Line #62 Music/ThisYearsModel


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_thisyearsmodel.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The original British cover, featuring a [[StylisticSuck deliberate printing mistake]].]]
3
4	->''You say you're sorry for the things that you have done\
5	You say you're sorry but you know you don't mean it\
6	I wouldn't worry, I had so much fun\
7	Sometimes I almost feel just like a human being''
8	-->-- "Lipstick Vogue"
9
10	''This Year's Model'' is Music/ElvisCostello's second studio album. It is also his first with the Attractions, the crack backing band he'd recruited to tour with his previous album, ''Music/MyAimIsTrue''. It was originally released in March 1978 on Creator/RadarRecords in England and Creator/ColumbiaRecords in America.
11
12	!!Original Tracklist
13
14	[[AC:Side One]]
15
16	# "No Action" (1:58)
17	# "This Year's Girl" (3:17)
18	# "The Beat" (3:45)
19	# "Pump It Up" (3:14)
20	# "Little Triggers" (2:40)
21	# "You Belong to Me" (2:22)
22
23	[[AC:Side Two]]
24
25	# "Hand in Hand" (2:33)
26	# "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" (3:07)
27	# "Lip Service" (2:36)
28	# "Living in Paradise" (3:52)
29	# "Lipstick Vogue" (3:42)
30	# "Night Rally" (2:41)
31
32	The original US release dropped "Chelsea" and "Night Rally" because Columbia executives thought their lyrics were "too British". They were replaced by "Radio Radio", a song already (in)famous for getting Costello banned from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''. Most CD releases include both songs, either on the primary disc or a bonus disc.
33
34	!!Trope It Up:
35	* SeventiesHair: Especially noticeable on Elvis in the album's music videos.
36	* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: From "The Beat":
37	-->''I'd do anything to con-FUSE the enemy.''
38	* AlternateAlbumCover: The British/European, American, and Scandinavian covers all have variations on three of the four cover/inner sleeve photos. The front always has Elvis at the camera, the back always has Elvis and the Attractions posing in a UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity hotel room, and one side of the innersleeve always has a gloved hand holding a mini-TV whose screen shows a shot from the group's ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' appearance; however, all three images are slightly different on each release. Only the other innersleeve photo (mannequin body parts in front of a row of washing machines) is the same on each version.
39	* BadassBoast: From the VillainProtagonist of "Hand in Hand", who is apparently some sort of crime boss.
40	-->''Don't you know I got the bully boys out\
41	Changing someone's facial design\
42	Sitting with my toy room lout\
43	Polishing my precious china\
44	Don't you know I'm an animal?\
45	Don't you know I can't stand up steady?\
46	But you can't show me any kind of hell that I don't know already''
47	* BitingTheHandHumor: Costello's stated intent on "Radio Radio".
48	-->''I wanna bite the hand that feeds me''\
49	''I wanna bite that hand so badly''\
50	''I want to make them wish they'd never seen me''
51	* FaceOnTheCover: Costello standing behind a view camera.
52	* GreenEyedMonster: "Living in Paradise"
53	-->''I don't like those other guys looking at your curves\
54	I don't like you walking 'round with physical jerks\
55	Everything they say and do is getting on my nerves\
56	Soon they will be lucky to be picking up the perks''
57	* InTheStyleOf:
58	** "You Belong to Me" sounds a great deal like Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}} around the time of ''Music/AftermathAlbum''. Also, the melody bears more than a passing resemblance to the Stones' "The Last Time".
59	** In the liner notes to the 2002 reissue, Elvis states that "This Year's Girl" was meant to be a less venomous rewrite of the Stones' "Stupid Girl", also from ''Music/AftermathAlbum''.
60	** "Pump It Up" is influenced by Music/BobDylan's "[[Music/BringingItAllBackHome Subterranean Homesick Blues]]", which in turn is derived from Music/ChuckBerry's "Too Much Monkey Business".
61	* LastNoteNightmare: "Night Rally" is ominous throughout -- but at the end, Costello starts chanting the title over and over and some sort of weird, high-pitched warbling sound is added the mix. And then the song cuts off suddenly, just like Music/TheBeatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" from ''Music/AbbeyRoad''. For added nightmarishness, "Night Rally" was the last track on the original vinyl album's British pressing.
