later called the recording of "Watching the Detectives" his first experience of "making records as opposed to recording some songs in a room". The song would be released as a non-album single in the UK and as a track on the US version of My Aim Is True . My Aim Is True received extensive, favourable coverage in
2422-690: A job as a computer operator at the Elizabeth Arden cosmetics factory in North Acton , in northwest London, similar to the one he had in Bootle and with similarly low wages. By early 1975, Costello was a husband and father and was struggling to support his family. Flip City's live engagements added little to his income, rarely paying more than the band's expenses. Costello recorded demos with Flip City at several sessions from mid-1974 until mid-1975, hoping to use them to get live bookings, secure
2595-501: A journalist that, when Costello was 11 years old, his school entered him into a writing contest held by The Times intended for people aged 16 to 25, for which he won a prize. As he finished secondary school, he earned one A-level , in English, despite having made a firm decision to pursue a career in music a few months earlier and putting little effort into his final months of school. Although he never had any alternative career plan, Costello had previously been reluctant to commit to
2768-625: A last-minute replacement for the Sex Pistols , which took place the day after the tour's end. During the appearance, Costello and the Attractions played "Watching the Detectives" and began "Less Than Zero" before Costello abruptly cut the band off and counted them into the then-unreleased " Radio Radio ", a critique of the commercialisation of broadcasting. The impromptu stunt angered producer Lorne Michaels and resulted in Costello's banning from Saturday Night Live until 1989. This Year's Model
2941-850: A long-running songwriting partnership with Burt Bacharach . Costello has had hits with covers of songs, including Sam & Dave 's " I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down ", Jerry Chesnut 's " Good Year for the Roses " and Charles Aznavour 's "She" . One of the songs he is best known for, " (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding ", was written by Nick Lowe and recorded by Lowe's group Brinsley Schwarz in 1974, but remained obscure until Costello released his version in 1979. Costello's own songs have been recorded by artists including Linda Ronstadt , George Jones , Roy Orbison , Johnny Cash , Dave Edmunds , Chet Baker and Alison Krauss . Costello has won two Grammy awards, two Ivor Novello awards, four Edison awards, an MTV Video Music Award ,
3114-468: A new label founded by an associate of Jake Riviera. Riviera had split from Dave Robinson and was now Costello's sole manager. For the next year and a half, Costello's records were released on Radar in Britain. Costello recorded his second album and his first with the Attractions, This Year's Model , during short breaks from touring, from November 1977 through January 1978. Produced by Nick Lowe, it
3287-463: A recording contract, or sell Costello's songs for other artists to record. All but the first of these sessions were at a small studio owned by Dave Robinson , future Stiff Records founder. Robinson later said that he thought Flip City "could not play at all" but Costello was talented and ought to "find a real band." After Costello became successful, Flip City's demos were widely bootlegged, often misleadingly labelled to imply they were outtakes from
3460-757: A rented house in southwest London with some of his bandmates. Flip City played the London pub rock circuit until the end of 1975, occasionally opening for more prominent bands such as Dr. Feelgood , but generally making little money and attracting little notice. Flip City's performances consisted of a mix of Costello's original songs and covers of rock, R&B, and country songs. Their repertoire of Costello originals included early versions of songs that would appear on his first two albums as "Pay It Back", "Miracle Man", "Living in Paradise", and "Radio Radio". Costello wrote all but one of Flip City's original songs, did most of
3633-419: A richness of texture (organ especially) that is very appealing". Pareles was critical of the overtly misogynistic themes. This Year's Model was voted the best album of 1978 by both Melody Maker and The Village Voice . It was highly placed in other year-end lists by Rolling Stone , NME (3), Record Mirror (5) and Sounds (8). This Year's Model continues to receive critical acclaim. Journalists praise
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#17327913187563806-492: A short movie directed by Jeff Baynes. The movie has not been released for sale, but was shown on BBC4 in September 2006. The label's marketing and advertising was often provocative and witty, billing itself as "The World's Most Flexible Record Label". Other slogans were " We came. We saw. We left ", "If It Ain't Stiff, It Ain't Worth a Fuck", and "When You Kill Time, You Murder Success" (printed on promotional wall clocks). On
3979-421: A significant presence in Costello's life and the two remained close until Ross's death in 2011. Costello has said that a childhood spent watching his father work gave him an innate sense of how to be a musician but also an understanding that a career in music was a job like any other, requiring discipline and hard work. Costello's parents never insisted he take music lessons or otherwise pushed him to follow in
4152-700: A similar deal was made with Arista who released Ian Dury 's first album and the Live Stiffs Live album. The deal was short-lived and Stiff then made a deal with CBS Records for Stiff releases in the United States, at both the Columbia and Epic subsidiaries on the Stiff/Columbia and Stiff/Epic labels. Robinson and Riviera were a fiery management combination, and after a series of disagreements, Riviera left Stiff in early 1978 to form
4325-441: A single tape to publishers, not yet realising that no publisher would have the patience to listen to so many songs. Sometimes he went to publishers' offices to perform his songs in person. None of this generated anything but rejections until he began creating "show reels" of no more than six of what he believed were his most attention-getting songs, selected to appeal to the recipient of each demo tape. By February 1976, Costello
4498-415: A situation where he is unsure of whether to answer the phone or not ("No Action") or coming to terms after rejecting all compromises ("Lipstick Vogue"). "No Action" begins with Costello's solo voice. The lyrics detail the regret of a failed relationship. Gouldstone said that the song is the first example of Costello's use of "thematic punning", meaning the incorporation of references that indirectly relate to
4671-420: A song like ' Alison '." Even before disbanding Flip City in late 1975, Costello was writing songs he did not include in the band's repertoire. He recorded some of these as solo demos for Dave Robinson in mid-1975. For the next year, he shopped these and other solo demos to music publishers and record companies, hoping to be hired either as a songwriter or a recording artist. He sent out as many as 20 songs on
4844-582: A sparser sound than on the album. Pete Thomas , formerly of pub-rock band Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers , who were managed by Riviera, agreed to be drummer, although Thomas was then living in California and needed to be brought back to England. Steve Goulding and Andrew Bodnar , rhythm section of the Rumour , also participated in these audition sessions, so that Costello could test how
5017-532: A steady wage while he pursued a career in music. He soon took a job as a computer operator at the Midland Bank data centre , in the Merseyside town of Bootle , because, at £20 a week, it paid slightly better than other unskilled work he felt he was qualified for. According to Costello, the job consisted of essentially manual labour such as mounting tape reels and loading punched cards . Because
5190-463: A trumpet solo by Baker. Prior to the release of Costello's own version, a version of the song was a minor UK hit for Soft Machine founder Robert Wyatt . Stiff Records Stiff Records is a British independent record label formed in London , England, by Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera . Originally active from 1976 to 1986, the label was reactivated in 2007. Established at the outset of
5363-615: A video of the tour were produced, but the tour only covered the UK. After the departure of Riviera, Robinson arranged a second tour, the Be Stiff or the Be Stiff Route 78 tour, from October to November 1978 (UK), again comprising five acts; Wreckless Eric, Lene Lovich , Jona Lewie , Mickey Jupp , and Rachel Sweet . The mainland section of the UK tour was undertaken by train and the Irish section by coach, and then continued on to
This Year's Model - Misplaced Pages Continue
5536-465: A way to express enjoyment before the narrator is sought after by vigilantes. "Pump It Up" was based on the stylings of Bob Dylan 's " Subterranean Homesick Blues " (1965) and Chuck Berry 's " Too Much Monkey Business " (1956). An energetic attack on a female chic society's member, the song takes place in a nightclub, where its self-important members aspire to fit into high society, seeking purpose. The vocals are fuelled by obsessive sexual desire, while
