Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. No Action
2. This Year's Girl
3. Beat
4. Pump It Up
5. Little Triggers
6. You Belong To Me
7. Hand In Hand
8. I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea
9. Lip Service
10. Living In Paradise
11. Lipstick Vogue
12. Night Rally
13. Radio Radio
14. Big Tears
15. Crawling To The USA
16. Running Out Of Angels
17. Greenshirt
18. Big Boys
19. You Belong To Me
20. Radio Radio
21. Neat Neat Neat
22. Roadette Song
23. This Year's Girl
24. I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea
25. Stranger In The House

Disc 2:

1. Big Tears
2. Crawling To The USA
3. Running Out Of Angels
4. Greenshirt
5. Big Boys
6. You Belong To Me
7. Radio Radio
8. Neat Neat Neat
9. Roadette Song
10. This Year's Girl
11. I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea
12. Stranger In The House

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82291 in Music
• Released on: 2002-02-25
• Number of discs: 2

CD Description
Remastered and expanded version of Costello's second album and the first to feature backing band The Attractions. Includes the singles 'I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea' and 'Pump ItUp'. 'This Year's Model' is faster and more raw than the debut 'My Aim Is True', this expanded version features demo tracks, live takes and radio sessions as well as improved sound on the original set.

Customer Reviews

Great album, frustrating reissue
The new Costello reissues are proving to be a mixed blessing for me. Of the twelve tracks on the bonus disc here, five were on the earlier Demon reissue and the other seven are interesting but nothing special.

None of the alternate versions of album tracks are particularly successful and only really show how great the final versions are. The live versions of Neat, Neat, Neat and Roadette Song are poorly recorded and hardly essential performances, despite the historical interest.

Added to this, the bonus disc is only 36 minutes long, so the whole thing could have put on one CD!

This is particularly irritating as the album sounds great and the booklet is immaculate, with excellent liner notes and all the lyrics.

If you've never heard this album, I'd strongly recommend it, especially if you're feeling particuarly irritable today. If you're looking to replace your Demon reissue, proceed with caution... but you know you're going to buy it anyway.

As blisteringly powerful now as it was then
From a decade of great albums, This Years Model emerged from the 1970's, head and shoulders above the rest. Despite several good attempts, Elvis Costello never created anything else close to this. The anger of a young Costello, the losers hero, is breathtaking as he almost spits out the venemous lyrics, with the main focus of his aggression, the opposite sex.

This Years Model bursts into life with "No Action" and the opening lines, "I don't wanna kiss you, I don't wanna touch, I don't wanna see you, 'cause I don't miss you that much"... well that told her then! Don't expect sweet love songs here. He may look like a wimp, he may even act like a wimp, but this is one guy whose emotions you don't want to play with.

The first seven songs were the original side 1, and they move along at break-neck speed, not letting up for a minute, and include "Pump it Up" which was released as a single, and the rocker "You Belong to Me", which ends very much as the first song began "No, I don't want anybody saying, You belong to me....".
If we were expecting hinm to calm down a bit on the remainder of the disk, we now learn that he's barely started! "Hand in Hand", track 8, the first song on the original side 2, lays down his intentions with the opening lines, "No don't ask me to apologise, I won't ask you to forgive me, If I'm gonna go down, You're gonna come with me". And so it goes on, next up, "(I don't want to go to) Chelsea", the big hit single from the album, followed by "Lip Service", "Living in Paradise" ("...and already you're looking for another fool like me...") and at last, the song it's all been building up to, the awesome "Lipstick Vogue".
He's not just spitting now, he's spitting blood as he cries out "Sometimes I think that love is just a tumour, you've got to cut out" and later "You say your sorry for the things that you've done, you say you're sorry but you know you don't mean it, I wouldn't worry I had so much fun, Sometimes I almost feel just like a human being" or even "You wanna throw me away but Im not broken, You got a lot to say but I'm not joking, There are some words they don't allow to be spoken". The orignal album ends with "Night Rally", or "Radio, Radio" if you bought the US version, and both are here, bringing the first disk to a close. The great thing about these songs is that everytime you listen to them, even 30 years later they hit you in the face like a bucket of ice water, timeless songs, the loser in love fighting back.

I was delighted with the bonus disk, which carries on the anger of the first. There are excellent, different versions of "You belong to me", "Radio, Radio", "This Years Girl" and "Chelsea", as well as demo versions of songs that were to appear on later albums "Greenshirt" and "Big Boys" (with the classic line "Worrying about you physical fitness, Tell me how you got this sickness"), but the highlight of the bonus disk is the acoustic "Running Out of Angels".
A wonderful re-release, re-master, call it what you like, this is one of the great albums, which you must have in your collection.

Sums up 1978
Most definetly in Elvis Costellos top three albums . After the honky tonk feel of My Aim is True Elvis and the Attractions (credited for the first time ) decide to rip it up and make their PUNK record.From subjects of fashion and women to politics and facsism this has everything.Beginning with No Action which drives along finishing with the line 'everytime I hold you I just want to put you down' then straight into This Years Girl. By the end of The Beat there is no relenting with Pump it Up . Elvis should write more songs on stairwells where he wrote this in ten minutes . Classic tune. The masterstroke then is to follow up with Little Triggers great genteel song with great wordplay.Side two begins with Hand in Hand a great song with one of Elvis best coda's which runs into Chelsea. Bruce Thomas has his best moment here in his tribute to Bill Wyman which he later repeats with Tokyo Storm Warning 8 years later.Next two songs are not outstanding but fit the album nicely . Then the it all goes off with Lipstick vogue . Pete Thomas or Keith Moon?? Bruce and Steve playing against each other and Little Hands of Concrete getting his say in amongstthe wall of sound in this stomper . The album finishes with the haunting Night Rally. Warning us of the time ahead.
The extra tracks on CD 2 include Costellos best flipside Big Tears with Mick jones guesting,demos of songs to come on Armed Forces ,Costellos attack on the nations airwaves Radio Radio which would be an apt song for today with Pop Idol and the likes. Some honkytonk and alternative versions thrown in this is the complete package.
After losing one Elvis in 1977 ; 1978 showed us Elvis was still very much alive and we all yearn for Elvis to return to those days of rage and anger . New song Alibi sounds promising .Roll on April and his new album.