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So before I get into the necessary nitpicking, let me just say: holy shit, this album. Pop music is seldom this fierce and purposeful, rock music seldom this melodic and thoughtful. This Year's Model is fully realized in style and substance, both unique and unassuming. You can tell an Elvis Costello song from melody alone, but the arrangements and performances offered up by the attractions are no less distinctive and recognizable. There is not a single bad song on This Year's Model, and the one moment on the record that kind of goes clunk (the opening line of "Lip Service") still gets stuck in my head all the time. If you don't own a copy of this record, you should...
...seek out the cheaper, better (and sadly out-of-print) Rhino reissue. Sorry, folks. This Year's Model itself is a 10.0 in most any context as far as I'm concerned, but reviewing a value-added "deluxe" edition warrants an interrogation of, uh, the added value. A thoughtful, reasonably priced, and only-six-year-old 2xCD version of this album is no longer available new, and Universal's latest "deluxe" reissue feels bloated and dubious by comparison. Going through the bonus tracks in detail is almost entirely fruitless here; every single extra included on the first disc of this reissue was also available on the Rhino edition (with the exception of the excellent "Tiny Steps", which was included on Rhino's Armed Forces). Three good bonus tracks versions from Rhino's reissue are omitted here, leaving this reissue with only the live disc to recommend it.
Thankfully, this time around it actually does. A complete concert recording from a 1978 show in Washington, D.C. fills out the second disc nicely. The recording lacks the crackling frenzy of the classic Live at El Mocambo recording, or even the enlightening tenuousness of the Nashville Rooms show included on Universal's My Aim Is True reissue. Simply put, it comes off as an average night on tour for a spectacular band, marked by a few stray sour notes and chords but still nothing short of inspiring. Perhaps owing to their position after that ampersand, the Attractions still don't really get their due as one of rock and roll's truly great bands, and this live recording shows Elvis Costello and the Attractions as an inseparable and forceful group, not a songwriter and his backing band. Does a good live recording of a great band warrant dropping $25 on a reissue?
So there you have it-- plus one for a better live disc, minus one for zero new bonus material. This looks and feels like a "deluxe" version, for sure, but lacks the curated and cared-for feel (and the liners, provided by Costello himself) of the Rhino reissue. Indeed, the problem with this "deluxe" series so far isn't that it's poorly conceived, or poorly designed, but rather it feels so generic and uninspired, right down to (and, yes, I will mention this in the review of every single reissue from this series) the ad for "ELVIS COSTELLO RINGTONES" in the back of the liners. This Year's Model is a sharp and brilliant album, rife with wit and cynicism; it's hard not to be put off by a reissue whose last words are "RINGTONES ARE FOR PURCHASE ONLY, NOT PART OF EXCLUSIVE COMPLIMENTARY BONUS MATERIAL."
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