Before I really knew what new wave music was, I had some familiarity with Elvis Costello. He was a crossover artist who was often featured in Rolling Stone being hailed as one of the best artists of his generation. As one is wont to do, I would look at their Top 500 albums and immediately become curious about the various bands making up the list. While it was pulled from Paste, it feels important to note that Costello’s first two albums are ones I was immediately familiar with if for no other reason than their adjacent relationship to punk music. While he seemed too “passionate” to be of the same anarchic cloth, I will say that he more than deserves the two spots he has in this column.
To provide context, I will be covering “My Aim Is True” later on. While this may create chronological confusion, I am choosing to spend this entry focused more on the band that was born in the wake of his debut. Costello recorded his first record with a country band called Clover. Upon completion, he determined that he needed to start his own backing group. That is why he formed The Attractions, who would make their live debut around July 1977. It was a week shy of “My Aim Is True” coming out and would start a partnership that lasted the better part of 18 years. All they would have to do was get through The Greatest Stiffs Live Tour, featuring many other artists signed to Stiff Records on their first American tour.
Something to consider regarding The Attractions is that they were seen as being more with the times. The assembled group included established musicians like Bruce Thomas and Pete Thomas (no relation) and found their sound veering more into an energetic and youthful sound. They criticized Clover for being more mellow and lacking in what was necessary to bring out Costello’s best material. This could be seen in their collaborative process. Costello had previously been the main contributor to the writing process. For “This Year’s Model,” The Attractions offered their own input, meaning the work was more of a group project. Given that a handful of songs were toyed with while on tour, it made their eventual recording a lot easier.
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Unlike a lot of bands covered on Make It New, The Attractions’ early days are arguably some of the most storied in new wave history. On top of doing two tours back-to-back, they had a few controversies that established them as an edgy new force. The most noteworthy came when they performed an unauthorized concert outside a Colombia Records convention. This led to Costello being arrested. The story takes an ironic turn as this gambit would get the band signed to Colombia, thus ending their time on Stiff where Costello had just released his first hit single “Watching the Detectives.” The rising profile earned them a spot on Saturday Night Live as a last-minute fill-in for The Sex Pistols. It was here that they performed “Watching the Detectives” followed by “Radio Radio.” The latter was an anti-consumerist commentary on media that annoyed producer Lorne Michaels enough to have Costello banned until 1989. Not bad for a band who hadn’t even existed for six months up to this point.
The recording of “This Year’s Model” had some familiar names attached. It featured the return of producer Nick Lowe, whose input provided such esoteric ideas like, “make it sound like a dinosaur eating cars.” There was a push to make the process as streamlined as possible. In their words, they wanted to record as much of it live as possible, making it akin to a Motown studio session. Given their familiarity with the material, it was an easy process.
Costello’s interpretation of the album and the general public’s were at odds from the beginning. To read reviews from the time is to notice people accusing the performer of embracing a misogynistic lens that belittled his female subjects. A lot of the songs were inspired by his time working for a cosmetics company and being directly involved with the fashion industry. His rejection of their vanity-centric mentality can be seen across the board in numbers like “This Year’s Girl” that provided arguments against conformity. Given that Costello also admitted to being inspired by 60s rock, including The Rolling Stones’ album “Aftermath,” it was hard to not notice the parallels of perceived regressive values. According to later comments, the singer argued that these songs were more about relationships falling apart and thus having a sense of defeat. He cites the opener “No Action” which cleverly plays with this concept in the form of hanging up a phone.
The debate as to which Costello record is more crucial to the new wave canon will always be up for debate. For me personally, the highs of “My Aim Is True” are more exciting and memorable, but that will be discussed in a later entry. For now, I think that “This Year’s Model” fits the bill in ways that I hadn’t considered prior. Whereas I remembered the record being mostly loud and rambunctious, there were a lot more layers and themes that make Costello as connective to more traditional-sounding bands like The Knack as the experimental world-building of Buggles or Gary Numan. If anything, he’s more subversive yet accessible than any band that I’ve covered.