5709-546: A young child, Costello's musical influences came from his parents' record collection, which encompassed a wide range of styles but centred on traditional pop and jazz. Ross's job with the Joe Loss Orchestra required him to sing many of the pop hits of the day for the band's weekly radio show. To learn these songs, Ross received demonstration copies of the original artists' records, which he brought home to rehearse. When Costello grew old enough to have an interest in
5882-544: Is a plea for sexual freedom and is full of resentment and anger. Musically, AllMusic's Stewart Mason likens it to 1960s garage rock . The track "Hand in Hand" opens with guitar feedback evoking the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix . Although the music provides a Merseybeat shuffle, the dark and revenge-driven lyrics follow two lovers walking hand in hand straight to Hell . Like "No Action" and My Aim Is True 's "I'm Not Angry",
6055-561: Is just too powerful, too dazzling to be ignored or sidestepped. — Nick Kent , NME , 1978 Several reviewers placed Costello as one of the best British New Wave artists. In Circus magazine, Fred Schruers lauded his lyrics, musicianship and angry persona, and cited This Year's Model as having fulfilled "every new wave expectation". Robert Christgau of The Village Voice also saw Costello's emotional delivery as full of anger and grimace, which he found "more attractive musically and verbally than all his melodic and lyrical tricks". In
6228-466: Is only temporary, as by the next year, another girl will take her place. Once she realises it as time runs out, she feels cheated but by then it is too late. "The Beat" is primarily led by Nieve's keyboard and the rhythm section of Bruce and Pete Thomas. The song explores the uncertainties and pains of adolescence and early manhood, and Hinton regards it as the closest thing on the album to romantic love. It quotes Cliff Richard 's " Summer Holiday " (1963) as
6401-453: Is playing, standing on one leg, and the other side depicts four colour-coded and dismembered mannequin bodies wearing string vests in a laundromat. Hinton states that the label's gimmick at the time was off-centre sleeves and avant-garde inner fold images. The Attractions were acknowledged on the LP labels but did not receive sleeve credits on the original release. The LP labels contain text between
6574-503: The My Aim Is True sessions or otherwise affiliated with Stiff Records. The only Flip City recording to have been officially released is Costello's song "Imagination (Is a Powerful Deceiver)", recorded in early 1975, which appeared as a bonus track on the 1993 and 2001 reissues of My Aim Is True . In the liner notes to the 2001 reissue, Costello wrote that, in retrospect, the song sounded to him like "a very early attempt to write
6747-486: The San Francisco Chronicle found "no new surprises" on Model , but felt the songs improved on the style exhibited on Aim , concluding that it "should satisfy his growing legion of fans, as well as gain new converts". In The New York Times , John Rockwell described This Year's Model as a "fine" record that maintains all of the artist's previous angry energy, yet "filling out the arrangements with
6920-516: The Billboard chart but spent fewer weeks on the chart than My Aim Is True . "Radio Radio" was released as a non-album single in the UK in October 1978, where it reached number 29. This Year's Model was highly praised by critics in Britain and the US. Melody Maker called it an "achievement so comprehensive, so inspired, that it exhausts superlatives." The NME review read similarly, saying
7093-544: The Motown Chartbusters compilation series. By the time Costello reached his mid-teens, Joni Mitchell had become an important and enduring influence on him. When Costello moved to Liverpool, he found he did not enjoy much of the progressive rock that was popular with his peers, so, casting around for music he might like, he developed an interest in the Grateful Dead and other folk rock groups like
This Year's Model - Misplaced Pages Continue
7266-464: The R. White's "Secret Lemonade Drinker" commercial jingle. Ross sang the lead vocal while Costello played guitar and sang backing vocals. In the second half of 1973, Costello formed a band called Flip City with several slightly older men who, like him, were fans of Brinsley Schwarz and other pub rock bands. The members of Flip City also shared Costello's enthusiasm for The Band , the Grateful Dead , and Clover . For most of 1974, Costello shared
7439-521: The Royal College of Music . With Costello on guitar, he and the band, now named the Attractions , made their live debut on 14 July 1977. Shortly after the release of My Aim Is True eight days later, the group performed an unauthorised show outside a Columbia Records convention, which led to Costello's arrest. The stunt attracted the attention of record executive Greg Geller, who months later became integral in signing Costello to Columbia in
7612-533: The Stop & Shop , to write a song about the historical Art Deco building he rode past every day. Although he did not record it until 1980, Costello regarded this song, "Hoover Factory", as an artistic breakthrough. In the period just prior, he had been trying to imitate songwriters Randy Newman and John Prine . "Hoover Factory", he later recalled, got him "through the door to a different, less ingratiating way of speaking" in his songwriting. The next song he wrote
7785-581: The UK Albums Chart . Another US tour commenced just three days after the previous tour's end. With Bruce Thomas still unavailable, Costello brought back Clover guitarist John Ciambotti, who only had one day of rehearsal. Throughout the tour, Costello and the band continued the wild behaviour they had become known for—both on and off stage—and experienced an increase in drug use, lack of sleep and growing exhaustion. Songs that would appear on Costello's next album, 1979's Armed Forces , began appearing in
7958-499: The UK Singles Chart , becoming Costello's first single to chart in any country. This was the first of an unbroken streak of eight Costello singles to reach the UK top 30. When Costello began touring the US in mid-November, he received prominent coverage in the US press, even though he played venues holding fewer than a thousand people. By this time, Costello had signed to Columbia Records , who released My Aim Is True in
8131-514: The United Kingdom 's first punk single, " New Rose " by The Damned , on 22 October 1976. Early in 1977, Stiff Records picked up speed, signing Wreckless Eric , Ian Dury , and Elvis Costello , who had once been a part-time roadie for Brinsley Schwarz . Bigger sales followed, and a distribution deal with Island Records through EMI was set up. After arranging for Costello and Lowe to be signed directly to CBS Records ' Columbia label,
8304-610: The new wave genre. From late 1977 until early 1980, each of the eight singles he released reached the UK Top 30. His biggest hit single, " Oliver's Army " (1979), sold more than 500,000 copies in Britain. He has had more modest commercial success in the US, but has earned much critical praise. From 1977 until the early 2000s, Costello's albums regularly ranked high on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll, with This Year's Model and Imperial Bedroom (1982) voted
8477-647: The punk rock boom, Stiff signed various punk rock and new wave acts such as Nick Lowe , the Damned , Lene Lovich , Wreckless Eric , Elvis Costello , Ian Dury , and Devo , also signing artists with significant crossover appeal such as Motörhead , Larry Wallis and Mick Farren . In the 1980s, with most of their early signings having moved on, the label found commercial success with Madness , The Pogues , Tracey Ullman , The Belle Stars , Kirsty MacColl and others. In December 2017, Universal Music Group acquired Stiff Records and ZTT Records . Razor & Tie ,
8650-437: The "100 Greatest British Albums Ever". In 1987, Rolling Stone placed the album at number 11 on its list of the best of the past 20 years, and said that Costello charted "the modern romantic terrain with keen cynicism, caustic wit and furious energy." The same magazine ranked the album number 98 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, and dropping to number 121 in
8823-570: The "Secret Lemonade Drinker" jingle featured in a series of advertisements for R. Whites , with Costello on backing vocals. Ross's father, Patrick Matthew McManus, known as Pat, was also a professional musician. Pat was raised in an orphanage from age eight, where he learned to play trumpet. He later played trumpet as an army bandsman, a ship's musician for the White Star Line , and an orchestra musician in music halls and in theaters showing silent films. Costello has said that Pat, being
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#17327913187568996-412: The "construction of his songs, which set densely layered wordplay in an ever-expanding repertoire of styles." His first album, My Aim Is True (1977), spawned no hit singles, but contains some of Costello's best-known songs, including the ballad " Alison ". Costello's next two albums, This Year's Model (1978) and Armed Forces (1979), recorded with his backing band the Attractions , helped define
