Elvis Costello, "My Aim Is True"

 

I would wager a fair amount that almost every person reading this blog has, at some time or another, drunk-wailed "ALLLLLLLISON, I KNOW this world is KILLING YOU" in a bar or at a party or just at home, looking forlornly out a window.  That song, "Alison," was wired into my brain by the time I was 17 and will never leave.  And it's just one of the songs on this incredible collection.

The songwriting is, of course, nearly flawless; the melodies juke around, always taking a slightly unexpected but then almost inevitable turn.  There's the straight punkabilly of "Mystery Dance" and the pure pop of "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes."  Of course it was produced by Nick Lowe; his sensibility is obvious, but Elvis takes it and runs with it.  

Then, of course, there are the lyrics.  Elvis is probably one of the top 5 or 10 greatest lyricists in rock history, and it's obvious on this, his first album, that he's interested in wordplay and a brilliant turn of phrase much more than your average writer.  Take the second verse of "Watching the Detectives:"

Long shot at that jumping sign
Invisible shivers running down my spine
Cut to baby taking off her clothes
Close-up of the sign that says, 'We never close'
He snatched at you and you match his cigarette
She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet
I don't know how much more of this I can take
She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake

There's a double trick going on here; not only do the words describe the scene in such a cinematic way that you can't help but picture it in your mind; he also uses explicitly cinematic terms to set the scene ("long shot," "cut to baby," "close up").  He's telling you how to see it in your head and your head obediently follows.  And "she's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake" does in nine words what it might take a lesser detective novelist a paragraph to describe.  Just brilliant.

"Less Than Zero," of course, went on to  become the name of Bret Easton Ellis' first novel, a look at an amoral and hedonistic young LA.  Although there's no direct connection between the song and the plot of the book, both paint a bleak picture of the teens of their era.  I also can't leave without mentioning "Waiting for the End of the World," which is basically an anthology series told from the shifting points of view of a bunch of people on a train stuck in the London Underground.  

I am 100% sure we will see Elvis again, and there are albums of his I like better, but wow, what a debut.