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What Bryan Ferry was to Roxy Music, Costello is to the Attractions: mentor and mastermind, the computer control plugged into the pulse of the moment, drawing power from the prowess of the musicians, inspiration from a fertile sub-culture and ideas from a comprehensive programming in life.
The album reflects his steadily growing maturity and fulfilment of the early promise to surf higher, faster and longer than his New Wave contemporaries.
The band's approach is lighter than Roxy's, much more a framework for Costello's charismatic performance. In other respects the style is similar; highly stylised vocals — in this case pained and 1950s fashion and superb lyrics.
Word play is Costello's forte, employed on tracks like "Senior Service" to cut — "it's a death that's worse than fate" — and on others like "Sunday's Best" for humour.
He also has a keen ear for the sound of words, alliterating his verses in a way which adds sparkle to the oblique imagery. In the end, Costello may be too clever for his own good — Ferry always had the sheer power of Roxy's music to fall back on — but for the time being, an excellent album.
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