9169-470: The '70s". Other critics highlighted Lowe's production. Some critics were less enthusiastic. Savage felt Costello was "less than likable" and the Attractions "spare yet full", but ultimately considered the album "an excellent, soon-to-be-popular" record. In Rolling Stone , Rachlis believed the album was more "musically and thematically" cohesive than My Aim Is True , but not "diminish[ing] the prodigal brilliance" of its predecessor. Conversely, Joel Selvin of
9342-732: The 1960s. Even after she no longer worked selling records, Lillian maintained a keen interest in a wide variety of music, including the popular music of the day. Costello's father, Ross MacManus (1927–2011), was a professional trumpet player and singer, born and raised in Birkenhead , across the River Mersey from Liverpool. He began his career in music in the late 1940s, playing trumpet in bebop bands in Birkenhead and Liverpool. He segued to playing trumpet and singing in modern jazz bands after moving to London in 1951. By 1954, he
9515-580: The 1975 Naughty Rhythms tour ‒ for acts they managed before forming Stiff. The first tour, known as the Live Stiffs Tour or 5 Live Stiffs (3 October – 5 November 1977), comprised five bands: Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Wreckless Eric and The New Rockets, Nick Lowe 's Last Chicken in the Shop, and Larry Wallis 's Psychedelic Rowdies. Having signed all
9688-409: The 2002 reissue's liner notes that he never understood the misogynistic accusations, believing they "clearly contained more sense of disappointment than disgust". Costello's failure to succeed romantically is the focal point of most of the relationships described in the album. Rolling Stone writer Kit Rachlis agreed, stating that all romances on the album are over or are about to commence, including
9861-428: The 2002 reissue: Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus OBE (born 25 August 1954), better known by his stage name Elvis Costello , is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to Rolling Stone , Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical traditions of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison with the raw energy and sass that were principal ethics of punk ", noting
10034-466: The 52nd best album of the 1970s, calling it "one of [Costello's] most deceptive rock records", and in 2012, Paste placed it at number 35 in a similar list. Ultimate Classic Rock also included it in their list of the 100 best rock albums from the decade. Paste magazine also ranked it the 19th greatest new wave album in 2016. The album was included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . This Year's Model
10207-477: The American cover, he crouched forward with both hands gripping the camera like a gun; a third shot was also used for the Swedish release. The back cover depicts Costello and the Attractions in a small, dimly lit hotel room reacting to a television with mock horror. Three of them are wearing black ties while Nieve dons a V-neck pullover. The inner sleeve depicts a robotic hand gripping a miniature TV on which Costello
10380-519: The Attractions , would be Costello's touring and recording band for the next seven years. Costello used the time with Goulding and Bodnar to arrange and rehearse " Watching the Detectives ". He recorded the song with them at Pathway a few days later. Costello had written the song a few weeks earlier, partly inspired by the Clash 's newly released debut album . Some of the musical ideas, which Nieve fleshed out when he overdubbed his piano and organ parts
10553-428: The Attractions never rocked this hard, or this vengefully, ever again." Writing for Pitchfork in 2002, Matt LeMay said they were the reason the album was superior to My Aim Is True , and that "it's not only a more complex and dynamic album, but also one that steers well clear of the retro guitar twang that marred the less interesting bits of his debut." Declaring This Year's Model not only Costello's best, but one of
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#173279131875610726-435: The Attractions' music, describing them as one of the best backing bands in rock music. Gouldstone wrote that with Costello on guitar, they became a band who are "capable of making even mediocre music listenable and of giving Costello's greatest songs an enthralling sense of intensity and immediacy." Erlewine described them as giving the album a "reckless, careening feel", further commending the sound, concluding that "Costello and
10899-635: The Beatles as his biggest musical influence. Costello was also deeply impressed by the songs of his future collaborator Burt Bacharach , which he knew through the hits British artists Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield had with them. As Costello grew into his teens, his favourites included British beat groups the Kinks , Small Faces and the Who , Jamaican rocksteady and reggae acts who were popular in Britain, and especially Motown artists, who he knew mainly through their British hit singles and through
11072-502: The Bottle Let Me Down"), Gram Parsons ("How Much I Lied") and George Jones ("Brown to Blue"). The album received mixed reviews. The first pressings of the record in the UK bore a sticker with the message: "WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause a radical reaction in narrow minded listeners". Almost Blue did spawn a surprise UK hit single with a version of Jerry Chesnut 's " Good Year for
11245-707: The Byrds and the Band , and through them, country music . Costello was a well-behaved if sometimes argumentative student, but not generally an academically outstanding one. Not having scored well enough on his eleven-plus exams to go on to grammar school , he attended Archbishop Myers secondary modern school in Hounslow and then a comprehensive school in Everton, Liverpool , for sixth form . Costello did, however, show an early talent for writing. His mother told
11418-419: The Detectives", and appear throughout This Year's Model on tracks such as "Pump It Up", " This Year's Girl " and "Living In Paradise". The author James E. Perone interprets songs like " Lipstick Vogue ", "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and "This Year's Girl" as relating to Costello's former job working at cosmetics and perfume company Elizabeth Arden . Some reviewers identified themes of misogyny . In 1978,
11591-537: The Kinks] started his ' Dedicated Follower of Fashion ' period." Tom Zito of The Washington Post had a hard time recalling an artist whose sophomore record surpassed their "already impressive" debut. Costello is currently the best. There's simply no-one within spitting distance of him. He has his finger on the pulse of this desperate era and his perceptions are so disquieting because all too often they're too damn real to be strenuously ignored. ... Meanwhile, Model
11764-582: The Rhino reissue, with the addition of a 13-track live bonus disc taken from a show at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. , on 28 February 1978. For its 2021 remaster by UM , "Big Tears" was added before "Radio Radio" on the standard album, bringing the total track count to 14. All songs are written by Elvis Costello . Side one Side two Notes According to the liner notes of
11937-598: The Rolling Stones ' Aftermath (1966) as a major influence on This Year's Model . Musically, the album embraces several styles, including new wave , power pop , punk rock , garage rock , and pop rock ; St. Michael also recognised references to Merseybeat and glam . According to biographer Tony Clayton-Lea, rather than reusing the rockabilly and country sounds of My Aim Is True , This Year's Model opts for straightforward pop music "as influenced by punk rock". AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine , on
12110-482: The Rolling Stones' " Stupid Girl ". Most of the songs on This Year's Model were written while Costello was still working a full-time office job, before his first album was released. Among them was " (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea ", which was released as the album's first single in early March 1978, reaching number 16 on the UK Singles Chart. The second single, "Pump It Up" , which reached number 24,
12283-630: The Roses ", which reached number 6. Costello had long been an avid country music fan and has cited George Jones as his favourite country singer. He had appeared on Jones' duet album My Very Special Guests , contributing " Stranger in the House ", which they later performed together on a 1981 HBO special dedicated to Jones. Imperial Bedroom (1982) featured lavish production by Geoff Emerick , engineer of several Beatles records. It remains one of his most critically acclaimed records, but again it failed to produce any hit singles—" You Little Fool " and
12456-407: The U.S.A.", "Running Out of Angels", " Green Shirt " and "Big Boys". The album was mixed at Eden by Béchirian with Lowe and Costello in attendance; Costello did not contribute due to his relative inexperience in the studio. The mixing console had been custom-built by Béchirian in the early 1970s after the studio had changed locations. According to the author Mick St. Michael, Lowe intentionally made
