UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus, April 27, 1978

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This Year's Model

Elvis Costello

Mike Pullen

Brando in Waterfront, the N.Y. Mets in '69 and J.F.K. in '60 had it. Elvis Costello, in 1978, has it too. Only Costello can sing about it. And he does that a lot on his second album, This Year's Model, which is chocked full of it, otherwise known as underdog appeal.

They say everybody loves a winner, but underdogs must run a close second. How else could a schmuck like Charlie Brown be America's most syndicated comic strip character? There seems to be in us all a common desire to see that balding kid boot a football for a score just once without falling on his ass.

In Elvis' case, scoring can be equated to success in love. The doorstep goodbyes on Model pick up where last year's My Aim Is True left off. Only this time, Elvis does his share of doorslamming too. He sings about "those bedroom alibis" and "the little sniggers, on your lips" as if every line is his final ultimatum. He may have to walk home alone, but he's going to tell her what it's like before he does.

Elvis' voice, a self-imposed nasal that has an emotional timbre ranging from disgust to whatever comes after that, isn't likely to send girls into fits of ecstacy. But what has a guy who's heard enough turndowns to write a chastity manual got to be happy about? The fury in his voice is what captures your ear before the band, even better organized and convincing than on the debut, earns its listen.

Besides some lyrical rough spots, Elvis' only problem is a typically New Wave cleptomania for past pop cliches. There are echoes of the Beatles and Phil Spector here, as well as some nearly plagiaristic rip-offs. Specifically, the run-on lyric delivery remake of Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" on "Pump It Up" and the intro to "You Belong To Me," which might be an electric clone from the Stones' "The Last Time."

The borrowing is ironic because Model doesn't really need it. The album's clockwork pacing, conciseness and timing, the keys to its punch, are Elvis' and producer Nick Lowe's work. While throwing in other people's trademarks makes it interesting, it also detracts from Elvis' stature as a pop stylist in his own right.

Pop might be too nice a word for Elvis. Yet if he's angry, his craftmanship also goes beyond punk. Maybe his real aim is to sound so good that we have to listen to him cough back all the dirt he's had to eat. "Radio, Radio," the album's potential hit, about rigid playlists and stations that try to "anesthetize the way that you feel," hints at this:

"They don't give you any choice
because they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio"

It's a bite at the hand that feeds him. If he ever sees it in the Top 40, you can bet Elvis won't miss the irony.

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Daily Nexus, April 27, 1978


Mike Pullen reviews This Year's Model.

Images

1978-04-27 UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus page 08.jpg
Page scan.

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