But I digress, though Costello doesn't. “I don't wanna be a lover, I just wanna be your victim,” he says in “The Beat,” and there’s many insecurities, mixed emotions, crossed signals and interpersonal bluffing and feinting going on in this album to ensure that Model's thematic concern remains largely focused on the hell of other people, relationships that pass in the night or true love gone bad. There’s an awful lot of done-wrong Costello, then, bloodied but unbowed, neither deviating nor dissuaded, who gets right to the matter at hand on the first track of the album, staying the main course where revenge is still a dish best served cold: “I don't wanna kiss you. I don't wanna touch / I don't wanna see you 'cause I don't miss you that much.” “No Action,” indeed, but perhaps he protests too much.
Just in case such a romantic magic of the moment dissipates over the course of the first side — which includes “This Year’s Girl's” berating of a man with “fancy manners” and “English grammar” because “you don't really give a damn about this year's girl — Costello is on the ball at the start of side two (that would be “Hand In Hand” for those of you following along on CD) with a little bit of a reminder that “you can’t show me any kind of hell that I don’t know already,” and moreover: “don't ask me to apologise, I won't ask you to forgive me / If I'm gonna go down, you're gonna come with me.”
Not exactly a passport to paradise. But in Costello‘s conception of heaven, “everyone in paradise carries a gun,” as conveyed in a song in which he also declares “I don't like those other guys looking at your curves / I don't like you walking 'round with physical jerks” (“Living In Paradise”). But Model is more than an opportunity to “Listen to the propaganda, listen to the latest slander” ("Pump It Up”); or a chance to bite the hand that feeds while the “Radio, Radio” is “in the hands of such a lot of fools tryin' to anaesthetise the way that you feel”; or an occasion to hurl a side-swipe censure that “You're easily led, but you're much too scared to follow” (“You Belong To Me”).
Article comments
1 - Lisa McKay
Ah, Gordon, I could listen to you go on like this all evening.
This is always my number one favorite Costello album, regardless of what others are in my current (heavy) rotation. I just never get tired of this one -- it's consistently brilliant, quintessential Elvis. If I had to pick one album to explain Elvis to someone who wasn't familiar with his work, this would be it.
2 - gonzo marx
sweet Review, GoHa!!
now we just wait fer big Al to come out of the woodwork drooling all over you...
but i digress...
the exact Moment that EC hit his highnot was the same moment Punk died and New Wave was born...
the band had the gig for Saturday Night Live, and was told NOT to do Radio,Radio...but instead to go with Less than Zero
2 bars into the song...Elvis stops the band, and tells the live audience "this song has no relevance, so we are going to play something else"
and goes right into a spot on, balls to the wall, hyped live version of...you guessed it...Radio,Radio
they went to commercial right afterwards, the band did not get a second song....and NBC banned him from their radio station for about 10 years
THAT was "greatness"
on a lighter note, i have always preferred My Aim is True as an album...basically because i can listen to it from beginning to end and luv every note
your mileage may vary
Excelsior!
3 - Vern Halen
Definitely an accurate review of the earliest great work of Mr. MacManus. Personally I prefer Get Happy!, another great album that proved he was no flash in the pan, and no punk, either. And I could go on all night, but I think I'll just go throw in Pump It Up instead.
4 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Thanks Lisa--this album goes neck-and-neck with Armed Forces as my favorite, with Get Happy and Trust not too far behind, and Blood and Chocolate, Imperial Bedroom, Cruel, Painted from Memory...I could go on, and I think I just did.
5 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
gonzo--I always love it when that old SNL show comes around in reruns. I was almost going to squeeze in another mention here, but the piece was getting to be longer than I thought.
I love My Aim, too, especially the songs themselves--but not only was it pre-Attractions, it was with members what was to become Huey Lewis and the News, sans Huey Lewis. That why the difference between the first two album was somewhat of a revelation--the 'Models' sound floored me right out the gate when maybe I was expecting more of something taking 'Aim' again.
6 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Vern: one of my favorite ads was the one for Get Happy: "21 Songs, All Different!" (A close second ad was for Devo: "The '80s--We're For It!")
Get Happy is way up there for me. Great songs, and even though parts seem casually tossed-off, it proved that Costello's cavalierly, hastily written material is heads above many artists' best material.
I also like the "sketch book" quality (if you're anticipating the next song, you only have to wait and minute and a half for it to come up). It perfectly suited my restless low-attention-span back then, and even now.
7 - Vern Halen
RE: the "Sketch book" comment .... you are so right on tonight with your comments, Mr. H! That's exactly why it's so great. And yes, Blood & Chocolate is great too, for different reasons.
Although it's a compilation, I used to listen to Taking Liberties as an album (it has a different title & reunning order in England, I think - Ten Hail Marys? or something like that).
Yeah, EC had about a hundred great tunes right off the bat - hard to sustain a career at that level, but he's done well for himself.
8 - Lisa McKay
I think it was called Ten Bloody Marys and Ten How's Your Fathers in the UK.
9 - Vern Halen
Exactly right, Ms. MacKay. Thank ye kindly. I was too lazy to run downstairs and look through my vinyl - a much smaller collection than I once had, but there were about 1000 slabs of the black stuff I couldn't part with, including my Costellos.
10 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Taking Liberties/Ten Bloody Marys was also an early clincher for me: If these are Costello's B-sides and miscellaneous cast-offs (again, better than many artists' best songs)--all showcasing amazing on-target melodic and lyrical abilities--think of what more he can offer. And he hasn't disappointed.
I'm thinking I might even dig out "Goodbye Cruel World" again--it may have been spotty and not well-received (I think even Costello wasn't too keen on it) but there were some good songs on there, including "The Comedians," written for and recorded by Roy Orbison.
11 - Vern Halen
Oooooh - Cruel World & Punch the Clock - now we're getting into icky bits.
12 - JP
Gordon, that original version of Comedians is pretty hard to listen to IMO after being familiar with the Orbison version. I haven't bought the 'GCW' CD ..
But 'This Year's Model' is fantastic.. if I were introducing someone to EC, I'd probably go with his debut. Or 'Delivery Man' actually, they're both accessible and showcase his vocals pretty well.
13 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Vern: I kind of like Punch the Clock--it's not way up on my list, but it has "Shipbuilding," "Every Day I Write" (and is "Pills and Soap" on there?) and I even like a few of the lovey-dovey stuff ("Let Them Talk," "Invisible Man").
14 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
JP:The debut is good for starters, but I think I would reccommend Armed Forces as an accessible album to introduce someone--fun issue to ponder.
15 - Vern Halen
Aaah, heck - maybe I'll give it a spin later. I'll be the first to admit to not liking something first time 'round, but liking it lots down the road apiece.