Marc Leibowitz

Elvis Costello & the Attractions This Year’s Model 1978 Elvis Costello – guitar, vocals Steve Nieve – keyboards Bruce Thomas – bass Pete Thomas – drums This Year’s Model is the second studio album by Elvis Costello and the first featuring his permanent backing band the Attractions, released in the UK on 17 March 1978 on Radar Records (with a US release on Columbia). It delivers a sharper, more aggressive new wave and power-pop sound than his debut, driven by Steve Nieve’s organ, the Thomas rhythm section, and Costello’s terse, bitter songwriting on tracks such as “Pump It Up,” “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea,” “Lipstick Vogue,” “This Year’s Girl,” and “No Action.” Most of the songs had already been road-tested, and the album was recorded in roughly eleven days at Eden Studios with Nick Lowe returning as producer. It reached the UK Top 5 and established the classic Attractions lineup. One notable detail is that the US edition replaced two tracks with the standalone single “Radio, Radio”; Costello famously interrupted a scheduled Saturday Night Live performance of another song to play it live instead. @ElvisCostello