This Year's Model is Elvis Costello's second album and his first with the Attractions, released in 1978. It was mainly recorded at Eden Studios in West London. It was voted the best album of the year in The Village VoicePazz & Jop critics poll. In 2000 it was voted number 152 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 2000, Q magazine placed This Year's Model at number 82 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 1987, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 11 on its list of the best albums of the period 1967–1987. In 2003, the album was ranked number 98 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list. In 1985, Robert Smith of the Cure cited it as one of his five favorite albums.
Background
This Year's Model was Elvis Costello's first album with The Attractions. Most of the songs had been performed live with them prior to the recording of the album. The recording at Eden Studios began at the end of 1977 and was completed in early 1978. The sessions took about eleven days. In liner notes for a 2002 reissue of the album, Costello cites the Rolling StonesAftermath as a significant influence.
Packaging
Early issues of the album have an apparently misprinted sleeve, which cuts off the left side of the front cover and shows a printers' colour bar along the right side. This was a deliberate mistake, as was pressing "Special pressing No. 003. Ring 434 32 32. Ask for Moira for your prize" between the holding spirals on Side 1. Indeed, people calling the aforementioned number would be rewarded with a badge. Early issues of the LP came with a free 7" single, housed in a Radar house sleeve, with "Stranger in the House" on side A and a live cover of The Damned's "Neat Neat Neat" on side B. The promotion also included a black and white sticker stuck on the LP's shrinkwrap that said 'Free Album With This Single'. The USA version was a different photo from the same session and didn't feature the deliberate mis-cropping. The original American pressing on Columbia also says "Costello" instead of "Columbia" on the inner label. The title This Year's Model indirectly references two songs on the original UK album: most obviously "This Year's Girl", but also " Chelsea", which contains a lyric about "last year's model".
Artwork
This Years Model features an album cover of Costello glaring from behind a camera. Chris Gabrin, the photographer from the sessions, recalled the shoot: On a 2015 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Costello disputed the anecdote, saying: "I think that's just been made up by people... Should I tell you why I know that's not true? 'Cause I don't think that record was out. That's just been added on later."
The US release on Columbia, two months after the original UK release, dropped " Chelsea" and "Night Rally" and added "Radio Radio" to close side two.
Bonus tracks (1993 Rykodisc CD)
"Radio Radio" – 3:05
"Big Tears" – 3:09
"Crawling to the USA" – 2:53
"Running Out of Angels" – 2:02
"Green Shirt" – 2:20
"Big Boys" – 3:00
Note: the Rykodisc reissue placed "Radio Radio" after a 10-second silence following "Night Rally."
Bonus disc (2002 Rhino CD)
"Big Tears" – 3:12
"Crawling to the USA" – 2:55
"Running Out of Angels" – 2:05
"Green Shirt" – 2:22
"Big Boys" – 3:00
"You Belong to Me" – 1:55
"Radio Radio" – 3:01
"Neat Neat Neat" – 3:16
"Roadette Song" – 5:40
"This Year's Girl" – 2:09
" Chelsea" – 3:00
"Stranger in the House" – 4:15
While the Rykodisc version contains the original album and bonus tracks on one CD, the Rhino version has two CDs. Disc one contains the original UK album plus "Radio, Radio" and disc two contains bonus tracks.
