ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 336 ELVIS COSTELLO - THIS YEAR'S MODEL (1978)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Disclaimer: All info that does not reside in my brain is gathered from wikipedia.com (mostly because Jon can't stand it) unless otherwise noted.

I don't have any additional disclaimers for you this week, just This Year's Model for your listening pleasure. It's Elvis Costello's sophomore album from 1978.

What you get is an album that was number 30 in the US and number 4 in the UK. It went Gold in both countries. None of the singles charted in the US, but they all charted in the Top 30 in the UK.  

Quite honestly, that's all I have to say this week, except that the riff in the song Pump It Up is totally awesome!

Side One:

1. No Action

2. This Year's Girl

3. The Beat

4. Pump It Up

5. Little Triggers

6. You Belong To Me

Side Two:

7. Hand In Hand

8. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea

9. Lip Service

10. Living In Paradise

11. Lipstick Vogue

12. Night Rally

13. Radio, Radio

 

 

[Jon]

Never really got into EC, and this doesn't change that at all. I have purchased one EC album in my life, and that was "Get Happy!!" way back in 1980 because it had 20 SONGS!!! That's right, 20!!!!!!! All one one piece of round vinyl! I even think there was a sticker on the cover proclaiming 20 SONG!!!! I thought that was quite the deal, bought it, listened to it a couple times and that was that. Never really cared for him after (or really before) that and still don't. There's a few good songs, one of them on this album (Pump It Up) but the rest of it all mostly sounds the same. He was amusing in that Ricky Bobby movie though........

[RJhog (Admin)]

For the most part, I agree.  I just really like the song Pump It Up.  I don't think this is bad, but it's easy to lose your concentration when listening, which translates into "this is mostly background music".

[Scott]

I seen his SNL performance back in the day, wasnt impressed, but because of my luck skills I managed to "win" an album of his, the one with Whats so funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understandin'"...  yuck, just yuck!  That album is nowhere to be found and I have no idea what I did with it.  But I've never had any desire to hear more.  

And like that were at track 3.  There are critic favorites and listener favorites, always felt like Costello was a critic choice that had nothing to do with music that my generation got into.  So I wrote him off as one of the European acts that didn't translate here, still feel that way about about him.

I can't seem to find a groove on this, don't care for his vocal delivery and the keyboards are too new wave and the song writing is just passable on a few tracks...  I suspect you feel the same as Jon and I...

[RJhog (Admin)]

See my reply to Jon above...I think we all concur, but I've been in a "bring something a little different mode" lately, so it fits.

[Scott]

Totally like the different posts and thoughts that go into them, so its all good.

[RJhog (Admin)]

Didn't have many thoughts this week.  Long, tough work week.

[Niels (Mod)]

A friend of mine was a EC-fan right form the start, so I remember this album from 1978. Back then, I was getting in to The Boomtown Rats, which is kind of the same kind of music, but then not really. I could hear, that EC was a good song-writer, but I didn't like his voice, and wasn't really that interested.

In the late 90's or so, I heard EC's album created together with Burt Bacharach, and I was blown away!! Great album!!

That made me buy some of the older EC-albums, including this one.

But the same thing happend again: I could hear, he was a good songwriter, but I wasn't really that interested, and only heard the albums a couple of times. Including this one.

What I can conclude is, that the reason why I love the EC/BB-album probably mostly is because of BB. EC's voice is..special, but he's a good singer, great at times, but.....I'm really not that interested,

"Pump It Up" is a good song.