71: THIS YEAR'S MODEL | ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS
Stephen Thomas Erlewine at Allmusic: Where My Aim Is True implied punk rock with its lyrics and stripped-down production, This Year's Model sounds like punk. Not that Elvis Costello's songwriting has changed -- This Year's Model is comprised largely of leftovers from My Aim Is True and songs written on the road. It's the music that changed. After releasing My Aim Is True, Costello assembled a backing band called the Attractions, which were considerably tougher and wilder than Clover, who played on his debut. The Attractions were a rock & roll band, which gives This Year's Model a reckless, careening feel. It's nervous, amphetamine-fueled, nearly paranoid music -- the group sounds like they're spinning out of control as soon as they crash in on the brief opener, "No Action," and they never get completely back on track, even on the slower numbers. Costello and the Attractions speed through This Year's Model at a blinding pace, which gives his songs -- which were already meaner than the set on My Aim Is True -- a nastier edge. "Lipstick Vogue," "Pump It Up," and "(I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea" are all underscored with sexual menace, while "Night Rally" touches on a bizarre fascination with fascism that would blossom on his next album, Armed Forces. Even the songs that sound relatively lighthearted -- "Hand in Hand," "Little Triggers," "Lip Service," "Living in Paradise" -- are all edgy, thanks to Costello's breathless vocals, Steve Nieve's carnival-esque organ riffs, and Nick Lowe's bare-bones production. Of course, the songs on This Year's Model are typically catchy and help the vicious sentiments sink into your skin, but the most remarkable thing about the album is the sound -- Costello and the Attractions never rocked this hard, or this vengefully, ever again.
Wiki: This Year's Model is Elvis Costello's second album and his first with the Attractions, released in 1978. It was mainly recorded at Eden Studios in West London.
It was voted the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. In 2000 it was voted number 152 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 2000, Q magazine placed This Year's Model at number 82 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 1987, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 11 on its list of the best albums of the period 1967–1987. In 2003, the album was ranked number 98 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list.In 1985, Robert Smith of the Cure cited it as one of his five favorite albums.
This Year's Model was Elvis Costello's first album with The Attractions. Most of the songs had been performed live with them prior to the recording of the album. The recording at Eden Studios began at the end of 1977 and was completed in early 1978. The sessions took about eleven days. In liner notes for a 2002 reissue of the album, Costello cites the Rolling Stones Aftermath as a significant influence
Early issues of the album have an apparently misprinted sleeve, which cuts off the left side of the front cover (including the letters 'E' from 'Elvis' and 'T' from 'This') and shows a printers' colour bar along the right side (see cover right). This was a deliberate mistake (a favourite technique of cover designer Barney Bubbles), as was pressing "Special pressing No. 003. Ring 434 32 32. Ask for Moira for your prize" between the holding spirals on Side 1. Indeed, people calling the aforementioned number ("Moira" being a press agent at Radar Records) would be rewarded with a badge.
Early issues of the LP came with a free 7" single, housed in a Radar house sleeve, with "Stranger in the House" (an outtake from Costellos debut album, as it was thought to be commercial suicide to release a country song in 1977) on side A and a live cover of The Damned's "Neat Neat Neat" on side B. The promotion also included a black and white sticker stuck on the LP's shrinkwrap that said 'Free Album With This Single'.
The USA version was a different photo from the same session and didn't feature the deliberate mis-cropping. The original American pressing on Columbia also says "Costello" instead of "Columbia" on the inner label.
The title This Year's Model indirectly references two songs on the original UK album: most obviously "This Year's Girl", but also "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea",which contains a lyric about "last year's model". Read more