12629-556: The UK Singles Chart and number 65 on Billboard Hot 100. Costello's 1980 Get Happy!! album featured a sound based on vintage American soul music . Some songs marked a distinct change in mood from the angry, frustrated tone of his first three albums to a more upbeat, happy manner. The single, " I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down ", was a rendition of a Sam and Dave song. Lyrically, the songs are full of Costello's signature wordplay. His only 1980 appearance in North America
12802-461: The UK music press through a combination of effective publicity stunts , such as Costello busking in front of the London hotel hosting the CBS Records business convention, and genuine enthusiasm for his music among music journalists. The album reached number 14 on the UK Albums Chart within a few weeks of its release. "Watching the Detectives", released in mid-October, reaching number 15 in
12975-500: The UK's hottest new indie acts, The Enemy . It then released a string of well-received albums of new work from legacy Stiff artists, including as Wreckless Eric , Henry Priestman , Any Trouble , and Chris Difford . Brand new acts signed to the label included The Tranzmitors and Eskimo Disco. Swedish designer Tobbe Stuhre was appointed official Stiff Records designer. In 2008, Union Square Music released The Big Stiff Box Set . Robinson and Riviera had arranged package tours ‒ such as
13148-503: The UK, Europe, Canada and the US. Released in early January 1979, Armed Forces debuted at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart, and spent 28 weeks on the chart. In the US, it spent 25 weeks on the Billboard chart, peaking at number 10 in mid-March. The US release replaced "Sunday's Best" with Costello's cover of Lowe's " (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding ". Costello's best-selling single, " Oliver's Army ",
13321-527: The UK, earning Costello another appearance on BBC 's Top of the Pops . In July, Costello recorded "Stranger in the House" with country artist George Jones , which appeared on the latter's My Very Special Guests album in 1979, before commencing the recording sessions for Armed Forces . "This Year's Girl", backed by "Big Tears", was issued as a US single. After appearing on the American LP, "Radio Radio"
13494-535: The UK, which received acclaim and reached number 16 on the UK Singles Chart . A performance in Toronto on 6 March was heavily bootlegged , and was eventually issued as Live at the El Mocambo in 1993 with the 2½ Years box set, and as a standalone release in 2009. This Year's Model was released in the UK on 17 March with the catalogue number RAD 3. Costello and the Attractions undertook
13667-549: The US in early November. The album gradually climbed to number 32 on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and was named among the best albums of the year by US music critics. In mid-December, Costello and the Attractions appeared on Saturday Night Live , where they angered the show's producer by unexpectedly playing the then-unrecorded song " Radio Radio " during the live broadcast. By late 1977, Costello had moved from Stiff Records to Radar Records ,
13840-640: The USA without Jupp, who was afraid of flying. The artists contributed to an EP with cover versions of the Devo song, and early Stiff single, " Be Stiff ". The final tour, the Son of Stiff Tour 1980 , comprised Ten Pole Tudor , Any Trouble , Dirty Looks, Joe "King" Carrasco and the Crowns , and The Equators. Undertaken by bus, this European tour was not successful. The tour led to a 12" EP Son of Stiff Tour 1980 (SON 1) and
14013-578: The United States. Costello and the band were on tour for most of the rest of 1977. The dates included the Greatest Stiffs Live Tour with other Stiff Records artists and their first tour of America. During this time, Stiff co-founder Jake Riviera departed Stiff due to disputes with the label's co-founder Dave Robinson . Per Costello's management contract, Costello followed Riviera and left Stiff for Radar Records but retained his American deal with Columbia. His final release for Stiff
14186-461: The [Sex] Pistols' gigantic guitars". Bray cited it as the album that proved pop and punk could co-exist. Writing for Record Collector in 2008, Terry Staunton cited it as "the post-punk distillation of the times", especially in London, and ten years later, Nick Hasted named it the "template" for the transition from punk to new wave. Regarding the album's position in the new wave genre, punknews.org's Julie River described This Year's Model as one of
14359-476: The album as "simple, refreshing, and surprisingly modern" and "an object lesson that the New Wave could compete on the old school's field", respectively. Consequence of Sound 's Ryan Bray named it the first of Costello and the Attractions' eight-year run he nicknamed "murderer's row". Reviewing in 2008, Rolling Stone 's Rob Sheffield named This Year's Model as an album everyone should own, saying
14532-464: The album on, in St. Michael's words, "an explicit and disturbingly pessimistic note". We wanted to catch people's eyes. If they said, 'Why is it printed off register?' as the initial pressing was, it was because we wanted people to ask exactly that. It meant they'd pause just that little bit longer in front of our sleeve. —Elvis Costello on the cover The original UK cover artwork for This Year's Model
14705-528: The album titled Spanish Model , which featured songs from This Year's Model sung in Spanish by Latin artists over the Attractions' original backing tracks. It received favourable reviews and charted on several Billboard charts. Elvis Costello was backed on his debut album My Aim Is True (1977) by the California-based country rock act Clover , whose laid-back approach he felt did not fit
14878-506: The album was "so ridiculously good that one's immediate inclinations are to clamber effusively over the top, superlative peaking superlative." The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll voted it the best album of 1978. Rolling Stone named it among the best five albums of 1978. For the seven months following the completion of This Year's Model , Costello and the Attractions continued touring Britain, Europe and North America, playing larger venues and debuting new songs that Costello
15051-469: The album's influences came from the music Costello and the Attractions listened to while touring, from the Berlin-era records of David Bowie and Iggy Pop to ABBA and Kraftwerk . Costello later said that Armed Forces was his first album of songs he wrote with an awareness of having an audience. The album's lyrics reflected his experiences on the road in the US, as well his continued concern over
15224-412: The album's release lasted from January to early March 1978 . The setlist consisted of tracks from both My Aim Is True and This Year's Model , as well as B-sides and covers. The tour was positively received, but contributed to the growing exhaustion of Costello and the Attractions. Radar released the first single, "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea", backed by "You Belong to Me", on 3 March 1978 in
15397-534: The artist remains an "Aladdin's cave of anti-matter". He called Costello's voice "insubstantial but wiry", the music "clever in its very lack of detail", and compared the organ-heavy sound with Blondie : a Sixties sound "trapped for ten years on atmospherics". Naming This Year's Model the winner of May 1978's "disc derby" in the Los Angeles Times , Robert Hilburn wrote that Costello's vocals "bristle with conviction and bite that we rarely find in rock in
15570-533: The backing band. Starting in late November or early December, Costello travelled to Headley Grange in East Hampshire , where Clover were living, to spend the day rehearsing and working out arrangements for a batch of his songs and then recording the songs with the band the next day at Pathway. Costello still held a full-time office job, so the sessions were spaced over several weeks to accommodate his work schedule and Stiff's tight finances. My Aim Is True
15743-410: The band as artists. The album appeared on year-end lists in both the UK and the US. In later decades, This Year's Model has been acclaimed as one of Costello's best works, some critics commenting on its influence on punk and new wave. It has appeared on several lists of the greatest albums of all time and has been reissued multiple times with bonus tracks. In 2021, Costello spearheaded a new version of
15916-555: The beginning of his career, but his stylistic range has come to encompass R&B , country , jazz , baroque pop , Tin Pan Alley and classical music . He has released album-length collaborations with the classical ensemble The Brodsky Quartet , the New Orleans R&;B songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint and the hip-hop group The Roots . Costello has written more than a dozen songs with Paul McCartney and had
16089-615: The best album of their respective years. His biggest US hit single, " Veronica " (1989), reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. Born into a musical family, Costello was raised with knowledge and appreciation of a wide range of musical styles and an insider's view of the music business. His opportunity to begin a professional career as a musician coincided with the rise of punk rock in England. The primitivism brought into fashion by punk led Costello to disguise his musical savvy at
