March 17: Elvis Costello and The Attractions released “This Year’s Model” in 1978
Perfectly balancing the raw energy of My Aim Is True with the more elegant pop songwriting that would come to characterize much of his later work, This Year’s Model is not only Costello’s best work, but one of the most distinctively brilliant albums ever to be released. For fans of rock music bursting with wit and character, it really just doesn’t get any better than this.
~Matt LeMay (pitchfork.com)
My favourite Costello album was released 17 March 1978 – 37 years ago today.
The Beat:
Released
17 March 1978
Recorded
Eden Studios, London, 1977–1978
Genre
Punk rock, new wave
Length
35:44
Label
Radar
Producer
Nick Lowe
It was voted the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll.
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.
(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea:
…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.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
The US release on Columbia, two months after the original UK release, dropped “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” (reportedly as being “too English”) and “Night Rally” and added “Radio Radio” to close side two.
Some European versions of the album added “Watching The Detectives” at the end of side one. This non-album single released in 1977 shortly after My Aim Is True was already included on the US version of Costello’s first album.
William Patrick “Billy” Corgan, Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, producer and occasional poet best known as the frontman and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the addition of bassist D’arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin.
Richard William Curless (March 17, 1932 – May 25, 1995) was an American country-music singer, a pioneer of the trucking music genre, commonly known as the “Baron of Country Music.” He was easily distinguished because of the patch he usually wore over his right eye.
Scott Gorham (born William Scott Gorham on March 17, 1951 in Glendale, California) is an American guitarist and songwriter who rose to international recognition as one of the “twin lead guitarists” of the Irish-formed rock band, Thin Lizzy.
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first black Americans to host a television variety show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death.
