Elvis Costello: My Aim Is True [BACK TO BLACK/UME]

Why you'll love it

This Back to Black reissue is pressed on 180g vinyl with a download voucher. My Aim Is True met with critical acclaim on arrival and is now widely counted among the best debut albums in music history.

This edition

• Back to Black series
• 180g vinyl
• Download card included
• Pressed in the Czech Republic

About the album

Before he was Elvis, he was Declan MacManus, playing pubs and clubs in Liverpool and London with a stack of demo tapes. Stiff Records signed him in August 1976 as the label's first artist, suggested a new first name and a sharper image to match the punk moment, and handed him to Nick Lowe to produce. The whole album was cut over six four-hour sessions at Pathway Studios in Islington.

His backing band was Clover, a California country rock group, and that loose, rootsy swing sits under songs that are anything but relaxed. "Alison" is one of the great ballads of the era, "Watching the Detectives" is a reggae-tinged noir added for the American edition, "Less Than Zero" and "Welcome to the Working Week" snap and snarl, and "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" is pure pop. Pub rock, 50s rock and roll, R&B and rockabilly all get a look in, all fuelled by his sharp, vengeful wordplay.

It reached No. 14 in the UK, and in the US it became the biggest-selling import album in history before Columbia even issued it there. Twenty-four hours of studio time in total, which is roughly how long it takes us to agree on where to file Costello.

Also at Kops: more Elvis Costello on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Stiff / UMe, a reissue of the 1977 album.