16262-467: The best albums ever made, he stated that it balanced the "raw energy" of its predecessor with the "more elegant pop songwriting" of his later works." Writing for Blender magazine, Douglas Wolk considered the Attractions "perfect creative foils" for Costello, particularly signalling out Nieve's playing throughout the record. Critics consider This Year's Model one of Costello's best, and "angriest", works. Spin 's Al Shipley argued that Costello
16435-524: The concert venues. After a concert in Columbus, Ohio, on 15 March, Costello got into a drunken argument at a hotel bar with members of the Stephen Stills band and entourage. The argument culminated in Costello disparaging James Brown and Ray Charles with racially charged insults, in comments he would later call "the exact opposite of my true feelings". When Costello's comments were reported in
16608-477: The critically acclaimed " Man Out of Time " both failed to reach the Top 40 in the UK. Costello collaborated with Chris Difford , also of Squeeze, to write the song "Boy With a Problem". Costello has said he disliked the marketing pitch for the album. Imperial Bedroom also featured Costello's song " Almost Blue ", inspired by the music of jazz singer and trumpeter Chet Baker . Baker later recorded his own version of
16781-416: The current pop hits, Ross began giving him five or six of these demonstration records per week. Costello has said, "That's why I know so many songs." Chief among Costello's early favourites among the hit-makers of the day were the Beatles . Costello has said that, having turned nine years old in 1963, he was exactly the right age to experience the full force of Beatles fandom as he grew up. He has described
16954-458: The early 1970s, in which Nick Lowe was the bassist, vocalist and main songwriter; while Riviera had been an early manager for another pub rock band, Dr. Feelgood , from Essex. The label was started with a loan of £400 from Lee Brilleaux of Dr. Feelgood. Originally, Stiff had been called Demon, but the phrase "It’s a stiff!" was more appropriate for the artists on the record label. Stiff found quick success. Its first release, on 14 August 1976,
17127-525: The early version of "Ghost Train", then called "Maureen and Sam". By early 1973, Costello had determined that the music scene in Liverpool was too small to support his ambition to have a career in music, so he arranged to transfer from his job as a computer operator in the Midland Bank data centre in Bootle to a position as a clerk at the bank's Putney branch. Returning to London, Costello moved into
17300-429: The family business. Instead, they raised him in a home filled with music, encouraged his musical curiosity, and supported his efforts to find his own way toward a career in music. Lillian told journalists that she knew before he was born he would have a career in music and that she listened to a broad range of music while she was pregnant with him with the intention of giving him an early start in music appreciation. As
17473-732: The far west side of London. This meant Costello's commute to work in North Acton took him past the Hoover Building in Perivale . Around the same time, he was starting to become aware of the nascent punk movement, although he would not hear any of the British punk bands until they began releasing records. He was, however, inspired by the Modern Lovers ' song " Roadrunner ", with its reference to such quotidian landmarks as
17646-690: The fastest. Stiff had been founded by Jake Riviera , who managed several acts Costello admired, and Dave Robinson. Nick Lowe , whom Costello was on friendly terms with because he had attended so many performances by Lowe's band Brinsley Schwarz, was the label's first artist and soon became its in-house producer. Following a successful test-session in mid-September at Pathway Studios , an inexpensive studio in North London , Stiff agreed to finance more sessions for Costello with Clover , an American country-rock band from Marin County, California , as
17819-689: The final track on side one. It reached number 10 in Sweden. Elsewhere, This Year's Model reached the top 20 in New Zealand (11), the Netherlands (14) and Norway (15), and the top 30 in Canada (21) and Australia (26). The tour lasted until June 1978, after which the band again toured Europe. "Pump It Up", backed by "Big Tears", was released as the second single in June, which peaked at number 24 in
17992-486: The first and strongest new wave albums, ultimately standing as one of Costello's finest albums. Paste magazine's Andy Whitman went further, describing the album as "the moment when New Wave found its frontman". Both River and Whitman agreed the album has aged well. Thomson described the songs as "tight and instantly memorable", and mentioned Costello's improved songwriting and the Attractions' performances. Hinton considers it "light years ahead" of its predecessor, creating
18165-496: The first in the family to make a career in music, is the reason he himself is a musician. Costello spent most of his childhood in Twickenham , in west London, before moving to Liverpool with his mother in 1970. Costello was raised Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy until he was 14. Costello's parents had separated by the time Costello was ten years old, after which he was raised by his mother. Ross continued to be
18338-471: The former would become one of his best-regarded and best-known songs. However, Costello was receiving increasingly prominent, positive coverage in the British music press. My Aim Is True had been completed since the end of January but its release was delayed, first because Stiff had wanted to release records by other artists who seemed more tied to transient music trends and then because of legal difficulties with Stiff's distributor, Island Records . It
18511-431: The front cover depicts Costello in his signature black framed glasses, wearing a dark suit with a polka dot shirt, glaring from behind a camera on a tripod. In Thomson's words, he is "expressionless" and "both observed and observing". According to Hinton, it was a "careful reconstruction" of David Hemmings from Michelangelo Antonioni 's Blow Up (1966). The British cover had Costello standing back with his hands open; on
18684-438: The halcyon period, with many Top 20 single chart placings, including the label's first No. 1 single, " Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick " by Ian Dury, and a number of other big-selling albums. Stiff expanded rapidly and moved its premises twice. It also continued to release dozens of obscure and uncommercial releases. For example, Stiff Records released the parody album The Wit & Wisdom of Ronald Reagan . That LP, on Magic Records,
18857-538: The holding spirals reading "Special pressing No. 003. Ring 434-3232. Ask for Moira for your prize". Packaged with the first 50,000 copies of the LP was a free 7" single containing " Stranger in the House ", an outtake from My Aim Is True left off the album due to its country-influenced sound, with a live cover of the Damned 's " Neat Neat Neat " as the B-side. The first American pressings contain Costello's rather than Columbia's logo. The band's North American tour before
19030-959: The job involved frequent periods of waiting for the mainframe computers to complete their tasks before beginning them on the next one, it gave Costello time to write songs while at work. Except for a few months in 1973 when he worked as a clerk at the Midland Bank Putney branch, he continued to work full-time as a computer operator until a few weeks before his first album was released in July 1977. Costello began writing songs and teaching himself to play guitar by age 14. To test his songs in front of an audience, he performed them in folk clubs that permitted amateur musicians to perform unpaid. He played these clubs regularly in London and continued in similar clubs when he moved to Liverpool at age 16, although folk music venues that welcomed original songs were scarcer in Liverpool than in London. By 17, he
19203-593: The label of Stiff's sampler compilation Heroes & Cowards was printed: "In '78 everyone born in '45 will be 33-1/3 ". A very early Stiff sampler album, A Bunch of Stiff Records , introduced the slogan, "If they're dead, we'll sign them" and "Undertakers to the Industry". Stiff also produced eccentric but highly effective promotional campaigns, such as the three package tours in 1977 (Live Stiffs), 1978 (Be Stiff) and 1980 (Son of Stiff), Elvis Costello's " street performance outside CBS Records. Barney Bubbles
19376-508: The language matches the vaulting hysteria of the performance" and concluded that the record "promotes its author to the foremost ranks of contemporary rock writers", such as Bruce Springsteen . Cash Box remarked that This Year's Model allowed Costello to surpass early comparisons of Springsteen and Graham Parker to establish his own identity. Rock Australia Magazine 's Anthony O'Grady dubbed This Year's Model "the best collection of...fashion-conscious songs since Ray Davies [of
