121. Elvis Costello, "This Year’s Model"

 

I'm not even sure this is in my top 3 Elvis Costello albums (now that I think about it, it's not, they're Imperial Bedroom, Armed Forces, and Punch the Clock), but yeah, like all EC records from his Golden Era of 1977-1987, it's absolutely packed with gems.  How about these: "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and "The Beat" and "No Action" and "Radio Radio" and those are just the best-known songs.  This guy would just wake up and songs would fall out of his ass.

And this was only his second album!  Notably, it was his first with the backing band that would become known as the Attractions, including a keyboard player fresh out of the Royal College of Music named Steve Nieve, whose mark on Costello's sound was immediate.  So many of these songs have strong keyboard parts - just take the aforementioned "The Beat," where the keyboard not only punctuates the verses with little accents, but in fact drives the main musical motif.

Elsewhere, on songs like "Pump It up," it's drummer Pete Thomas whose work really shines.  He makes that song, which is built on his powerful beat and works up from there.  Once that strong backing is established, Nieve comes in again.  It's really remarkable how little the guitar is front and center here, given its prominence on Costello's first album, My Aim Is True.

Maybe hard to believe now, but he got a lot of shit from people who thought, and maybe still think, this album is misogynistic.  In "Lipstick Vogue," he sings:

You say you're sorry for the things that you've done
You say you're sorry but you know you don't mean it
I wouldn't worry, I had so much fun
Sometimes I almost feel just like a human being
It's you, not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue
It's you, not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue, oh yeah

Costello seemed surprised by the accusations, and tried to point out that he's usually the one pining, or hurt, or scared, in the lyrics, even if maybe they didn't come out that way.  In "No Action," one of the album's best track, he compares indecision over picking up the phone with indecision about pursuing a relationship:

I don't wanna kiss you. I don't wanna touch.
I don't wanna see you 'cause I don't miss you that much.
I'm not a telephone junkie.
I told you that we were just good friends.
But when I hold you like I hold that bakelite in my hands,
there's no action,
there's no action,
there's no action.
Ev'ry time I phone you, I just wanna put you down.

"Radio Radio" (which only appeared on the US release), an indictment of commercial radio, was also the subject of what seems like now a humorous controversy.  When Costello and the band appeared on "Saturday Night Live" in 1977, they were scheduled to play "Watching the Detectives" and "Less Than Zero," but Elvis stopped the performance of the latter song and launched the band into "Radio Radio," enraging producer Lorne Michaels for some reason and getting the band banned from SNL for a decade.  It's amazing what people used to get mad about!

Is this album in my personal Top 500? Definitely.