Out Of Print! Only a few copies left!
Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 121/500!
TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 3/5 Sonics in the December 2010 Issue of The Absolute Sound!
Audio Beat Rated 5/5 Music, 3.5/5 Sound!
Numbered, Limited Edition! Half-Speed Mastered from the Original Master Tapes!
Costello's hardest-rocking effort sounds livelier and punchier than ever!
The first record he made with his legendary backing band the Attractions, "This Years Model" is Elvis Costellos most explosive and urgent album. Picking up where his debut "My Aim Is True" left off, the British singer/guitarist blasts through 13 excellent tracks with the fervent purpose and head-long pace of someone who has a cab waiting for him outside.
Stylistically versatile, deeply varied, and melodically catchy, this is where Costello came into his own - and where the chemistry between virtuosic keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas, and drummer Pete Thomas produced one of rocks best groups. A dynamic maelstrom of emotional spite, bitter frustration, sexual angst, and caustic political commentary, the 1978 set boosted Costellos star and yielded innumerable standards: the undying MOR protest "Radio Radio," the fervent "Pump It Up," the smart "(I Dont Want to Go to) Chelsea," and the spunky "No Action" are all here.
While often cited as Costellos "angry" record, "This Years Model" has more to do with disappointments and denials. The album bursts forth with a savage energy not possible without the Attractions, which are responsible for the songs being built from the ground up. Where Costellos voice and twangy guitar dominate "My Aim Is True", here, sizzling rhythms and Nieves colorful organ runs anchor the foundations. This is a group effort, with Costellos biting lyrics taking chances and forcing the listener to mull double meanings all the while the music zooms by at a fast clip.
More than 30 years after its original release, "This Years Model" will still leave you breathless. Railing against unachievable desires, Costello and company delight in the anguish, and spit such torment back out in the form of hook-ridden music that functions as a brilliant form of situational confirmation and emotional catharsis.
Half-speed mastered from the original tapes, Mobile Fidelitys numbered limited-edition 180-gram LP brings This Years Models vicious songs to the forefront like never before. Punchier, gutsier, and livelier than any of the myriad CD remasters, this analog edition offers a transparent window onto the Attractions' loose interplay, Nieve's carnivalesque organ work, and rabid pounce of the Thomas-Thomas rhythm section. Here, for the first time, are previously buried tones, textures, and details. It took years to happen, but this is how "This Years Model" was always supposed to sound.
Features the Original Cover Design by the English Graphic Designer Barney Bubbles which has a mis-cropping so the entire design was off-register. The Cover looks like an apparently misprinted sleeve, which cuts off the left side of the front cover (including the letters 'E' from 'Elvis' and 'T' from 'This') and shows a printers' color bar along the right side (see cover right). This was a deliberate mistake (a favourite technique of cover designer Barney Bubbles).
Also available are Costellos equally essential debut My Aim Is True (MFSL 1-329) and 1979's Armed Forces (MFSL 1-331)!
"...expect to hear "This Year's Model" with a clarity, energy, and musical integrity as never before." - Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound, December 2010, Issue 208, pg 158, 4/5 Music, 3/5 Sonics
Amidst the renaissance that vinyl continues to enjoy, these reissues [MFSL 1-330 Elvis Costello This Year's Model & MFSL 1-331 Elvis Costello Armed Forces] along with My Aim is True, shine brightly. Marc Mickelson, www.theaudiobeat.com, Music 5/5, Sound 3.5/5 Sound!
Click Here to read the entire review!
"His second album and first with his crack backing band the Attractions, This Year's Model is the most "punk" of Costello's records not in any I-hate-the-cops sense but in his emotionally explosive writing ("No Action," "Lipstick Vogue," "Pump It Up") and the Attractions' vicious gallop (particularly the psycho-circus organ playing of Steve Nieve). Many of the songs rattle with sexual paranoia, but the broadside against vanilla-pop broadcasting, "Radio, Radio" (a U.K. single added to the original U.S. vinyl LP), better reflects the general, righteous indignation of the album: Costello vs. the world. And Costello wins." - www.rollingstone.com
"Theres a strong case for regarding this as ECs best album... The magic ingredient was the arrival of the band that would accompany him through his strongest period, his most sympathetic backing of all: the butt-kicking Attractions... Its ignoble to suggest that Costello was maturing: he arrived fully formed and in no need of assistance. It was like giving a great F1 driver a faster car." - Ken Kessler, Hi-Fi News, Sound Quality Rating: 87%
Features:
Numbered, Limited Edition
Half-Speed Production and Mastering by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab from the Original Master Tapes
Specially Plated and Pressed on 180 grams of High Definition Vinyl
Special Static Free - Dust Free Inner Sleeve
Heavy Duty Protective Packaging
Gatefold jacket
Selections:
1. No Action
2. This Year's Girl
3. The Beat
4. Pump It Up
5. Little Triggers
6. You Belong to Me
7. Hand in Hand
8. Lip Service
9. Living in Paradise
10. Lipstick Vogue
11. Radio, Radio
