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List Price: $13.98 | | Label: Hip-O Records
Salesrank: 10543
Released: May 1, 2007 |
| Our Price: $8.66 |
| Used Price: $8.49 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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This Year's Model Track Listing:
1. No Action
2. This Year's Girl
3. The Beat
4. Pump It Up
5. Little Triggers
6. You Belong To Me
7. Hand In Hand
8. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
9. Lip Service
10. Living In Paradise
11. Lipstick Vogue
12. Night Rally
13. Radio, Radio
Editorial Review:
Includes the bonus track Radio Reidio.
Description of This Year's Model:
With his second album, Elvis Costello firmly established himself as one of rock's--not just punk/new wave's--premier singer-songwriters. Building on the promise of his '77 debut, My Aim Is True, Costello put together a backing touring trio, the Attractions (keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas, and drummer Pete Thomas), and their versatility helped Costello define himself as a punk-fuelled power-pop force. Sporting influences ranging from Bob Dylan (the stream-of-consciousness "Pump It Up") to Burt Bacharach (the Dusty Springfield-worthy "Little Triggers"), this '78-released collection also features such righteously angry anthems as the anti-conformist "This Year's Girl," and the anti-MOR classic, "Radio Radio." --Billy Altman
This Year's Model Reviews:
One of the GREAT records of all time! 
2009-04-24 - Someone else may have mentioned this already, but if not, I think many have overlooked a most important component of the genesis and passion of this album. Let me see if memory serves...
As I recall, this album was indeed the boom following the lit fuse dynamite of the first album, but where did all the intensity come from? Very much like Frank Sinatra's masterpiece recording In the Wee Small Hours, which was born of a broken heart, This Year's Model was the result of the breakup of Elvis' love affair with famed international model Bebe Buell. The cover says it all and it's right there staring you in the face.
Frank nearly lost his mind over the breakup with Eva Gardner, the absolute one and only love of his life. The pain and misery he felt drove him to a level of intensity and passion in his delivery and arrangements never before heard from the Chairman of the Board.
Like Frank before him, Elvis too suffered deeply when Bebe chose her career over him - just listen to the words of Lipstick Vogue. Most of the album was a love lost song to Bebe. It stands out in my mind as truly one of the great albums to come out of the '80's and remains one of my very favorites.
Costello's sophomore effort put him over the top
2009-03-05 - This is the album that, long, long ago, turned me on to Elvis Costello. So, in a way, it has strong sentimental value for me. I know every song intimately from beginning to end, and I can't help but give this five stars.
I noticed Legacy has come out with a two-CD re-release of this. I scanned some of the "bonus tracks" on the live second CD, but for the money, I'd stick with the original. So many of the Legacy reissues are just record companies' ways of squeezing a few more dollars out of die-hard fans' hands.
This album, uh, CD, uh, download, whatever, it more than enough! Oh, one more thing: PLAY IT LOUD!
And next's, and the year after... 
2009-03-03 - Pop rock at its late 70's heights shows a thinking man's Bruce Springsteen continuing to harness amazing energy and tight interplay out of proportion to many of his peers, furthering an already torrential amount of praise only after this sophomore release. Undeniably rock-solid, but only a handful of entries sound entirely brilliant.
Fall in to submission, hit and run transmission
2009-01-13 - If "My Aim Is True (With Bonus Disc)" landed on the music scene like a stick of dynamite with the fuse lit, "This Year's Model" was the explosion that came after. Elvis' first album with the Attractions more than lived up to its predecessor, in that having a working band behind him matched the music to the blunt force of the songs.
Once again, it is the stark voice of EC that opened the album as he ominously intones "I don't wannna kiss you, I don't wanna touch." When the players kick in, it's a whole 'nother world from "My Aim Is True," and for the first time, "new wave" had a front man. Before this album had been released, one of the central songs had made headlines. Elvis' broadside at narrow-format broadcasting, "Radio Radio," was performed in such a bizarre fashion on Saturday Night Live that he was effectively banned from the show for almost a decade and made this (then) seventeen year-old a fan for life. That performance sealed a decision for me to get into radio and make artists like Elvis accessible to listeners. When I was fortunate enough to tell him this many years later, Elvis kindly autographed a ragged poster of "Armed Forces" "Don't blame me."
Personal nostalgia aside, fourth CD version "This Year's Model" contains all the songs that comprised the original US and UK versions and the original UK artwork. These are some of the songs by which EC is measured, like "Radio Radio," "Pump it Up" and "The Beat." The Attractions' playing was melody driven in addition to frenetic, a perfect compliment to Elvis' brilliant lyrics. And it was already becoming apparent that keyboardist Steve Nieve was becoming an architect of what American ears would identify as "punk rock." The remainder of "This Year's Model" provides some hot songs that proved what this band of raving 20 somethings were capable in their rock and roll youth. This was the second of Elvis' "Angry Young Man" trilogy and it is a perfect moment.
simply a classic
2009-01-06 - With the Attractions, Elvis was at his best. If this recording came out today, it would still be fresh. Raw rock.
