Elvis Costello | THIS YEAR’S MODEL
This Year’s Model was Costello’s first album with The Attractions and offers a caffeinated and spry attack on his ever-growing brand.
Comprised largely of leftover cuts from his classic debut My Aim Is True, the album touches upon a punk-rock lite style at a frantic and blinding pace. “Radio Radio” was a protest song against the commercialist mainstream forces of corporate radio play. In a classic SNL performance where he was warned not to perform it, he stopped the band and launchd into a punchy rendition of the number. For some strange reason, he was banned from the telecast for a dozen years, an act that seems tame by today’s standards, but captures what it was for Costello to be a rebel.
Costello’s forte lies within his nervous energy and it comes across in droves all over This Year’s Model. In just over 35 minutes he manages to fill the album with jittery hooks without losing steam at any point. “Pump It Up” stomps and drives on its own momentum and would later serve as a template for the strange 80’s smash Wild Wild West. New Wave anticipation and ska influence pounce all over “(I Don’t Want To Go to) Chelsea”, his lyrical delivery full of bright punctuation. “Little Triggers” offers the album only ballad hinting at several parts of his later career obsession with crooning.
The album riffs on pop beats and sixties Brit-meets-New Wave deliveries. “Hand In Hand” jumps and skips while “Lipstick Vogue”‘s double time romp lets the bass run all over the stomping ground. All this energy amounts to an elastic and effervescent solidification of what Costello wanted to portray. The early period of Costello albums work best when the songs are short on delivery and tapping directly into Elvis’ internal energy. While questionably New Wave, the album remains one of Costello’s strongest offerings even forty years onward.
2 oz Stout Beer
1.5 oz Irish Wiskey
1 oz Scotch Whiskey
2 oz Strong Cold Brew Coffee
1/2 tsp black cherry syrup
Orange Peel