Elvis Costello's favorite album of his own.

I still listen to Armed Forces most often.

Armed Forces is my favorite as well.  Released in my senior year in college.  Album came with a promotional EP that featured a live recording of 'Alison.'  So so good. 

To my tastes,  Costello has never equaled this recording, though I am partial to a lot of his music.

Rich 

I recently acquired a copy of the expanded CD edition of King Of America (which includes a bonus disc containing 21 demo, outtake, and live versions of the album’s songs). I also have the album on LP in a UK pressing and the one from MoFi (which has no digital conversion in the transfer from tape to the lacquer).

The studio band heard on many of the songs went by the name The Confederates. I wonder if that name would now be considered politically incorrect? 😊

@bdp24, I am glad you mentioned the CD version of King of America with the extra tracks, have had the LP version of the album and added the extended cd later when it became available and it is my favorite of ECs offerings, what a great song list and the players are 2nd to none and then you toss in T Bone Burnett. Enjoy the music

I'll have to put this one on my "bin buy" list

The debut and 2nd  album-My Aim is True/"This Year's Model" had my attention. 

SO MUCH new alt music during that period. Also saw Elvis at Hollywood High in 1978. 

A few years ago I found a copy "Almost Blue" in the 3/$10 bins.

Reviews were lukewarm, but I hear this cover album as a good listen.

For me, it's "My Aim Is True".  Listen quite often to it.

Most people don't know that members of his backing band for his first album (band name Clover) became "the News" for Huey Lewis. Or, at least some people don't know that...

Right you are @jji666, which played a role in my liking it as much as I did. Plus Elvis’ vibrato wasn’t as over-the-top as it later became. I’m not generally a fan of what to me constitutes excessive vibrato, though there are exceptions (Iris DeMent and Maria Muldaur).

Clover, a SF Bay Area band, were over in the the UK in the mid-70's, a part of the burgeoning Pub Rock scene. Also a major player in that genre were The Brinsley Schwarz Band, whose bassist/songwriter/singer was Nick Lowe, who produced My Aim Is True. Nick later joined forces with Dave Edmunds in what became my favorite UK band of them all, Rockpile. Huey Lewis plays harp on a coupla solo albums of Dave's. 

i'd say "this year's model" is his best, in the sense that it rocks the hardest, (arguably) sounds the best and has no skippable tracks. the one i listen to the most, however, is the odds-and-sods collection, "taking liberties," which is the least contrived and freest-flowing.

Before any English teacher corrects me, I'll do it myself: The Brinsley Schwarz Band WAS a major player, not were. 😉 I was running short on time (for a scheduled doctor's appointment) as I was typing that sentence, and didn't proof what I wrote.

This Year's Model is my favorite for sure. My Aim is True had great songs but having mellow Marin County band Clover play the music ruined that album for me; the live versions with the Attractions are great, though! 

Clover "mellow"?!

@loomisjohnson 

Yes, Taking Liberties is a great one.

I have never really listened to Elvis Costello. What would be a good album for me to start with, to get the gist of his style?

Thanks

@bdp24 - Yes, you read well. Just like how I'd describe that music I greatly dislike on 'My Aim Is True'. Zzzzz....  We got REAL Elvis music, in my opinion, with the Attractions. 

I’m pretty sure Costello considers the music on King Of America to be "REAL Elvis music", and 14 of the album’s 15 songs are Attractions-free.

As I said above, KOA is Elvis’ own favorite of his, and the musicians who play on those 14 songs include Mickey Curry, Jerry Scheff (Elvis Presley, L.A. studios), T-Bone Wolk, Mitchell Froom (lots of album productions), Jim Keltner (John Lennon, Ry Cooder, Bill Frisell), David Hildago (Los Lobos), James Burton (Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley, Emmylou Harris), Ron Tutt (Elvis Presley), Michael Blair, Jo-El Sonnier, Ray Brown (the great Jazz bassist), Tom Canning, Earl Palmer (the master New Orleans drummer, heard on the recordings of Little Richard and other 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll greats. Also a member of The Wrecking Crew, and the L.A. studios in general), and the album’s producer T Bone Burnett. Rather than being "mellow", they are amongst the hottest musicians in the world.

And then there are the albums Costello made with The Brodsky Quartet and Burt Bacharach. Do those albums contain "REAL Elvis music", or are they also "mellow"?

Prior to emerging as a solo artist, Costello himself had been in a Pub Rock band, Flip City. Costello and the other members were fans of The Band, The Grateful Dead, and yes, Clover. Producing My Aim Is True was Nick Lowe, a member of another London-based Pub Rock band, Brinsley Schwarz (who later went on to be Graham Parker’s original band).

My problem with The Attractions is two fold:

1- Many UK bands tend to play either slightly behind the deepest center of the "pocket" of the song (dragging), or slightly ahead (rushing). The Attractions are of the latter variety. They tend to rush through each song, which is not the same as playing a song at a brisk tempo. Musicians know what I’m talking about, and I hope the concept is understandable to non-players. Rushed playing is akin to the way some teenage boys make love to a girl .

