This Year's Model
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
The second album by Elvis Costello - his first with The Attractions - entitled This Year’s Model, was released on March 17, 1978. Again, produced by Nick Lowe, the album was recorded in two weeks’ time in between tour dates and released three months after it wrapped.
The timeline speaks to a completely different era of Music Business. There were plenty of record pressing plants, and they weren’t monopolized in the way they have been in recent times during the run-up to Record Store Day. It wasn’t quite like the 60s though, when bands followed up single after single, not recorded in advance, but recorded based on the popularity of the previous release.
To this day, This Year’s Model holds up for me. Unlike many of my friends, I’ve been happy to bend and flow with whatever musical style or fascination Elvis sends our way. While the sounds and the rhythms are eclectic - but still rock and roll - the songwriting / lyrics have been steadfast for the duration of his 49-year recording career.
Back in 1978, when Elvis was touring in support of this album, the Lobotomy crew went to see his show at the Santa Monica Civic and our reviewer, Nancy “Nitro” Nagler was rather possessive about our Declan. Elvis Costello had somehow won the hearts and ears of a crowd we didn’t like mingling with, and we got the idea he may have found them annoying too. He put on a ferocious show - and he always has.
Nick Lowe was on this tour as the opening act, and the Elvis/Nick bill as well as Nick’s club gig bills spoke to what I have always felt - that American roots music is punk and it took the English (and the Irish) to remind us of our rich musical heritage.
Thanks Elvis. I’ve been listening to This Year’s Model consistently for the past 49 years. In concert, to this day, there is nothing more invigorating than “Pump it Up.”
I get so excited when I search YouTube and I find someone has uploaded a concert I attended. This is one of them - from 2025 in Los Angeles at the storied Orpheum1. No one mashes up a medley like Elvis. And the band, mostly including Charlie Sexton these days, is still a powerhouse - and we’re all…. mature now and they still rock hard.
Even though we met in 1977, it wasn’t until 2019 that I made a picture memory with Elvis, and I just like to write, “Elvis and me,” so here you go…
In April 1977, The Germs played their first live show at The Orpheum, opening for The Weirdos. I never miss a show at this venue - if its walls could talk!