Elvis Costello needed a band to help him tour his solo debut My Aim Is True. Auditions led to the hiring of bassist Bruce Thomas, drummer Dave Thomas (no relation to Bruce), and keyboardist Steve Nieve. This random process helped to create the Attractions, one of the most colorful and musically tight-knit outfits of the 1970s and ’80s.
Bruce Thomas eventually fell out with Costello, leading to the hiring of Davey Faragher as his new bassist and the rechristening of the band as the Imposters. But that original quartet was pretty unstoppable. All of their albums together deliver, but these are, in our opinion, the five best.
This Year’s Model (1978)
Before they recorded together, Costello took his new band out on the road. And, in somewhat antagonistic fashion, he largely resisted playing songs from his first album that audiences might have known. Instead, he road-tested songs that would appear on This Year’s Model, an album which proved that while Costello could do the singer/songwriter thing, he was even better with a band who could match the many moods and colors within his lyrics. From the opening moments of “No Action” to the final guitar blasts of “Radio Radio,” this record is a rush.
Get Happy!! (1980)
Just like a baseball ace can mix up his pitches, so too can a great band mix up genres without losing its effectiveness. On Get Happy!! Costello wrote many songs that owed a great debt to Motown and Stax/Volt classics of the ’60s and ’70s. The Attractions met him at every turn, as songs like “King Horse,” “Love for Tender,” and “Clowntime Is Over” possess an effortlessly soulful bounce. But considering there are 20 songs squeezed onto two sides, there was room for other modes as well, including the baroque pop of “New Amsterdam” and the loping country of “Motel Matches.”
Imperial Bedroom (1982)
This incredible record isn’t only our choice for the Attractions’ best, but we believe it’s also the finest in Costello’s entire catalog—including all his solo albums and other collaborations. He indulged his lifelong love of The Beatles’ arrangements, even hiring Geoff Emerick, former Fab Four engineer, to produce the record. But it’s interesting how well Costello’s confessional lyrics, which incriminate their narrators with the same—if not more—intensity as their targets, fit into the chiming musical backdrops on songs like “Man Out of Time,” “Tears Before Bedtime,” and “The Long Honeymoon.”
Blood & Chocolate (1986)
When inner turmoil began to eat at the Attractions in the mid-’80s, Costello cleansed his palette by making an excellent record (King of America) in 1986 that mostly utilized session players. Later that year, he reformed the Attractions, and they returned with an intensity that sounded ripped from the early days. Part of that came from Costello’s writing, as songs like the title track, “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” and “I Want You” required bluntness and force. But the band also displayed some of its best power-pop moves on lushly melodic songs like “Blue Chair” and “Next Time Round.”
All This Useless Beauty (1996)
Sadly, this would be the last time the Attractions played together on an album, as the differences between Costello and Bruce Thomas simply became too vast to overcome. Nonetheless, All This Useless Beauty finds the unit going out on top of their game. The old pep in their step is there on tracks like “Complicated Shadows” and “You Bowed Down.” But there are also delicate, complex arrangements throughout the record, and the Attractions rise to the occasion by playing with great touch and tenderness on songs like the title track and “The Other End of the Telescope.”