19549-518: The lyrics are "strongly visual, as befits the voyeurism which fuels many of the songs". References to objects such as cameras, films and telephones are present throughout many tracks, in both positive and negative lights, which the author David Gouldstone argues creates a disillusioned world where greed and revenge are dominant. Like the cover artwork itself, the mechanical imagery emphasises observation rather than participation. Themes of uncertainty between reality and artifice previously emerged on "Watching
19722-441: The material and arrangements, overall finding the album "unfeasibly invigorating" following its "mild-mannered" predecessor, but liked Lowe's production. Some reviewers mention the album's influence on punk and its evolution into new wave. In 2002, Uncut magazine's Chris Roberts called Costello the "bitter bard of the punk era", writing that with This Year's Model , he "articulat[ed] a generation's ire every bit as caustically as
19895-437: The midst of the punk movement, Christgau acknowledged the genre's influence on the album and artist. Creem 's Alan Madeleine found the artist proves himself "stylistically mindful": he is "distinct enough from any other extant act to be noted, yet cautious of excess experimentation in this establishmental sophomore phase." Record Mirror 's Tim Lott considered the songs "less vicious" than its predecessors, but said
20068-522: The musicians auditioning played as part of a band. Chosen were bassist Bruce Thomas (no relation to Pete), who was 28 years old and had ten years' experience in professional bands, the most successful being the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver ; and keyboardist Steve Nieve (then Steve Nason), a 19-year-old student at the Royal College of Music who had formal musical training but no experience in any kind of pop group. The band, soon named
20241-421: The named artists as individuals, bands had to be formed in order to tour: these were largely based on the session musicians used for the artists' solo records. There were 18 musicians on the tour, several doubling up, e.g. Dury playing drums for Wreckless Eric while the last two "bands" had the same line up (Nick Lowe, Larry Wallis, Dave Edmunds , Terry Williams , Pete Thomas and Penny Tobin). The original idea
20414-415: The narrator tries to deal with chaotic emotions by denying they ever occurred. "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" is a ska -infected rocker that was originally directly influenced by the works of the Who, before Bruce and Pete Thomas contributed new rhythms that made the track stand out on its own. Lyrically, the song attacks fashionable society; the girl is described as 'last year's model', as she has suffered
20587-414: The obsessive elements of the majority of the songs. ... Through the music, twitching and stuttering in a series of drum bursts, rents of organ and guitar arcs, the songs breathed as if through a gas mask – tight, controlled, afraid to splutter, claustrophobic, yet with a clear view of what was happening. —Tony Clayton-Lea, Elvis Costello: A Biography In the 2002 liner notes, Costello mentioned
20760-403: The other hand, defines the album as pure punk, with music that is "nervous, amphetamine-fueled, [and] nearly paranoid". In a contemporary interview with Creem magazine, Costello said the record contained less humour than its predecessor: "It's more vicious overall but far less personal, though." Referencing technologies of mass control, from corporate logos to night rallies, Hinton writes that
20933-439: The press a few weeks later, the bad publicity was sufficiently severe and widespread to be regarded, including by Costello himself, as the reason he never achieved the top-level commercial success in the US that had been predicted for him. In June, Costello had a hit as a songwriter when Dave Edmunds released his recording of " Girls Talk ", a song Costello had written but not yet recorded. Edmunds' version reached number 4 on
21106-436: The punk workings of the rest of the album for a ska-type rhythm. According to Gouldstone the track has themes already present in the album's other songs, including misogynistic ideals. "Lipstick Vogue" is described by AllMusic's Tom Maginnis as a showcase for the band's energy and skill. It opens with a drum fill by Pete Thomas before Bruce Thomas and Nieve drive on bass and keyboards, respectively. Reflecting themes of alienation,
21279-568: The record louder than its predecessor. Béchirian recalled in an interview with Mix magazine that Lowe's primary goal was to "make sure the bass sat in well with the kick" and to bring Costello's voice to the forefront. With the record completed, Costello and the Attractions toured America in January 1978. This Year's Model is a collection of songs that focused as much on Costello's recent success as on his by now patented emotional self-lacerations. Musically it seethed with tension, and this fitted
21452-442: The rhythmic guitar riff is likened by Gouldstone to heavy metal . Writing for AllMusic, Mark Deming stated that the song "perfectly captures the giddy but terrifying feeling of a wild, adrenaline-fueled all-night party that's dangling on the verge of collapse." A softer track changing from soft soul to Burt Bacharach , "Little Triggers" is about a failing relationship caused by the woman's indifference. The 'little triggers' refer to
21625-505: The rise of far-right political groups in the UK; the album was originally to be called Emotional Fascism . Just before the album's completion in late September, Costello and the Attractions played to an audience of 150,000 in Brockwell Park , south London, as part of the second Rock Against Racism music festival. A few weeks later, they began six months of touring that included, for the first time, Japan and Australia, as well as
21798-498: The same Twickenham flat where he had lived with his mother a few years earlier, by then occupied by his father (Ross), Ross's second wife, and their infant son. When booking himself into London clubs, he began using the name Declan Costello, adopting a family name that Ross had once made a record under, because it was easier to spell and understand than MacManus when he spoke on the phone. Around this time, Costello accompanied Ross to Costello's first professional recording session, for
21971-475: The sessions. According to Thomson, Costello remained focused despite keeping himself apart from his wife Mary during this time, which eventually led to their separation. Most of the songs had been written and performed live with the Attractions before the recordings. One of the final tracks written was " Pump It Up ", which Costello began writing outside a hotel fire escape during the Live Stiffs tour, debuting
22144-452: The set-lists. This Year's Model was issued in the US in May 1978; Columbia substituted "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and "Night Rally" with "Radio Radio" on the notion that the lyrics on both tracks were "too English". It reached to number 30 on Billboard 's Top LPs & Tape chart. The Scandinavian release retained the UK track listing and added "Watching the Detectives" as
22317-475: The short-lived Radar Records , taking Elvis Costello , Nick Lowe and Yachts with him as a settlement package. Riviera's departure coincided with the end of the "5 Live Stiffs Tour", which showcased emerging star Ian Dury . Dury's album New Boots & Panties!! had raced up the charts and its sales kept the label in business over the following months. In 1979, Robinson signed Madness , and Madness released albums from 1979 to 1984. The next few years were
22490-442: The singing, and chose the cover songs they played. A friend from those days later told a journalist, "It wasn't so much that he imposed the ideas; he was the one who had the ideas." None of the other members of Flip City shared Costello's commitment to pursuing a career in music and some disapproved of his desire to make money from his music. Costello became engaged to marry a former schoolmate in late 1973. By then he had found
22663-438: The small things that occur in the beginning of a relationship that make it meaningful, such as kissing, body-brushing and lip expressions. Rock Australia Magazine 's Anthony O'Grady called it "a hypnotic, frustrated, hurt love song that's almost the mirror image of ' Alison ' [from My Aim Is True ]." "You Belong to Me" is heavily in debt to the Rolling Stones, using the same riff as " The Last Time " (1965). Lyrically, it
22836-464: The song is about the perils of imperfect love. "Night Rally" provides commentary on the then-prevalent UK National Front . It presents, in Hinton's words, a "nightmare of state control and worse" that argues how totalitarianism infiltrates and affects society. Costello compares conglomerate corporations to these types of governments, in how they attempt to control the people. It cuts off abruptly, ending
23009-444: The song two days later and properly recording it in the studio a week after that. Having frequently played the tracks live, the band were able to complete them with few overdubs; some of Costello's live guide vocals ended up in the final mix. Bruce Thomas recalled: "We literally did the best tracks on the album – "Pump It Up", " (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea " – in one afternoon. It was like Motown . We'd just go in, play them, and that
