Review: Elvis Costello, ‘My Aim Is True – 49th Anniversary Edition’ – 5 CD Box Set – Celebrating His Outstanding Debut

Elvis Costello (born Declan MacManus) has released My Aim Is True – 49th Anniversary Edition to celebrate his 1977 debut album. I guess the idea of a 50th anniversary disturbed him enough he thought he’d jump the gun a year.

My Aim Is True is not only a spectacular debut album (and admittedly I love debut albums), but just a spectacular album. This is one of the best albums of all time and it deserves a deluxe treatment. And at 5 discs, this is pretty deluxe.

I’ll admit to you up front, I’m no Elvis Costello expert. I’m more of a “greatest hits” type fan. I own two Costello albums – My Aim Is True and his follow up with his then new backing band the Attractions, This Years’ Model. Please don’t read into it that I’m a “only likes his early, angry work” type of fan.

He’s a brilliant, if not sometimes acerbic songwriter. His music is often fueled by “revenge and guilt” which was my ethos until I was in my 30s. Costello’s name should be up there with Dylan or Neil Young in terms of songwriting talent and he has stood the test of time.

I’m glad I didn’t discover Costello’s music until I was much older… if I’d discovered his misogynistic music when I was a young heartbroken kid, I might have spiraled. Oh, who am I kidding, I spiraled anyway. I do wanna ask, Elvis, who hurt you?

Costello’s pugnacious songwriting, while not exactly punk, fit the punk ethos and so he rode that wave into a recording contract with Stiff Records. Costello was actually still working as a data entry clerk at Elizabeth Arden and kept the job, even while recording the album.

At that point Costello was performing solo with an acoustic guitar and he needed a band. The record company teamed him with hippy, California band Clover. He only used part of the band: John McFee (guitar) who went onto fame later with the Doobie Brothers, Sean Hopper (keyboards) who with Huey Lewis formed Huey Lewis & the News, Johnny Ciambotti (bass), and I believe Mickey Shine on drums. Huey, who sang and played harmonica in Clover did not appear on the record.

This unlikely paring, Costello and Clover with Nick Lowe at the helm, produced one of the greatest albums ever recorded, punk or otherwise. “Alison,” “Less Than Zero” about British fascist Oswald Mosley, and “(The Angels Wanna Wear) My Red Shoes” were all released as singles but failed to chart as singles. They’re all, of course, considered classics now.

Costello’s style did have a lot of punk ethos in it, but I also hear pub rock like say, Graham Parker or Dr. Feelgood. There’s also a 50s rock vibe that I get from this music. My favorite Costello song, “Blame It On Cain,” is on this record and it’s outstanding blues rock. Surprisingly, I get a country vibe in some of the lyrics.

There’s not a bad song on this album from “Welcome To The Working Week” (which I put on my Playlist: Songs For Labor Day) to “Waiting On The End Of The World” (which is on my Playlist: Songs About The World/Earth).

Disc 1 of the 5 disc set is the phenomenal original record. “Watching The Detectives,” Costello’s first hit single, was tacked onto American versions of the record and is included here. Costello wrote it after sitting up all night listening to the Clash’s debut album. Reggae, it’s not just for vacation anymore.

I mentioned on my review of the Beatles’ new box set Rubber Soul, that the disc of early versions of songs wasn’t very compelling to me. I can not say that about the the two discs worth of demos/outtakes/songs on Disc 2 and Disc 3 of this box set.

Disc 2 (aka “The Blue Print”) is full of acoustic takes on the songs that made the album. But there are so many other songs here. It was like Costello was in the midst of a songwriting supernova.

I’m not an expert in his music enough to know of all of these ended up on later records, although I do know “Radio Soul” ended up as “Radio, Radio” on the second album. Listening to this is like getting an unplugged performance of obscure songs and it’s amazing.

Disc 3 (aka “The Stranger In The House”) contains additional demos and outtakes, sometimes with Elvis being backed by another band, not Clover. Many of the songs that ended up on the album are toward the end of this disc. Again there is a lot of interesting music on this disc.

Disc 4 (aka “Becoming The Attractions”) is full of live stuff from BBC programs to Winterland theater in San Francisco. After recording the album Costello realized he needed a backing band and recruited the Attractions (Pete Thomas, drums; Steve Nieve, keyboards; Bruce Thomas, bass). We have some of those seminal live performances here. It’s a slightly disjointed listen, I’d have rather had just a whole performance from that era, but it works.

Finally, we have a reunion concert with Clover from November of 2007 on Disc 5 (aka “Covered In Clover”) where they play the whole debut record in order. I think only McFee, Ciambotti and maybe Hopper are at the show. Pete Thomas plays drums. But it is such a warm and cheerful performance – Costello tells some funny stories – it’s just the perfect way to cap off this amazing set.

If you’re not into the whole “box set” thing, I highly recommend at least streaming/buying My Aim Is True. The rest of these discs will be a wonderful immersive experience into the creative genius of Elvis Costello just as it was being unleashed upon the world. I found each disc in this set to be uniquely satisfying.

Oddly, this is our first post about Elvis Costello, and it is long overdue. At least we’re posting about one of his greatest albums. Turn this one up loud.

Cheers!