About the same time the king of rock put out the big light, we first heard an impressive New Wave import by a Buddy Holly look-alike calling himself Elvis Costello. On his debut LP, My Aim Is True, Costello has captured the rare synthesis that every Sixties rock band dreamed of -- the raw bluesiness of the Stones successfully mixed with a bouncy, early Beatles sound. My Aim Is True taps riffs that span two decades of popular rock. From "Mystery Dance," which sounds a tribute to his namesake's "Jailhouse Rock," to the Bowieish "I'm Not Angry," the album, penned entirely by Costello, effects a stylistic history of rock 'n' roll. Imagine Van Morrison with The Yardbirds produced by Phil Spector and you'll have an idea. Even better: Graham Parker meets Bruce Springsteen in Motown. Confused? Listen to My Aim Is True and tell us where you've heard it all before.

- Playboy, 2/78.

Bonus Reviews!

I like the nerdy way this guy comes on, I'm fascinated by his lyrics, and I approve of his rock and roll orientation; in fact, I got quite obsessive about his two cuts on the Bunch of Stiff Records import. Yet odd as it may seem, I find that he suffers from Jackson Browne's syndrome -- that is, he's a little boring. Often this malady results from overconcentration on lyrics and can be cured by a healthy relationship with a band. Since whenever I manage to attend to a Costello song all the way through I prefer it to "The Pretender," I hope he recovers soon. B+

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.

This British writer used to write regularly for Rolling Stone for several enjoyable years. I knew it was time to throw in the towel in 1977 when my request to write about Elvis Costello was dismissed. At that time the United States didn't want to know about some obscure Buddy Holly impersonator with a name ripping off the King of Rock 'n' Roll performing songs in many cases shorter than those of even Presley himself. I stopped writing articles and started doing books. People could choose whether to buy them or not, but at least I could write about subjects I considered important.

Costello was and is important, and this album occupies a key place in rock history. Elvis married the tradition of popular songwriting with the attitude of the New Wave that had forsaken it. He represented the changing of the guard better than many of his punk contemporaries, who were famous in the UK but whose fame did not export.

"Less Than Zero" must be the only ninety-second song to inspire the title of a novel, in this case Bret Easton Ellis' look at mid-eighties life in Los Angeles. "Alison" contained the line that gave this record its name, and was the first major ballad by a New Wave artist.

If your copy of this album has a different cover than the one above, don't be surprised. According to Stiff historian Bert Muirhead there are at least eleven variations. The US version of My Aim Is True includes the British hit single "Watching the Detectives."

In 1987, My Aim Is True was chosen by a panel of rock critics and music broadcasters as the #28 rock album of all time.

- Paul Gambaccini, The Top 100 Rock 'n' Roll Albums of All Time, Harmony Books, 1987.

Elvis Costello's debut album is a pop landmark that indicates the future that may exist for the spirit of punk in the wider genre of rock music. Backed by the American group Clover (featuring then-future Doobie Brother John McFee but not harmonica player Huey Lewis). Costello displays all the characteristics that would serve him throughout his career: a caustic wit he uses to savage himself and others, a broad imagination -- "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" is one of the best pieces of rock whimsy ever written, an unsentimental but compelling sence of romance ("Alison"), and an astonishing verbal facility, all enmeshed with a pop encyclopedist's musical knowledge. One of the greatest first albums in pop history. * * * * *

- William Ruhlmann, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

My Aim is True is a phenomenal debut album notable for the Costello classics "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes," "Alison," and "Watching the Detectives." As is typical for the best Costello albums it sounds as good today as it did when it was originally released. * * * * *

- Marc Fenton, Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, 1996.

In November 1977, just three months after the death of Elvis Presley, along comes a gangly, bespectacled twenty-three-year-old Brit clutching a red Fender Jazzmaster guitar, looking like some knock-kneed punk version of Buddy Holly, complete with the skinny tie and jacket that would become the de rigueur costume of late-1970s New Wave. The tiny black-and-white-checkerboard boxes of the record cover proclaim, ELVIS IS KING.

Like his fellow Englishmen the Sex Pistols and the Damned, Elvis Costello was very good at the bravado gesture early in his career. Yet underneath his punky pose lurked a staggeringly gifted songwriter who had made it his business to devour the history of American popular music, from Hoagy Carmichael to Burt Bacharach, from Hank Williams to Gram Parsons, from Louis Jordan to Smokey Robinson.

Working a day gig as a computer operator for Elizabeth Arden, Costello had cooked up a formidable songbook, but until Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson of Stiff Records signed him to their fledgling label, no London record company was swayed by Costello's talent. With members of an obscure Marin County, California, band called Clover -- a group that would form the basis of Huey Lewis and the News -- as well as producer Nick Lowe, Costello made his first album in six sessions for under $2,000.

My Aim is True -- reissued in August 2001 on Rhino Records as a double-disc, bonus-track-laden package -- was one of the great debut albums in the annals of pop music. Balancing the rage of punk with the formalism of the century's best songcraft, the album delivers passion and intelligence in equal measure. From the tender vitriol of "Alison" to the knowing arrogance of "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" to the free-associative Dylanisms of "Waiting for the End of the World," Costello shows himself to be a budding pop master. And while at times he is almost too clever for his own good, a problem that will become more pronounced as his career progresses and his easy virtuosity becomes even easier, one cannot but be charmed by the young Costello's charisma. For a short time in the late 1970s, Elvis was indeed king.

- Adam Bresnick, Rolling Stone, 8/16/01.

Bespectacled and angry, the original talent who made nerd glasses cool shook up the landscape of rock by delivering punk attitude in a radio-friendly package. Paranoid, voyeuristic and loaded with insight beyond the young man's years, this phenomenal debut leaps off the stereo and grabs your attention with sex-obsessed cynicism and Dylanesque poignancy. You'll marvel at "Alison," while grooving to the bouncy "Watching the Detectives," a new wave anthem. * * * * *

- Zagat Survey Music Guide - 1,000 Top Albums of All Time, 2003.

Costello on the fuel for his debut: "I spent a lot of time with just a big jar of instant coffee and the first Clash album, listening to it over and over." The music doesn't have the savage attack of the Clash; after all, Costello's backing band was Clover, which would later evolve into Huey Lewis and the News. But songs such as "Mystery Dance" and "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" have plenty of verbal bite, and the ballad "Alison" is a poisoned valentine. Beginning with the line, "Now that your picture's in the paper being rhythmically admired," My Aim Is True quickly establishes Costello as one of the best lyricists of his generation.

My Aim Is True was chosen as the 168th greatest album of all time by the editors of Rolling Stone magazine in Dec. 2003.

- Rolling Stone, 12/11/03.

(2007 30th Anniversary Edition) Here's another repackaging -- the fourth -- of Elvis Costello's 1977 debut. Outtakes and inferior demos round out Disc One. Disc Two offers a live show, Costello in a London pub in 1977, doing bristlier versions of the same songs. It's fun, but not so essential. But My Aim Is True is: The guy is twenty-three, married with a kid, basically a geek folk singer whose day job is computer programming for Elizabeth Arden consmetics, inspired by punk rock, looking for his way in. He got it: "Pay It Back," "I'm Not Angry," "Mystery Dance," the underrated "Waiting for the End of the World." These are the songs that got him off his computer desk and made the whole world want to argue back at him.

- Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 9/20/07.

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