My Aim Is True, Elvis Costello, Stiff Records, 1978

For a while in the mid-‘70s there were earnest discussions of punk versus New Wave. New Wave followed punk, and at its best it was as angry and edgy as punk, but the music was better, the lyrics were better, and some of it was funny. My Aim Is True shows all that. In (Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes, Costello works in a joke. ‘I said “I’m so happy I could die.” “Drop dead,” she said, then left with another guy.’ In Welcome to the Working Week, the job is for a woman to appear half-naked on Page 3 of a London paper. Miracle Man features the singer cynically offering to crawl around on all fours, unlike the anguish in Clapton’s Bell Bottom Blues. (Miracle Man plays during a seduction scene in Godfather III.) Waiting for the End of the World has the line ‘Dear Lord, I sincerely hope you’re coming, ‘cause you really started something.’ In I’m Not Angry Anymore, Costello uses the word ‘angry’ about 40 times. Trust me, he’s angry. And this is just a small part of what made this album stand out.