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My Aim Is True  This Year's Model Classic Armed Forces Classic Get Happy!! Recommends Trust Almost Blue Imperial Bedroom Recommends Punch The Clock Goodbye Cruel World King Of America Recommends Blood & Chocolate Recommends
When asked in 1977 what motivated his art, Elvis Costello replied, "revenge and guilt." The former Declan MacManus, who had taken his stage name from Presley and combined it with his mothers' maiden name, already seethed with grudges by the time he exploded onto 1977's music scene.
He was a London-born, Liverpool-raised 22-year-old stick insect in NHS specs who reeked of self-loathing. The reissue of his first 11 albums, spanning the period 1977/86, recall how the most prodigiously talented songwriter of his generation vented his anger over a sound that gradually absorbed a madly eclectic range of music. Reggae, country, soul, blues and garage rock, all underpinned by a Beatles-derived pop classicism, merged with bitter lyrics, presented Costello as punk's muso intellectual.
By the time his debut, My Aim Is True was released, Costello was married with a child and had toured the toilets of Britain with ignored folk-rockers Flip City. Even though the album was noticeably produced by pub rock figurehead Nick Lowe, the aggression in Costello's voice and the sharp excellence of his best songs shone through. The ballad Alison proved particularly revealing, unveiling an obsession with male jealousy: "I don't know if you've been loving somebody/I only know it isn't mine."
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