Elvis Costello - This Year’s Model

UK, 1978, Radar

For his second album, Elvis Costello fine-tuned his aesthetic by abandoning the California studio cat accompanists of his debut for the more aggressive, quirky and very British Attractions, who would define Costello's sound over the next several years. Where My Aim is True highlighted Costello's rootsy influences (the Band, etc.), This Years Model wholeheartedly embraces the 'new wave' out-with-the-old mindset, favouring tightly wound ferocity over back-porch-isms. Irresistibly catchy, in a twitchy, neurotic, white-knuckled way, This Years Model is Costello at his edgiest.