On a musical level, The Attractions are capable of bridging gaps between genres in ways reminiscent of English Beat or Madness. They are as much driven by traditional garage rock as they are two-tone ska and synth-pop. Even if their sound isn’t considered complex, their ability to jump around is a testament to what makes a great new wave record. It all comes together to present a message that is rebellious and angry in ways reminiscent of punk but with better production values. If judging on an instrumental level, I struggle to see The Attractions as a punk band. However, I listen to Costello and recognize the sneer and antagonism of the late-70s icons, albeit with more of a polished lyrics sheet.
Once the listener recognizes that Costello is wanting to comment on modern technology, the drive of the record makes sense. For as personal as every song becomes, there is a layer of commentary that catches me off guard. “This Year’s Girl” comments on a woman who follows trends only to feel isolated and disconnected. Costello is disinterested by assimilation. It goes even further in “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” where he explores the rich social life from an outsider’s perspective and decides that he doesn’t belong there.
The biggest hit on the album, “Pump It Up,” is maybe the best testament to the larger fusion of sounds. Costello claims that it was inspired by Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” which finds him rambling through lyrics about the familiar themes set to a deceptively upbeat melody. The guitar feels reminiscent of The Everly Brothers and The Kinks while the aggression of the drums helped to develop a dance melody. If the goal of new wave was to introduce the strange into Top 40, then nobody was doing it as successfully as The Attractions. Even the way the scatter-paced verses shift into the directness of the chorus has an anthemic quality that shouldn’t work but does thanks to the power of tight hooks.
In theory, “This Year’s Model” shouldn’t be a successful record. It doesn’t desire to reach the same heights as the mainstream acts. There are vulnerable, sometimes grotesque lyrics of a man frustrated with the larger world. Even Costello’s appearance would suggest his unconventional attractiveness. He sees the culture that could symbolize the Top 40 and seems genuinely disgusted by it. The fact he packages it in beautiful melodies that could be mistaken for celebration helps to reflect his strengths as a performer. It also makes sense why he has remained a cultural icon even if he’s failed to be as omnipresent in pop culture as he was prior to 1980.
Other fun details can be found in the music videos. “Pump It Up” features Costello performing through a fisheye lens that he claimed made him look goofy. While this would be enough for a fun video, Costello would go on to walk on the sides of his feet. This stems from childhood where he was born with flat feet. The doctors said he’d never be able to join the army and, as such, caused him to try and work around it. He claimed to have taught himself how to pick up socks with his ankles. He calls it a calling card and compares it to how comedians have certain punchlines that they fall back on.
The success of the first two records lead Costello to have an influential impact on new wave and the larger music culture. While his career will be more discussed in the “My Aim Is True” entry, for now, I’ll discuss what happened with The Attractions. Despite not getting initial credit on the singles for “This Year’s Model,” they would eventually have their name on the record and become a mainstay of Costello’s roster, Together they would release 10 full records with appearances on an additional two that would span between 1978 and 1996.
Their final public appearance was at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. While Bruce Thomas didn’t perform, it was a moment that confirmed the end of The Attractions, specifically the collaborative relationship between Costello and Thomas. Upon Rolling Stone asking why he wasn’t active, he argued, “I only work with professional musicians.” Thomas went further and suggested that Costello no longer cared. With that said, other members of The Attractions, including Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve would continue to work with him under a new band called The Imposters who have released four albums since 2004.
Much like the best of new wave’s biggest names, Costello hasn’t totally gone away. While it can be argued that his first two records remain his most essential, his continual need to experiment and play with style reflects a mentality crucial to the genre’s success. Despite being a backup band, The Attractions deserves some acclaim for outlasting most contemporaries with an admirably prolific output. For a figure who seemed allergic to mainstream appeal, it’s hard to not admire what, “This Year’s Model” in its request for listeners to question the messages being directed to them. The fact it comes with a lot of fun up-tempo numbers is an added bonus and a major reason that this record is more than empty pop. If anything, it’s the subversive tools necessary to keeping rock music interesting.
Coming Up Next: Talking Heads – “Fear of Music” (1979)
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