UDiscoverMusic, July 22, 2018

From The Elvis Costello Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
... Bibliography ...
727677787980818283
848586878889909192
939495969798990001
020304050607080910
111213141516171819
202122232425 26 27 28


UDiscoverMusic

UK online publications

-

Elvis Costello aims high with 1977 debut


Paul Sexton

My Aim Is True was a confident opening statement by a 23-year-old with opinions to burn.

Playboy magazine called it "the raw bluesiness of the Stones successfully mixed with a bouncy, early Beatles sound." American critic Robert Christgau was inspired by it to say: "I like the nerdy way this guy comes on, I'm fascinated by his lyrics, and I approve of his rock and roll orientation." The guy in question was Elvis Costello and the record was his debut LP My Aim Is True, which hit record shops on 22 July 1977.

Three and a half decades after its release, Entertainment Weekly called the album in question the 75th greatest of all time. It made quite an impression for a guy who had been a data entry clerk for Elizabeth Arden cosmetics.

The album was produced by Nick Lowe, with whom the young Declan MacManus had had an affinity since he used to watch Lowe's old band Brinsley Schwarz on tour around the UK. Elvis and Nick cut the record at Pathway Studios in the Newington Green area of London, as punk raged around the UK in 1976 and early 1977.

Costello made his singles debut on Stiff Records in March '77 with "Less Than Zero," following it swiftly with "Alison," and while neither song made the British charts, the huge media acclaim swirling around the unlikely-looking frontman confirmed the arrival of a major talent.

"Every song has ideas to burn and a memorable chorus," enthused Mitchell Cohen in Creem magazine. "The title (from the hauntingly tough-tender "Alison") speaks chapters: his aim – his purpose and prowess – is true."

Costello did little to dispel the early media impression of him as an angry young man. "I bear a grudge, I'm vindictive," he told the London Evening News. "And I couldn't care less whether this attitude is damaging to me or not because I'd like to take them all to bits and rain havoc on them. They deserve it. They deserve me. They deserve everything they get. I think the whole of the music business stinks."

Probably to the horror of the 23-year-old Costello, Rolling Stone named My Aim Is True in its year-end critics' list of albums of the year alongside Rumours, Hotel California and, perhaps more acceptably to him at the time, Never Mind The Bollocks. Of the many accolades that have greeted the Elvis album in more recent years, it joined the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007 and stood at No. 168 in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

-
<< >>

UDiscoverMusic, July 22, 2018


Paul Sexton profiles Elvis Costello and My Aim Is True.

Images

My Aim Is True album cover.jpg

-



Back to top

External links