My Aim Is True

Almost 500 days in, somehow this is only the second Elvis Costello album I got. I’m kind of middle of the road on his music, I never dislike it but it doesn’t really pull me in. This one was pretty fun, the album and the songs were all pretty short and it sounded quite ahead of its time.

Just classic. Every song listenable.

I think this means I'm finally coming to the end of the Elvis Costello tunnel. I'm honestly so sick of this man. There's 3 good songs on here IMO: Alison, Less Than Zero, and Watching the Detectives. The rest is painfully mid.

This is is my favorite of the five Elvis Costello albums we've had so far. Several great songs on here. Maybe just sneaks into a five for me.

Excellent

Užasno neimpresivno u svakom pogledu.

An agreeable enough time. Pub rock not of the leaden variety, but this is unlikely to be one that I'd be itching to return to. A tad rudimentary for me by current standards, and perhaps a bit too carefree and joyful sonically for my largely grubby tastes, although one where I can understand the appeal it would have harboured.

Loved it.

The Good: An album by The King!
The Bad: Turns out that Costello isn’t an Italian version of Presley…
The Ugly: wondering what Elvis was aiming at…

Holy moly! Obviously I had heard the song “Alison” as it’s been overly used in tv-shows and movies, and I know I’d heard “Welcome to the Working Week” as well… but the rest…

This is probably the most replayed album so far on this journey, I think I am on spin #5 within 24 hours.
And while listening to this album I couldn’t but make comparisons with another album that was released in 1977; Mink DeVille’s Cabretta which I doubt will be on this list, but should be!!!

Anyway, 1977 seems to be one of those magical years when several of my all-time favorite albums were released. Don’t know if it is the music, or just the age when you start discovering the world that just reminds you of all those great memories…

5*

The most uniquely sophisticated lyricist in the history of rock music, Elvis Costello spawns a universe of effortless wordplay, effective storytelling, and pop-punk compositions that stand alone in their capacity to move you cerebrally and lowdown corporeally. Lyrically, he knows that memorability has to do w/ word choices that surprise as much as they align w/ our expectations. He rhymes vengeance w/ sentence, punctured w/ disgusted, listen w/ ignition, visit w/ limit, parents w/ disappearance, as any deft rapper might. The only comparable lyricist I can come up w/ is Smokey Robinson, who likewise grasps the sticky materiality and objectivity of words. And in terms of the music itself, it boils down to rockabilly meets punkabilly. Superb.

Still dont like his voice that much and although I enjoyed listening to it, I don't think I'll come back. Still, strong 3

Alors, me voilà face à ce monument, ce disque fondateur qui, pour beaucoup, a redéfini les règles du jeu pour les songwriters à guitares en pleine déflagration punk. 1977, une année charnière, un grand bordel sonore où les Sex Pistols appelaient à l'anarchie et où The Clash mettait le feu aux poudres. Et au milieu de ce chaos de crêtes et d'épingles à nourrice, débarque ce type, Declan Patrick MacManus, rebaptisé Elvis Costello. Un nom comme une provocation, un look de premier de la classe un peu coincé, des lunettes qui deviendront iconiques, et une plume trempée dans le vitriol. "My Aim Is True", son premier album, est un putain de manifeste. Mais est-ce que ça en fait un chef-d'œuvre intouchable pour autant ? Pour moi, c'est un peu plus compliqué que ça.

Avant de se muer en Elvis Costello et de devenir le parrain de la new wave intello, le jeune Declan a bien galéré. On sent dans chaque sillon de cet album l'urgence d'un type qui a longtemps attendu son heure. Après des années à écumer les pubs londoniens avec son groupe Flip City, à tenter de refourguer ses chansons sans succès, il finit par taper dans l'œil de Stiff Records. Ce label, c'était un peu la cour des miracles du rock britannique, un refuge pour les tronches et les talents atypiques que les majors ne savaient pas comment gérer. Et Costello, avec sa gueule d'employé de bureau et sa rage rentrée, était le client parfait.

