HOT FIVE: Elvis Costello & The Attractions

05: Blood & Chocolate [1986]
Featuring..."I Hope You're Happy Now", "Tokyo Storm Warning", "I Want You", "Honey Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?", "Poor Napoleon"

Elvis Costello was 9 years and 9 albums into his recording career when he unleashed two stellar longplayers in 1986 - King Of America and Blood & Chocolate...They had arrived at exactly the right time, I would say, after his previous two albums, Punch The Clock and Goodbye Cruel World, had been met by bored critics and disappointed fans. And with good reason - 20+ years later they still sound like slightly-faded facsimiles of good/great Elvis Costello, which is to say that the songs weren't horrible, it's just that the lyrics, the music, the band - it all just sounds kinda tired on those two albums, like they all needed an extended vacation, perhaps... "Congratulations! You just bought the worst album of my career."

(I mean, 7 good to stunning classic albums in his first 5 years, babycakes...Who does that anymore?)

Anyways, it's 1986, and since Elvis and his Attractions apparently weren't gonna take that vacation, well, then they had something to prove, I'd say...another album or two of diminished returns, and maybe he fades away completely...But no, Elvis Costello stands and delivers two great albums in one year...King Of America kinda lives up to the title, with Costello deftly weaving American countryfolk and roots rock into his decidedly British pop sensibilities, making it neither a straight Country Western record like 1981's Almost Blue, nor yr typical Attractions affair, which is probably why they were billed as The Costello Show featuring The Confederates, and not Elvis Costello & The Attractions.

Blood & Chocolate IS an Elvis Costello & The Attractions album however (the last billed as such for the next decade, in fact), and on this one Mr. Declan McManus is calling himself Napoleon Dynamite, and indeed, this is a raw and unforgiving record. The sound itself is big and brash and direct, and the lyrical concerns are as bitter and caustic and sad as any in his chapbook...And when he finally slows things down on track five, with "I Want You", it's like a poison running through the veins, bringing on a darkness you can't swim out of...Costello had certainly written a ton of bitter, cynical songs in his career, but for me, "I Want You" distills it all down to the simplest essence, slowing down the music until it's as painful as the words. In the middle of an album full of really good songs, "I Want You" is the only reason Blood & Chocolate made this list instead of King Of America....Taken together, these two 1986 albums represent the exact year when Costello cemented his place in the pantheon, and why he's so damned respected and relevant today...

04: My Aim Is True [1977]
Featuring..."Alison", "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes", "Less Than Zero", "Mystery Dance", "Watching The Detectives"

I had a hard time deciding between this album and Armed Forces for #4 on this list, and ultimately went with this one because the really good songs on My Aim Is True are greater than the really good songs on the other...I mean, "Alison" and "Watching The Detectives" are truly indispensible, and "Less Than Zero" and "Red Shoes", nearly so...

Also, what's interesting about this album, and what clinched it's spot on this list, is the fact that the backing band wasn't The Attractions, but rather, California Country Rock band Clover, which included Huey Lewis. Now, Huey wasn't a part of these recordings, for better or worse, but yes, Clover would go on to become The News behind Mr. Lewis.

Attractions or no Attractions, My Aim Is True is a stunning debut by a fully-formed artist and songwriter, and is the first impressive volley in a run of FIVE consecutive classic-to-perfect longplaying albums to start what is now a 32 year career of high artistry and consummate professional entertainment.

03: Trust [1981]
Featuring..."Clubland", "Lover's Walk", "Strict Time", "Watch Your Step", "From A Whisper To A Scream", "Big Sister's Clothes"

It's entirely possible that my feelings for Trust are woven too deeply into Bret Easton Ellis' novel, Less Than Zero, a novel that had deep importance to me once upon a time (not so much anymore), and if nothing else, is one of the best representations of the 1980's as I witnessed, experienced and understood that decade...In the novel, the protagonist Clay has a huge poster of this album cover above his bed, and it's an image that shows Mr. Costello peering up and over the top of his rose-colored glasses (looking towards God?) signifying that he doesn't trust, because if he did, he'd be staring straight through those sunglasses of his...Trust (or the significant LACK thereof) was an important issue in Less Than Zero, and this image a huge symbol of all that, and therefore rife with meaning for me as a fan of both the book and the musician...

Anyways, Trust is loaded with Costello's usually poisonous pen, as he explores the uglier sides of love and lust once again. I can't argue that this is truly his third best album except to say that three of my all-time favorite Costello songs are here - "Lover's Walk", "Strict Time", and "Watch Your Step", and it's hard to argue with myself about that...An oft-overlooked gem in Declan McManus' catalog...

02: Get Happy! [1980]
Featuring..."Love For Tender", "Opportunity", "King Horse", "Clowntime Is Over", "New Amsterdam", "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down", "Beaten To The Punch", "Temptation", "Riot Act"

Costello's fourth album, Get Happy! , finds Elvis working R'n'B, Motown, and Memphis Soul into his New Wave Britpop style, and from the bouncing opener, "Love For Tender", to the slow-building closer, "Riot Act", I believe it's safe to say that this is the man's most upbeat and buoyant album, at least musically, helping Costello live up to the album's title quite admirably...In fact, Elvis and the band don't take a breather until "Motel Matches", the fifteenth song on a 20 song album...

Twenty, count 'em, twenty songs! (Yes, in accordance with the cover art above, the 2003 Rhino CD reissue includes 30 bonus tracks) That qualifies Get Happy! as truly EPIC in any artist's catalog, including Elvis Costello's, and this album is a non-stop onslaught of uptempo New Wave goodness, without a truly weak song in the bunch. Astounding and outstanding!

01: This Year's Model [1978]
Featuring..."This Year's Girl", "The Beat", "Pump It Up", "Little Triggers", "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea", "Lipstick Vogue", "Radio, Radio"

This Year's Model is pretty much a perfect album from start to finish - not only are the songs brilliant, one right after the next, but on his second longplayer, Costello had assembled a band worthy of the material, The Attractions, and out of the gate the band is wound tight, and playing at their absolute best...Steve Nieve's organ is all over this record, and it's a big organ, babycakes...Bassist Bruce Thomas offers up some of his best grooves here, and drummer Pete Thomas does what drummers are supposed to do - keep the damn beat and not get in the way too much. What else needs to be said? It's one of my five favorite albums of all time, and a record I believe belongs in everybody's collection. A classic! A MUST!!

Hotcha! Hank