My Aim Is True Reviews
All-Music Guide (William Ruhlmann)
Elvis Costello's debut album is a pop landmark that indicates the future that
may exist for the spirit of punk in the wider genre of rock music. Backed by
the American group Clover (featuring then-future Doobie Brother John McFee but
not harmonica player Huey Lewis), Costello displays all the characteristics
that would serve him throughout his career: a caustic wit he uses to savage
himself and others, a broad imagination -- (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red
Shoes is one of the best pieces of rock whimsy ever written -- an
unsentimental but compelling sense of romance (Alison), and an
astonishing verbal facility, all enmeshed with a pop encyclopedist's musical
knowledge. One of the greatest first albums in pop history.