L'enregistrement est à l'image de cette époque : fauché, urgent, quasi-artisanal. On raconte que l'album a été bouclé aux Pathway Studios – un endroit à peine plus grand qu'une cabine téléphonique – en moins de 24 heures de temps de studio cumulé, pour un budget qui ferait aujourd'hui rire n'importe quel stagiaire d'une maison de disques. Et pour couronner le tout, le groupe qui l'accompagne n'est autre que Clover, une bande de musiciens américains de country-rock qui se retrouveront plus tard, pour certains, à former Huey Lewis and The News. On a connu plus punk comme backing band ! Cette anecdote, loin d'être anodine, est la clé de la sonorité si particulière de l'album. Ce n'est pas un disque punk, ni tout à fait un disque new wave. C'est un son bâtard, un pub rock transatlantique, à la fois tendu comme un string et terriblement mélodique, le cul entre la tradition rock'n'roll américaine et la nouvelle vague britannique.

Et c'est là toute la force et, peut-être pour moi, la petite faiblesse de "My Aim Is True" qui est un disque de transition, un pont fascinant entre deux mondes. L'énergie est là, brute, palpable sur des titres comme "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" ou le quasi rockabilly "Mystery Dance". La rage est indéniable, mais elle est canalisée, disséquée par une intelligence redoutable. On n'est pas dans le "No Future" beuglé sans réfléchir, non on est dans l'analyse clinique d'un ressentiment profond.

Car la vraie claque, le vrai poison de ce disque, ce sont les textes. Costello a lui-même résumé la chose par deux mots qui claquent comme une sentence : "revanche et culpabilité". Et putain, ça s'entend, c'est l'album d'un type frustré, qui en a gros sur la patate. Frustrations amoureuses, sexuelles ("Alison", ce slow qui cache une bile noire), professionnelles... tout y passe. C'est une œuvre d'une maturité d'écriture sidérante pour un premier essai. Chaque chanson est une petite nouvelle, une vignette acerbe sur la trahison, la jalousie, la médiocrité ambiante. "Watching the Detectives", avec son ambiance de film noir et ses accents reggae, est un pur chef-d'œuvre de narration. Costello est un boxeur qui monte sur le ring avec un dictionnaire à la place des gants. Ses mots sont des uppercuts précis, chirurgicaux.

Alors, pourquoi seulement 3 sur 5 ?

Pour être honnête, et c'est très personnel, si je reconnais l'importance capitale et le génie d'écriture de ce disque, il me laisse un peu sur ma faim musicalement. C'est un disque que je respecte énormément, mais qui ne me touche pas. Il y a quelque chose d'un peu raide, de pas encore totalement abouti dans le son, comme si le groupe et l'artiste se découvraient encore. C'est le son d'un homme seul, accompagné par de très bons musiciens de session, mais pas encore le son d'un GANG, de cette machine de guerre que deviendra Elvis Costello & The Attractions.

"My Aim Is True" est un brouillon de génie, une esquisse formidable. C'est la photo d'un artiste en pleine métamorphose, qui ajuste ses lunettes, arme sa guitare et s'apprête à tirer sur tout ce qui bouge. La visée est juste, c'est indéniable. Mais les balles les plus mortelles, pour moi, arriveront juste après. Un album fondamental, à écouter absolument pour comprendre d'où vient une bonne partie du rock intelligent des 40 dernières années.

Growing up my best friend's dad was really into this kind of music. Although, I don't remember if he listened to Elvis Costello specifically. I was fairly indifferent to it then, and I am fairly indifferent to it now. Is it good music? I guess, it's not bad at least.

