Elvis Costello Recommendations - Perfect Albums List Thread

[Laramie]

So back on GAF there was a thread called "Perfect albums."  Of course there were a lot of idiots in there but TVC 15 made a great post and based on his other recommendations, I committed many of those album covers to memory.  One of which was a picture of a short little Englishman with his face obscured by an old timey camera.  The album was "This Year's Model" by Elvis Costello.

I downloaded the album but I never got around to listening to it (I used to just download as much music as I could for the enjoyment of seeing a big number).  I was watching Weeds a few weeks ago and I noticed that Costello was credited on IMDB for singing the opening song.  For those of you that don't watch the show, the opening song is sung by some lady with a grating voice until season 2 when they let a bunch of other people, like Costello, sing it.  Interest reignited.

Whenever I went record shopping I'd thumb through his section, looking for the album.  Finally, I struck gold a few weeks ago and found a copy for six bucks.  This is one of the greatest albums I've ever heard.  TVC 15 was right, it's perfect.  Every song is unique and very enjoyable.  This album was recorded during the arguably worst period in rock and roll history so I'm led to believe that this isn't the only good album made by Elvis and crew.  Where should I go next?

This thread is also a bit of an open, albeit late, thank you to TVC 15 for sharing his great music taste and a bit of an invitation for anyone to post their perfect albums.

  TVC 15 (Song and poster)

[TVC15]

His first album, My Aim of True is also really good.  His backing band wasn't as good, but most of the songs are still.  His album from after This Year's Model, Armed Forces, is probably about as good as This Year's Model, but it's more polished and produced, and the Attractions are a lot tighter.  The songs are just as good, though probably a little less angry and sardonic.

I'd say his next couple of albums are just a notch less great.  Get Happy has him doing the white soul thing, which he does pretty well at.  Imperial Bedroom is really poppy, and Trust mixes up a few styles, similar to This Year's Model )though it, again, has nicer production).

And after that he kind of got boring.  He still releases good albums now and then, though.  Just not super fantastic.  He's not a young man anymore.  His new album, Momofuku, is probably his best since When I was Cruel, which is from like a half decade ago.

[Laramie]

What I like most about TYM is that the songs are unique because of the instruments and not so much Elvis.  Consider how different "This Year's Girl" and "Hand in Hand" sound because of the instrumentation while the singing sounds pretty similar.  When you say The Attractions are tighter, do you mean that they excel at more varied sounds like they do on TYM?

Thanks for the primer.  The AV Club usually does a pretty good job on those, at least they seem to when it comes to bands I already know.

vvv

[Robo]

Almost Blue and King of America are nice little country-tinged records that are worth checking out after you've digested everything mentioned above (which will probably take quite a while), the former in particular.  Blood & Chocolate is another good one.

The AV Club just did a Costello feature not too long ago that was a nice read:  http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/primer_elvis_costello