[Note: I am forgoing my usual April Fools’ Day post this year, in part because I’m in the middle of a Decades countdown and in part because the world seems to have turned into a giant, cruel prank without me needing to pile on.]

Elvis Costello’s Punch the Clock followed what may be his best album, Imperial Bedroom, by just a year, and in that context it can’t help but be a bit of a letdown. But it’s plenty good enough to land at #3 on my list of the best albums of 1983.

Produced by British songwriters Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, featuring a full horn section and background vocals by a duo known as Afrodiziak, Punch the Clock was Costello’s poppiest album to date. Even songs that started as somber ballads were transformed into bright and upbeat tracks.

One exception is the lovely ‘Shipbuilding,’ a piano dirge about the Falklands War that features a gorgeous trumpet solo by Chet Baker. It’s one of Costello’s best songs.

But I don’t want to sleep on the fun stuff. ‘Everyday I Write the Book,’ which Costello says he wrote in 15 minutes, became a modest hit and deserved to be an even bigger one. ‘Let Them All Talk,’ ‘The Element Within Her,’ ‘Love Went Mad,’ ‘Charm School’ — all of these songs are loose, clever and delightful.

Costello has released 32 studio albums, and I’d rank this one right around 11 or 12. What a catalog he has assembled!