jeff_wilder78's Full Review: My Aim Is True: Deluxe Edition by Elvis Costello
So yes, Elvis Costello's debut album My Aim Is True is a great album. Is it a complete classic? Not quite. My Aim Is True is good, even great. Yet it is not Costello's best album and is in fact, not as representative of his sound as the three albums that follow it.
Recall that when Costello arrived on the scene, many critics and music industry observers filed him in the punk column. Yet while the Sex Pistols and many of their comrades wanted to DESTROY, Costello wanted to BUILD. While his lyrics were as cynical and vitriolic as Rotten and Co's they were better thought out and they actually proposed solutions in addition to ranting about the problems. In addition, the music was as hard and heavy as punk, yet not as sloppy. This lead to some people saying that Costello was "punk for grownups" which seems strange seeing as I am 25 years old and I still enjoy The Clash, The Jam and numerous other punk bands as well as Mr. Costello.
A thing to note about My Aim Is True is that the album is attributed simply to Elvis Costello, not Elvis Costello And The Attractions. You see: his debut with that famous backing band was still a year away when he released Aim in 1977. On My Aim Is True, an American Band known as Clover, who would later become known as the News (yes the News as in Huey Lewis) backs Costello. Thus, the music didn't quite have the terse, angry feel that the Attractions would bring to it, even if the lyric writing of Costello was spot on from the beginning. On My Aim Is True, there are a few of what could accurately be described as "Generic bar band numbers".
Examples of such numbers include "Sneaky Feelings", "Blame It On The Cain" and "Pay It Back". Those songs all kind of blur together in a way and are not quite representative of the brilliance that is Costello, even if the songwriting is good.
Faring much better are songs like "No Dancing" and "Miracle Man". The former has a tight groove similar to that on "Don't Worry Baby" by the Beach Boys albeit a tad rougher, while the latter's backbeat is very garage band like.
And of course, there are numerous Costello classics on this set as well. We have "Alison", which is almost loungeish in sound and features Costello singing a song of lost love to the titular woman. The song might sound sappy in the hands of another singer. But Costello always keeps it above that level. In fact, the song gets outright angry on the line "Sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talking/When I hear the silly things that you say".
"Watching The Detectives" is a reggae like number that belies the dark cynicism prevalent in the song. Listening to it now in the wake of all the Scott Peterson news is unnerving, especially as Costello sings "She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake".
"Mystery Dance" is a number that points the way toward the Elvis Costello we all know and love that would become apparent on This Year's Model. The song starts with a sort of ode to the other Elvis in the rockabilly type opening. But that opening soon turns into a furiously angry attack, as Costello demands, "I want to know about the mystery dance/I wanna know cause I've tried and I've tried and I'm still mystified". One of the best explanations of teen lust ever.
"Less Than Zero" is another angry song with a social/political undercurrent. The lyrics are an attack on fascism or specifically fascist Oswald Mosley. The lyrics contain some of the most acerbic satire ever put in music ("Carve a V for vandal on the boys head...Oswald and his sister are doing it again"). "Less Than Zero" is probably the best song on here.
Also good are "Not Angry" with its sarcastic lyrics and rocking tempo, the satirical of the music industry "Welcome To The Working Week" and "Waiting For The End Of The World".
The re-issued My Aim Is True (like all the other Costello reissues) contains a bonus disc. The selections on here are a mixed bag. On one hand, the demos of "No Action" and "Mystery Dance" and the live version of "Less Than Zero" are all good. So are the countrified numbers "Stranger In The House" and "Radio Sweetheart". On the other hand, did we really need a demo version of the less than stellar "Blame It On The Cain" and a live version of the Burt Bacharach penned "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself"?
My Aim Is True is a very good, even great album. But it is not a masterpiece, especially when compared to the following three albums from Costello (which completely blow it out of the water). Even so, it's definitely worth owning for the 80% good to classic part of it and as a warm-up for This Year's Model.
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