Favourite tracks: Waiting for the End of the World, Watching the Detectives

Dieses Album markiert Elvis Costellos Debüt und präsentiert seinen einzigartigen Stil, der zwischen Punk und New Wave balanciert, aber auch deutliche Anleihen bei Country und Pop zeigt. Hits wie „Alison“ und „Watching the Detectives“ stechen hervor, doch die überlange Struktur des Albums lässt einige Tracks weniger prägnant wirken. Obwohl die Energie und der innovative Ansatz beeindruckend sind, könnten manche Songs etwas besser verdichtet sein. Insgesamt ein spannender Start in Costellos Karriere, aber nicht alle Stücke erreichen das gleiche Level wie die Highlights.

Wie klingt das? Oder möchtest du Details zu bestimmten Songs?

I worked at a natural food store in college where this album was about all that I and the hippies I worked with could agree on musically. I heard it A LOT that year. Then the store closed. I still like this album though.

This is Costello's debut album. Very strong for a debut, and possibly his best album yet that I've heard on this generator. This was before his downward spiral into fucking new wave and shit. On this album, he has bits of country, rockabilly, 50's rock and roll, pub rock, and punk. A pretty solid power pop record. I'm impressed. Typically I hate Costello, but I can get behind this album.

Favourite songs: Waiting for the End of the World, Mystery Dance, Pay It Back, Blame it on Cain, I'm Not Angry, Alison, Sneaky Feelings, Miracle Man

Least favourite songs: Less Than Zero

4/5

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump down to a 4.

It’s a good album – certainly a much better one than “Brutal Youth” was for me, and for a while, I was at a 5. However, I think the album does sort of stagnate to the point where even though the individual tracks are good, it does become… not “boring” per se, but there is an impatience & a desire for something that feels different, which slowly grew for me to the point where all the nitpicks started to add up, and the entire album suffered because of it.

I do like every single track here; there’s not a bad one at all, and for the most part, I think there’s a strong harmony between the lyrics, vocals, and instrumental, even if it’s occasionally skewed to be a bit cheesy in one of those 3 aspects. However, my ear became especially attentive towards the general structure of each track, and that’s where the impatience grew – Elvis Costello’s criminal sin on this album is that every single track, for the most part, has the exact same structure, down to the outro. Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus / Verse / Outro (with one repeating line for about 30-45 seconds). At some point, my attentive ears couldn’t ignore it, and it just became the thing I noticed on every track.

Does that mean it’s a bad structure? No, not at all – realistically, almost every modern pop / rock song has this sort of structure. It’s all about how you disguise it & make it sound entertaining, and for as good as the instrumental/vocals/lyrics are on this album, I don’t think it’s disguised enough, nor is it quite entertaining enough (i.e., full harmony of the 3) in a way that keeps each track as fresh as it could be, hence my slow, boiling impatience for something different, because I gave it a lot of leeway before it finally bit at me.

With that said, the album is still remarkably good, and honestly, I wish I could leave it at a 4.5, because I don’t think the repetitive structure is *that* big of a boon on the album. It is, however, enough to stop me from giving this a full 5. I’ll still give it a lot of praise – for 1977, this does feel like a great showcase of both the past and what was to come in the 80s & arguably the 90s; I hear a lot of Rob Thomas in Elvis Costello, and Matchbox 20’s general soundscape is something I’ve been waiting for throughout this entire stretch. This album did get remarkably close to that, in a 70s form, and I think it does a great job of making hybrids between rock / pop & everything inbetween, even though I do wish it leaned a bit more into the full blown rock side of it. I liked this a lot – if it weren’t for the structure thing, I’d be at a 5, but it’s just too prevalent an issue for me to ignore, hence the 4. A very very good 4, though.

fico feliz que veio literalmente o primeiro dele pra começa, visto que ele tem varios na lista.
new wave né galera. é bom. tem uma pegada nerd (?) desajustado e meio rebelde. é bacana, tem umas pedrada. eh um bom debut!

Yet again another Elvis Costello record. Why? No really, why?

¿Cuántos álbumes de Elvis Costello hay en esta lista?¿Todos? Este debe ser el tercero o cuarto que escucho. Empieza bien "Welcome to the working week". Fin. Otro que me aburre, suena bien, se deja escuchar, pero nada especial al menos para mí y en 2025.