Elvis Costello
My Aim Is True (Hip-O)What should be a notable milestone in 1970s music, the 30th anniversary of Elvis Costello’s My Aim Is True, is shrouded in repetition, oversaturation, and maybe a touch of apathy. That’s too bad, because in its entirety, My Aim Is True is still a gorgeously wrought modern-world songwriting masterpiece borne unexpectedly on the wings of punk rock in 1977 and delivered on a musical battlefield scarred and pockmarked by pampered arena rock. Decades later, the lo-fi bite of “Miracle Man,” self-conscious cynicism of “Waiting for the End of the World,” and the over-radioed “Alison” have held up admirably through four recent reissues of Costello’s debut. Each has its charms with myriad outtakes, and this is no exception: Hip-O’s 2-CD package comes with four outtakes, eight demos, a live show, and five bonus cuts from sound check – the bulk of it unreleased. These aren’t the most comfortable of combinations though: Costello is still trying on bands like a pre-Huey Lewis Clover and the Attractions in their dynamic infancy, but what he was gambling with most was his bid as the songwriter for a new generation with no Dylan. For that, his aim was more than true. It was a bull’s-eye.
This article appears in December 14 • 2007.