23182-466: The song's main subject; "No Action", in this case, uses a telephone as comparisons to the narrator's companion. According to Costello, "This Year's Girl" was written as an "answer song" to the Rolling Stones' " Stupid Girl " (1965). Other influences included the mid-1960s works of the Beatles . In his 2015 memoir, Costello wrote that the song discusses how men see women and what they desire from them. The song's subject has achieved fame through fashion but it
23355-583: The song. Imperial Bedroom placed first on the Village Voice' s annual Pazz & Jop poll. In 1983, he released Punch the Clock , featuring female backing vocal duo ( Afrodiziak ) and a four-piece horn section ( the TKO Horns ), alongside the Attractions. Clive Langer (who co-produced with Alan Winstanley ), provided Costello with a melody which eventually became " Shipbuilding ", which featured
23528-405: The songs "remain brutally funny, sung with moments of unexpected tenderness". Regarding Costello's musicianship, Uncut 's Paul Moody argued that after he "dispensed with his musical safety net entirely" from My Aim Is True , This Year's Model began "his insatiable urge to 'bite the hand that feeds me'." The album was not without its detractors. Mojo magazine's Jim Irvin was more mixed on
23701-401: The songs were written prior to the sessions, and debuted live during the latter half of 1977. Embracing new wave , power pop and punk rock , the songs draw from bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles . The lyrics explore subjects such as technologies of mass control and failing relationships, but in a manner that some reviewers found misogynistic . Echoing the lyrics of some of
23874-537: The songs. For "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea", Costello based the guitar parts on the 1964 tracks " I Can't Explain " by the Who and " All Day and All of the Night " by the Kinks , which the band used to create new figures to make "Chelsea" stand out on its own. The band recorded several outtakes , including "Radio Radio" and "Big Tears", the latter featuring a guest contribution from the Clash guitarist Mick Jones . Other tracks written or demoed included "Crawling to
24047-504: The sound of the Hollies . The partially vague lyrics express a narrator's sexual frustrations on a would-be lover and observations on insincerity around him. "Living in Paradise" was written in 1975 when Costello was a member of the pub rock band Flip City. O'Grady calls it as "shuffling power-pop reggae detailing how dreams of soft-living actualise in soul-decaying corruption". Morgan Troper of PopMatters maintained that it abandons
24220-420: The sound of the times. Wanting a harder and sharper sound, he decided to assemble a permanent backing band. The first musician hired was Pete Thomas , former drummer of Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers ; the second hired was Bruce Thomas , a bassist whose previous involvements included several folk rock albums earlier in the decade; and last Steve Nieve , who had no prior band experience and had trained at
24393-480: The strongest four-piece rock bands of the era. Black Francis of Pixies named the album as a favorite, recalling, "The [album] I listened to the most [at college], though, was This Year's Model . ... Instead of studying I'd go in [my room] and listen to Elvis Costello over and over until my ears hurt and my head couldn't take it anymore". This Year's Model often appears on lists of the greatest albums of all time. In 2000 Q placed it at number 82 on its list of
24566-719: The tracks, the cover artwork, designed by the English graphic artist Barney Bubbles , shows Costello behind a camera on a tripod, emphasising his role as an observer. The accompanying singles " (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea " and " Pump It Up " were commercially successful and the album reached number four on the UK Albums Chart . The American LP was released in May 1978 through Columbia Records . Substituting "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and "Night Rally" for " Radio Radio ", it reached number 30 on Billboard 's Top LPs & Tape chart. This Year's Model also received critical acclaim; reviewers highlighted strong songwriting and performances, while also admiring Costello and
24739-410: The unobtrusive rimless glasses Costello had worn to correct astigmatism since he was a teenager for a pair with large black frames. Costello's first single, " Less than Zero ", was released at the end of March 1977. It received a few brief, mixed reviews in the British music press and sold very few copies. Two further singles, " Alison " and " (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes ", also sold poorly;
24912-495: The writer Jon Pareles found the album "so wrong-headed, so full of hatred, [and] so convinced of its moral superiority" in Crawdaddy magazine. Drawing comparisons to Aftermath 's similar lyrical content, Sounds magazine's Jon Savage said that "at least on occasion Elvis has the grace to make clear that it's a two-way process and he's at fault. Just wanna be your victim ...". Costello himself later wrote in
25085-521: Was "Radio Sweetheart", which would become the B-side of his first single. In mid-August 1976, Costello included "Mystery Dance" and "Radio Sweetheart" on a demo tape he gave to Stiff Records , a new independent label that had just released its first single. Partly due to the airplay received from Gillett around the same time, Costello was soon evaluating offers from several record companies, including Gillett's own Oval Records. Costello chose to work with Stiff Records because they seemed prepared to move
25258-467: Was a single (in the normal 7" vinyl 45 rpm format) by Nick Lowe , " So It Goes ", B-side "Heart of the City", with the striking catalogue number BUY 1. That record sold 10,000 copies, but Stiff's next release, "Between The Lines" by Pink Fairies , sold only around half of that. Robinson and Riviera used money from their Advancedale management company to finance the release of what is generally accepted as
25431-518: Was at the Heatwave festival in August near Toronto. In January 1981, Costello released Trust amidst growing tensions within the Attractions. The single " Watch Your Step " was released in the US only and played live on Tom Snyder 's Tomorrow show, and received airplay on FM rock radio. In the UK, the single " Clubland " scraped the lower reaches of the UK Singles Chart; follow-up single " From
25604-444: Was booking himself into clubs as a solo act under the name D.P. Costello, D.P. being his initials and a nickname he was sometimes called by his family. While working as D.P. Costello, he learned to sing and play guitar very loudly and developed a forceful stage presence, although he was still playing to small audiences for very little money. Few of the songs he had played with Flip City were included in these performances. Instead, he
25777-568: Was born Declan Patrick MacManus, on 25 August 1954, at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington , West London, the only child of a record shop worker and a jazz musician. Both parents were from the Liverpool area and had moved to London together a few years earlier. Costello's father was Catholic and of Irish descent, while his mother is English and was raised a Congregationalist . Costello's mother, Lillian MacManus (née Ablett, 1927–2021),
25950-602: Was born and raised in Toxteth , Liverpool, the daughter of a gas-main layer and a mother who became increasingly disabled by rheumatoid arthritis as Lillian grew up. Responsible for caring for her younger brother and sick mother, Lillian left school at 13 and took the first of a series of jobs at music stores. After moving to London with her future husband Ross in 1951, she took a job in the record department in Selfridges department store and continued selling records through
26123-459: Was completely silent on both sides, with Reagan's own slogan, "If it's a success it must be Magic!". At the end of 1983, Island Records bought 50% of Stiff, and Robinson ran both labels. Island was very short of money at the time and Robinson had to lend it £1,000,000 to fund the share purchase and pay the payroll. In 1984 Island Records released hit single "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood . Stiff signed The Pogues , but then Madness left under
26296-575: Was debuting some of the songs that would start to get the attention of the music industry, such as "Mystery Dance" and "Wave a White Flag". Costello included both songs on a six-track demo tape he sent to London radio presenter Charlie Gillett , who thought "Wave a White Flag" was the best of the six. Gillett played several songs from the tape on his radio show later that year, the first time any Costello song received airplay. Sometime in 1976, lack of money forced Costello, his wife and their toddler son to move in with relatives near Heathrow Airport , on
26469-433: Was deliberately off-centre, making the title appear as His Year's Model and the artist "Lvis Costello". The design by Barney Bubbles left a printers' colour bar intact along the right side. The American and Swedish sleeves were lined up correctly and not off-centre. Riviera's F-Beat Records released a May 1980 issue with an aligned sleeve, which has been retained for all subsequent releases. Photographed by Chris Gabrin,
