In 1979, Elvis Costello released his third album in as many years. Armed Forces was his second album recorded with The Attractions (who were credited on the sleeve for the first time) and a step up from My Aim is True and This Year’s Model in terms of production values.
I’ve underrated Armed Forces over the years because it pales in comparison to its surrounding albums — not just the two it followed, but the two that followed it. I’m quick to dismiss this album as a qualified success.
It’s appropriate that I’m featuring an Elvis Costello song on Halloween, as I first saw the man in concert in Sunrise, Florida, with my brother-in-law on Halloween night, 1999.
That was his first time in Florida in many years and my first opportunity to see him during the decade I’d been a fan. I’ve since seen him four or five more times but that first one remains the most special (and not just because he went “off mic” to sing his closing number).
Elvis Costello’s follow-up to My Aim is True, 1978’s This Year’s Model, was his first album with The Attractions. Steve Nieve, Bruce Thomas and Pete Thomas would go on to play (in various combinations) with Costello for the rest of his career to date.
Perhaps it was the influence of these new bandmates that unleashed a very different Costello on This Year’s Model than the one on his debut. The album is fast and ferocious, the angriest album by a very angry young man. Its 12 songs clock in at barely 35 minutes. This is the record that earned Costello his reputation as a punk artist, the Bacharach stuff be damned.
In 1976, a 22-year-old Elvis Costello took a sick day from his job as a computer operator and holed up in a London studio with a band called Clover to record one of the great debut albums in rock history, My Aim is True.
The album wasn’t a huge commercial hit, but it was a critical smash. This weird-looking guy with Buddy Holly glasses and a pigeon-toed punk stance could jump from New Wave pop to Bacharach-style ballads in the course of a few songs. Right off the bat he was hard to peg.
So how does one follow 10 months worth of Bob Dylan Weekends? In my case, I go to another one of my absolute favorite artists, and perhaps the only songwriter in my collection who rivals Dylan in terms of output and lyrical dexterity.
Welcome to Elvis Costello Weekends!
Born in London in 1954 as Declan Patrick MacManus (talk about a name begging to be changed), Costello released his first album at 23 and went on to have one of the most diverse and fascinating careers in popular music. He has tried his hand at every conceivable genre, from punk to country, chamber music to opera. I await his rap album any time now.
Meet Me In Montauk 