Slash, July 1978

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications Slash   1977 May 1977 October 1977 December 1978 April 1978 July 1979 January 1979 March 1980 April Fanzines  Alternative Rhythms Alternative Ulster Austin Vanguard Aware Back Door Man Barbed Wire Beat It! Beyond Belief Blaze Blitz! Bucketfull Of Brains Burnt Offering Candybeat 504 Censur City Chains Clubland Costello Fanzine Cripes Despair Deviation Street Elvis Costello Chronicles Elvis Costello Info. Service Final Notice Fröken Äsping Gabba Gabba Gazette Gabba Gabba Hey Ghast Up Grinding Halt Hamburger Orgienpost Hannover Spargel Heat High Roller Hoopla Imagine In The City Jet Lag Juice K-79 Kingdom Come Kvinde Hader Klub Larm Live Wire Living In Paradise Loaded Look At The Time Maximum Rock'N'Roll Moods For Moderns Negative Reaction New Pose Nerve No Fun Noise Noise For Heroes Nürtingen Slit Omaha Rainbow On The Beat Ostrich Overthrow Ox Fanzine Pig Paper Poser Public Enemy Raw Power Record Digest Safety In Numbers Shades Shews Slash Sniffin' Glue Snot Rag Spuno Street Fever Substitute Summer Salt Surfin' Bird Talking In The Dark Terminal Wool City Rocker — This Year's Model Elvis Costello Claude Bessy Costello's first album suffered from having a few good songs immersed in a production too indifferent and thin to convey the energy the songs were performed with. This time Costello has come thru with a remarkably consistent pop record with a couple of gems in its midst for which he still deserves some attention. With This Year's Model, he has gained a distinctive sound that had only been hinted at in the previous album, along with a considerable increase in the intensity of his singing. It opens with the very pop "No Action," which quickly moves into the atmospheric "This Year's Girl," heavily framed by the organ and drums. With Cliff Richard's immortal lines, Elvis moves into "The Beat," the sort of song the guy made his reputation with in the first place. More throbbing drums on the next song, but it's not until the keyboards get moving you realize that Elvis is shifting gear again. "Pump It Up" is an energetic stomper that even has a great bit in the middle sounding straight out of Gary Glitter. Then it's down fast with the waltz number, "Little Triggers." This one isn't over soon enough. Side 1 ends with another pop tune only redeemed by the organ sound. The second side continues with the same r&b punctuated pop until the needle hits the grooves of "Lipstick Vogue." Costello's voice is dry and accusing as he spits out this excellent rocker. One song and the man redeems himself. "Radio Radio" ends the record, the same one performed in a display of frustration on Saturday Night Live. It is interesting to note that this song isn't on the English release and so makes it a rather pointed accusation of the state of U.S. radio. Even given the more obvious virtues of other songs, this is the one that deserves airplay. Costello has greatly improved, but of all the new wave artists to emerge he still lurks the closest to the MOR side of the tracks. Slash, No. 11, July 1978 Claude Bessy reviews This Year's Model. Images Page scan. Cover and page scan.

External links

• Wikipedia: Slash (fanzine)
• Wikipedia: Claude Bessy (writer)