26642-442: Was first released on CD through Columbia and Demon Records in January 1986. Its first extended reissue came in October 1993 through Demon in the UK and Rykodisc in the US, which added the bonus tracks "Radio Radio", "Crawling to the U.S.A.", "Running Out of Angels", "Greenshirt" and "Big Boys". The 2002 CD reissue by Rhino Entertainment added more tracks on top of the 1993 additions; with this release, "Radio Radio"
26815-525: Was it." Despite the fast-paced nature of the sessions, Béchirian recalled Costello coming off the tour with "radiating energy": He was a star almost overnight, and I think he was quite bemused by it all, swept up with the excitement. I have a great laughing image of him being fairly fresh-faced, like a little boy in a sweet shop. Thomson says the sessions were "vibrant", productive and completed without difficulty. They began each day around 11 a.m. and finished around 9 p.m. According to Béchirian, "the whole thing
26988-447: Was never able surpass the record's "inventive punch", while Michael Gallucci of Ultimate Classic Rock deemed it the work that "bridged his brief past with his wide-open future". Troper deemed it Costello's "most consistent" release and finest with the Attractions, finding it the artist's "most live-sounding, most punk, and most honest record of his dauntingly expansive career". PopMatters writers Jason Mendelsohn and Eric Klinger hailed
27161-403: Was occasionally being paid a little money. On the eve of the release of his debut album in 1977, Costello told a journalist that by that time he had written hundreds of songs. At the beginning of 1972, Costello was invited to join a folk-rock band called Rusty by the band's founder, an 18-year-old veteran of the Liverpool music scene named Allan Mayes. As other members left, Rusty soon became
27334-407: Was really good, it was really friendly, very positive. Everyone was really excited because they were the stars of the moment." Costello and the Attractions collaborated during the songwriting process. Although Costello preferred an "immaculate approach" to songwriting, wherein he would not present songs to the musicians until they were fully written, the Attractions offered suggestions that helped shape
27507-498: Was recorded and mixed in six four-hour sessions for a total cost of about £1,000. The final mix was completed in late January 1977. Producer Nick Lowe, recording engineer Barry Farmer and Clover bassist John Ciambotti have all said they found Costello confident, well-prepared, and mature beyond his years during the making of the album. By February 1977, Riviera and Robinson, who were now Costello's managers, had given him his new stage name, Elvis. The reference to Elvis Presley , who
27680-423: Was recorded at Eden Studios , in west London, in eleven days. Inspirations for the album's sound included 1960s beat groups like the Who, the Kinks and Small Faces, as well as contemporary acts like Talking Heads , but the biggest influence was the Rolling Stones ' album Aftermath (1966). Costello himself called This Year's Model "a ghost version of Aftermath " and "This Year's Girl" an answer song to
27853-602: Was recorded during a break in Costello's touring schedule. Recording took place at Eden Studios , a 24-track studio in Acton, London , beginning towards the end of December 1977 and completing in early January 1978. Costello later said the entire album was recorded in about eleven days. The band briefly paused to play a three-night residency at London's Nashville Rooms, which concluded on Christmas Eve 1977. Nick Lowe returned from My Aim Is True as producer and, in Thomson's words,
28026-475: Was released as a stand-alone single in the UK on 24 October 1978, backed by "Tiny Steps". This Year's Model was well received on release. Many critics deemed it superior to My Aim Is True , praised the Attractions as a better band than Clover, and highlighted the strong songwriting and performances. Melody Maker 's Allan Jones called it "an achievement so comprehensive, so inspired, that it exhausts superlatives". He wrote that "the penetration of
28199-585: Was released in Britain in February. Costello has said he wrote the song after his first visit to Northern Ireland and was inspired by seeing young British soldiers on the streets of Belfast as a part of the Troubles . The song reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. It was also his biggest hit single in Ireland , reaching number 4 on the Irish singles chart. The second single, " Accidents Will Happen ",
28372-669: Was released in early May. According to Costello, the song was written in response to his own marital infidelities. The song reached number 28 in the UK. In the US, it reached number 101, missing the Billboard Hot 100 but charting higher than any previous Costello single. The concert tour promoting Armed Forces was marked by bad publicity. Costello and the Attractions played some shows that audiences considered too brief and refused to return for encores. Audiences in Sydney, Australia, and Berkeley, California, responded by vandalising
28545-403: Was released on 22 July 1977. Two weeks earlier, Costello had left his job as a computer operator at Elizabeth Arden on the condition that Stiff pay him, as an advance on future royalties, a regular stipend equal to the wages he had been earning at his job. In mid-June 1977, Costello held auditions for a bassist and keyboardist for a backing band for a tour to promote My Aim Is True , wanting
28718-405: Was sequenced as the album closer after "Night Rally". Troper argues that the addition changes the record's tone immensely, stating that as "Radio Radio" is more upbeat, it brings the album to a proper conclusion compared to the disturbing imagery and abrupt ending of "Night Rally". In 2008, it was reissued again by Universal / Hip-O Records as a deluxe edition, featuring most of the same tracks as
28891-406: Was still alive at the time, was simply intended to get attention. Costello neither particularly liked nor disliked Presley. Because Costello had seen his father, Ross, work under a variety of stage names, he gave little thought to the name change. Riviera and Robinson also helped give Costello a distinctive appearance that contrasted with the contemporaneous ideas how pop stars looked; they swapped
29064-744: Was sufficiently well known for his son's birth to be announced in the New Musical Express . From 1955 to 1968, he was a featured singer in Joe Loss Orchestra , one of Britain's most popular big bands . Ross had a solo cabaret act from 1969 through the 1990s, playing workingmen's social clubs in the North of England, Scotland, and Wales. Ross recorded for small record labels under a variety of aliases, including Day Costello – Costello being Ross's paternal grandmother's maiden name. He also recorded advertising jingles. In 1973, he sang
29237-432: Was that October's " Watching the Detectives ", his first single to reach the UK top 20. In the meantime, Costello had written a large amount of new material which would appear on This Year's Model . According to the author Graeme Thomson, Costello's reputation in the US grew faster than in the UK. He was acclaimed in publications such as Time and Newsweek and approached to appear on NBC 's Saturday Night Live as
29410-403: Was that the running order would rotate each night, but Dury and Costello were clearly the strongest acts. Costello played mostly new material and cover versions, rather than numbers from his recently released album My Aim is True , so the gigs usually ended with most of the artists on stage performing Dury's " Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll ". A live album entitled Live Stiffs Live and
29583-443: Was the "mad professor", pushing the band's energy further to attain the best performance. Like the debut, Lowe primarily wanted to capture the songs live with few overdubs . Acting as a foil to Lowe was engineer Roger Béchirian , who Costello recalled was tasked with interpreting Lowe's commands, such as "turn the drums into one big maraca" or "make it sound like a dinosaur eating cars". Costello stayed at Bruce Thomas's flat during
29756-563: Was writing for his next album. In July 1978, Costello performed at the Danish Roskilde Festival , topping the bill with three other artists, premiering the song " Oliver's Army " that would become his biggest hit in the UK. Costello and the Attractions recorded his third album, Armed Forces , at Eden Studios in six weeks from August and September 1978. It was again produced by Nick Lowe, but Costello himself provided greater creative control. Like This Year's Model ,
29929-613: Was written later, while Costello was on tour with other Stiff acts, in reaction to what he later called his "first exposure to idiotic rock and roll decadence." Upon release in March, This Year's Model entered the UK Albums Chart at number 4. The US version of the album dropped "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and "Night Rally", a song written in response to the rise of the British National Front , and replaced them with "Radio Radio". The US release reached number 30 on
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