62	* LyricalColdOpen: The album opens with Elvis Costello singing by himself at the start of "No Action".
63	-->''I don't wanna kiss you, I don't wanna touch...''
64	* MinisculeRocking: "No Action" is just under two minutes long.
65	* NewSoundAlbum: As noted, this was Costello's first album with the Attractions, whose intense, GarageRock-like sound was quite a change from the comparatively easy-going pub rock of ''My Aim Is True''.
66	* OneWomanSong: "This Year's Girl"
67	* ProtestSong: "Night Rally" is a condemnation of the fascist rallies that were starting to sweep parts of Britain. Its replacement on the initial US pressing, "Radio Radio", takes on media manipulation.
68	* PunBasedTitle: The album was the next album after [[Music/MyAimIsTrue the one released the previous year]], making it that year's model.
69	* RadioSong: "Radio Radio":
70	-->''Radio is a sound salvation\
71	Radio is cleaning up the nation\
72	They say you better listen to the voice of reason\
73	But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason\
74	So you had better do as you are told\
75	You better listen to the radio''
76	* RecordProducer: Music/NickLowe, Costello's usual producer in the early years.
77	* RelationshipUpgrade: "No Action" sounds ambivalent about asking for one.
78	-->''And I think about the way things used to be,\
79	Knowing you're with him is driving me crazy\
80	Sometimes I phone you when I know you're not lonely,\
81	But I always disconnect it in time''
82	* RhymingWithItself: The chorus of "Lip Service":
83	-->''Lip service is all you'll ever get from me [3x]\
84	But if you change your mind, you can send it in a letter to me''
85	* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: "Pump It Up", inspired by what many of the performers got up to during the Stiff Records tour of which Costello and the Attractions were a part.
86	* ShoutOut: The album is on both sides of this trope.
87	** Costello on the cover is posed like David Hemmings in ''Film/BlowUp''.
88	** "The Beat" starts with the line "We're all going on a summer holiday", a possible reference to the Music/CliffRichard song and movie ''Summer Holiday''.
89	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' has an episode titled "[[Recap/DariaS1E06 This Year's Model]]".
90	** "Pump It Up" was sampled on "Egg Man" from The Music/BeastieBoys' ''Music/PaulsBoutique''.
91	* StylisticSuck: Early British pressings included a deliberately mispressed cover, in which the cover image is positioned so off-center that the first letters in Costello's name and the album title are out-of-view while the color blocks[[note]]used in factories to test for ink deficiencies; most people recognize them as those weird colorful circles on food packaging[[/note]] are ''in''-view. Costello went on the record confirming that audiences were supposed to be curious[=/=]confused about this choice, since "it meant they'd pause just that little bit longer in front of our sleeve". Nearly all reissues "corrected" this error; either no one got the memo that it was ''supposed'' to look like the printer fucked up, or [[ViewersAreMorons they feared audiences wouldn't get the joke]].\
92	A few reissues did feature the original cover, misprinting and all, such as Japanese CD editions from 2003, 2006, and 2008, and US LP editions from 2010, 2015, and 2019. Also, the 2007 Hip-O Records CD version presents an odd compromise: it's a digipak featuring the "corrected" version of the UK cover art on the front, while the liner notes booklet combines the printing error with the alternate photo from the ''American'' cover art.
93	* TitleDrop[=/=]TitleTrack: Neither trope is played straight, but you get the album title if you cross the song title "This Year's Girl" with the line "Capital punishment, she's '''last year's model'''", from "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea".
94	* TitledAfterTheSong: ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has a Faith-centric episode called "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E15ThisYearsGirl This Year's Girl]]".
95	* TheUnapologetic: Invoked in the opening of "Hand in Hand".
96	-->''No, don't ask me to apologize\
97	I won't ask you to forgive me\
98	If I'm gonna go down, you're gonna come with me.''
99	* VisualPun: The front cover, which has Costello as a photographer and the viewer as, well, this year's model.

Context Music / ThisYearsModel