2- The sound of their instruments. While Bruce Thomas’ bass sound fine, Steve Nieve’s organ sounds terrible. He doesn’t use a Leslie rotating speaker with his electronic organ, the speaker ubiquitously seen partnered with Hammond B-3 organs. His organ sounds just like those of the garage Bands of the 1960’s, real "cheezy", and completely lacking in gravitas or soul (very "white" ). And Pete Thomas’ drums sound anemic, with no resonance or depth. Real thin and gutless, lacking tonal color.

Huey Lewis of Clover can be heard blowing ferocious harp on several of Dave Edmunds’ albums, and the Brinsley Schwarz band on two live tracks on Dave’s Subtle As A Flying Mallet album, taped in a pub in Wales. The playing of the BS band on those two songs is red-hot American Rock ’n’ Roll, similar to the playing you hear on King Of America. "Mellow"? Quite the opposite.

Personally, apart from Painted From Memory, which is a different kettle of fish anyway, Elvis never sounded as good after he parted ways with Bruce Thomas.

Mr. Costello is one of my all time favorite artist.  Great songwriter and performer.  The Attraction or the Imposters are a great band for his music.  And as Mr. Costello said in is R&R HOF induction speech, Pete Thomas is one of the greatest rock drummers.

If I were forced to pick "Get Happy" would be my top album.  One thing I like about Mr. Costello is that he has a chameleon like quality and is willing to explore various musical forms while still sounding like Elvis Costello.

I am not a musician and could not care less about the 'pocket' of a song.

I care about how I like the song and how it sounds. I really like the Attractions a lot. I don't like Clover or Huey Lewis. You do like them. People can have differing opinions without them being wrong. 

Yeah, those are also 'mellow'. You can have Brodsky and Burt. 

And Clover can be the band they were without being called mellow, which to me sounded like an insult. As for Clover, I don’t particularly like them (they were certainly no Rockpile), and I was never a fan of Huey Lewis & The News. But I wouldn’t label them mellow either.

As for The Attractions, they still sound like a semi-pro band to me. I'll take The Confederates any day. T Bone Burnett employed them for the King Of America album for a reason, and as I stated that album is Costello's own favorite, perhaps for the same reason it is mine.

@bdp24, i gotta (mostly) disagree with you about the attractions. i think bruce and pete thomas are great at what they do--sure, they push the beat, but so does terry williams of rockpile; it's what makes them rock. as for their sound, i agree steve nieve's organ is overtly 60s/garagey on "this year's model", but i find it a positive--it distinguishes the record from the kinda generic/clinical band sound of "my aim is true". i will concede, however, that nieve has a tendency to overplay and to default to big dramatic flourishes, which works well on denser, more baroque sets like "imperial bedroom" and less well on more straightforward fare--"get happy", for example, never sounded quite right to me. in any event, i always appreciate your insights.

And I yours, @loomisjohnson. I realize my opinion of The Attractions is not universal, and I don’t consider it to be anything more than just my own. My taste in musicians runs to the playing of ensembles such as The Swampers (aka The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the house band at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, where Jerry Wexler recorded all those great Atlantic albums he produced: Aretha, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, Dusty Springfield, Boz Scaggs---"Loan Me A Dime"!, and many more), The Band of course, the group assembled for Neil Young’s Harvest album, The Hot Band (Emmylou Harris), the Nashville studio musicians that guys like Rodney Crowell record with, The Fabulous Superlatives (Marty Stuart’s incredible band), and others with the "Southern feel" I just love.

I recommend everyone listen to the drumming, bass playing, and keyboard work of Roger Hawkins, David Hood, and Barry Beckett---Spooner Oldham too. Now THAT is a band! When Wexler took Wilson Pickett down to Alabama to record with The Swampers, Wilson said he walked into the studio and saw all these "crackers" sitting around, and thought to himself "Jerry, what have you got me into?" He then goes on to say "When they started playing I couldn’t believe it. They were the funkiest band I had ever heard!" Talk about a "deep pocket"! The Attractions just sound like young white boys to me, certainly not men.

Others who have gone to Muscle Shoals to record with The Swampers includes Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, The Stones, Bob Dylan (his fantastic Slow Train Coming), Etta James, The Staple Singers, Paul Simon (attention drummers: try playing along with Roger Hawkins on "Kodachrome". Good luck!), Leon Russell, Bob Seger, and hundreds more. You know, "mellow" artists. Has everyone watched the documentary on The Swampers? Fantastic!

The greatest thing about Rock ’n’ Roll is that it is the melding of the black and white musical cultures in the Southern states during the 1940’s and 50’s. The music contains equal portions of Jump Blues and Hillbilly. Of course Elvis Costello isn’t Rock ’n’ Roll, but his King Of America album comes as close as he’s ever gonna get. I thank T Bone Burnett for that; he assembled the band for the album, and it’s a great one. Much, much "better" than The Attractions imo.

Speaking of "the other Elvis", I am actually going to see him perform tomorrow evening along with Daryl Hall at Ravinia Music Festival in Highland Park Illinois. I've seen Hall and Oates/Todd Rundgren in the early 2000's but this will be my first time seeing Elvis. It's billed as Daryl Hall + Elvis Costello and the Imposters with Charlie Sexton. I'm assuming that means Charlie Sexton is in his band. Can't wait!!!

@danbro: Now THAT oughta be great! Sexton's very cool.