This Years Model (1978)
“This Years Model” is about hate, fascism and sex. But what matters is the attitude. On “My Aim Is True” there was still struggling with defeat, the awkward running blindly against the wall, here there was defiant total refusal. On “This Years Model” there is no love, no compassion, the other only exists in denial. The songs were called “Hand In Hand” or “You Belong To Me”, but appearances were deceptive. Plus the attractions with the most brutal rhythm section that has ever entered a recording studio. It provides the foundation for Steve Nieve’s malicious keyboards and Elvis’ caustic guitar attacks.
Armed Forces (1979)
Also called “the Abba Album” by Elvis, the songs were mostly written under the influence of “Dancing Queen” during a US tour. With “Oliver’s Army”, “Accidents Will Happen” and Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love And Understanding” the record contains real hits, but the other tracks are also as catchy as they are bitterly angry: “Green Shirt”, ” Goon Squad”, “Busy Bodies” and “Two Little Hitlers”. It was almost enough to become a pop star.
Happy!! (1980)
Directly inspired by Curtis Mayfield, Smokey Robinson, the Four Tops and Booker T. & The MGs, indirectly by his production of the Specials debut and the happenings of the 1979 “Armed Funk” US tour with the Attractions – the affair with Bebe Buell and the embarrassing incident in Columbus, Ohio. The LP cover boasts “20 Great Hits” (50 on the CD reissue), and that wasn’t a lie. The Attractions played variable and powerful, especially Nieve’s organ held the songs together. The melodies have never been better, the punchlines never more accurate. “New Amsterdam” is high in the list of the most beautiful Costello songs.
Imperial Bedroom (1982)
“Masterpiece?” asked the ad promoting “Imperial Bedroom” cheekily. Naturally. Costello and the Attractions had never (and never would) made music with more ambition and inspiration. Steve Nieve wrote arrangements and conducted (with a big hangover) an orchestra for the first time. After the old hero Nick Lowe had said goodbye as producer, the new heroes announced themselves with the new man, the Beatles sound engineer Geoff Emerick: of course the Beatles, but also the great masters of the American song – George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Emerick, who was working in the studio next door at the same time as Paul McCartney on “Tug Of War”, was primarily a vicarious agent for Costello’s adventurous ideas during the recordings.
Punch The Clock (1983)
The pop album produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. The TKO horns blare, the ladies from Afrodiziak sing in the background, and Elvis sets a murderous pace: “Let Them All Talk”, “Charm School”, “The Invisible Man”, “TKO (Boxing Day)” – but also them excellent ballads “Shipbuilding” and “Pills And Soap”. The exuberance and the intellectual eroticism of this melodic record remained unique.
King Of America (1986)
Elvis’ masterpiece: He recorded this homage to American music of the fifties and sixties in the USA with session kings James Burton and Jerry Scheff, Ron Tutt and Jim Keltner and a young man named Mitchell Froom on keyboards. An incredible performance as Elvis directs the virtuosos through wonder songs such as “Our Little Angel”, “I’ll Wear It Proudly” and “Sleep Of The Just”.
Blood & Chocolate (1986)
The second surprise, the second magical album, was released in the same year: This time with the Attractions in the best of spirits, Costello barks and whines through raw anger songs, whimpers “I Want You” and crows “Tokyo Storm Warning”, chants “Uncomplicated” and sneers “I Hope You’re Happy Now”. Not since young Dylan had such outbursts been heard. It couldn’t (and didn’t) get any better.
Painted From Memory (1998)
The collaboration with the songwriter Burt Bacharach, admired by Elvis, who was once the musical director of Marlene Dietrich’s revue and shook film scores and hits out of his sleeve in the sixties. Costello wrote the lyrics and sang with amazing power, the music fit happily with the melancholic and brutal, black and theatrical pieces. A cycle about abandonment and loss, misalliance and divorce, jealousy and Don Juanism. Old-fashioned, highly dramatic, unforgettable. Anyone who saw the then 70-year-old Bacharach and Costello, the strange partners, on stage has something to tell for the rest of their lives.