My Aim Is True

It's musically solid and the lyrics are good but nothing stands out as iconic. Just a meh album.

Lots of the songs are basically genre tributes and so don't feel especially original. You get the sense that this is a performing bar musician comfortable doing a lot of sounds but without a sound of his own. The consistent point is the vocal delivery and lyrical POV - he has a very distinctive and well developed sense of melody and acerbic lyrics. It's mostly all pretty uptempo and driving with a consistently restless feeling and relentless energy. The backing band brings a lot of that, plenty of fun accents and fills to go with the solid bass/drum foundation. He doesn't slow it down too often, and when he does it stands out: Allison is a classic lament to seeing a fleeting crush be with someone else in a deeply disappointing way.

wtf is this cover?

Although Critically Acclaimed®, still one of my all time favorite albums. Not a throwaway on here, but Angels Want to Wear my Red Shoes, Watching the Detectives , and Allison are outstanding. This is Elvis' debut, making it all the more amazing.

Better than the last Elvis Costello album on this list. There were some enjoyable tracks on here; enough in fact to give this a 3/5

I enjoyed this one. Nothing groundbreaking clearly borrowing much from styles done years before. Most of the songs have a very similar sound, but I like the sound so I won’t complain. Favorite tracks are Welcome To The Working Week, Miracle Man, Blame It On Cain, and Less Than Zero.

Het bekende Welkom to the Working Week is het voorgerecht en lijkt het album muzikaal goed in te leiden. Het zit prima in elkaar. Niet per se een melodietje, maar juist de structuur met zang maken het catchy. En de overduidelijke knipoog naar de maatschappij zal ook wel helpen. Het lijkt mij een nummer dat ook nu nog de popmuziek inspireert.
Het merendeel van het album heeft dezelfde (zang)stijl als dit nummer. Al zijn er uitstapjes. Zo meet Elvis zich nog even met die andere Elvis (waar hij zichzelf vast naar genoemd heeft). En dat doet hij niet eens onverdienstelijk.

Very catchy songs that take no time sticking with you.

Costello on simppeliä mut hyvää pop-rockia, mitäpä siinä sen enempää sanomaan. 4/5

"Alison" is one of the greatest pop songs of all time with its wicked double entendre, and it's what initially drew me to him as a teenager. But "Alison" is only one of the many brilliantly crafted songs on this album. EC is able to balance his cerebral wit with a surprising amount of soul, in a way so few other songwriters can. He is, by FAR, my favorite Elvis.

I'm always thinking that I'm going to dislike an Elvis Costello album, then end up liking it.

Well almost anything would sound good after Captain Beefheart. I thought This Year's Model was way better than this. Its fine, if pretty dated sounding. Its like a 50s rock star came forward into the future.

This is what I would think of if someone said "stereotypical rockabilly album", which isn't necessarily a good thing. I mean, I understand this type of album wasn't exactly common at the time, so I'll give it a couple bonus points there, but considering there are multiple other Costello albums to go, I'm not exactly revving to listen to more. I suppose I didn't dislike how it sounded, though, at least for now.

Enjoyable but some of the songs on this album just sound so dated, especially given this came out in 1977

My favorite Costello to date. Really like "Watching the Detectives". 3.5/5

It sounds like a great first album of a great artist. Still with a lot of rough edges, and on the balance of the rock 'n' roll and new wave.

Sorry, I just don't see the attractions.

b-side is really really solid

I love Elvis Costello and "My Aim is True" is one of my favorites.

But most importantly, it got the thumbs up from my daughter when we were listening to it in the car. She said the songs were stuck in her head and she "kinda liked it"

Very distinctive voice, but this means a lot of the songs sound pretty similar. Really good songs though, lyrically and musically, with production that lets them shine.
Enjoyed it more than I expected, even though I knew enough of the songs to be confident it would be good.