This Year's Model Reviews
All-Music Guide (Stephen Thomas Erlewine)
Where My Aim Is True implied punk rock with its lyrics and
stripped-down production, This Year's Model sounds like punk. Not that
Costello's songwriting has changed -- This Year's Model is comprised
largely of leftovers from My Aim Is True and songs written on the road.
It's the music that changed. After releasing My Aim Is True, Costello
assembled a backing band called The Attractions, which were considerably
tougher and wilder than Clover, who played on his debut. The Attractions
were a rock & roll band, which gives This Year's Model a reckless,
careening feel. It's nervous, amphetamine-fueled, nearly paranoid music -- the
group sounds like they're spinning out of control as soon as they crash in on
the brief opener, No Action, and they never get completely back on
track, even on the slower numbers. Costello and The Attractions speed through
This Year's Model at a blinding pace, which gives his songs -- which
were already meaner than the set on My Aim Is True -- a nastier edge.
Lipstick Vogue, Pump It Up, and (I Don't Want To Go To)
Chelsea are all underscored with sexual menace, while Night Rally
touches on a bizzare fascination with fascism that would blossom on his next
album, Armed Forces. Even the songs that sound relatively lighthearted
-- Hand In Hand, Little Triggers, Lip Service, Living
In Paradise -- are all edgy, thanks to Costello's breathless vocals, Steve
Nieve's carnivalesque organ riffs, and Nick Lowe's bare-bones production. Of
course, the songs on This Year's Model are typically catchy and help
the vicious sentiments sink into your skin, but the most remarkable thing
about the album is the sound -- Costello and The Attractions never rocked this
hard, or this vengefully, ever again.
(The 1993 compact disc reissue standardized the sequencing of This
Year's Model on both sides of the Atlantic, restoring the album to its
original British running order and adding six bonus tracks. The first three
tracks are singles and B-sides, including the classic rant Radio,
Radio, the organ-driven '60s pop of Big Tears, and the frenetic
Crawling To The USA. The remaining three tracks -- Running Out Of
Angels, Greenshirt, and Big Boys -- are all demos.)