100 Greatest Albums of All Time

98. This Year’s Model, Elvis Costello, Columbia, 1978

Costello’s second album, and his first with the Attractions, is his most “punk” ”“ not in any I-hate-the-cops sense but in his emotionally explosive writing and his backing band’s vicious gallop. “Radio, Radio,” the broadside against vanilla-pop broadcasting, distills his righteous indignation: Elvis versus the world. And Elvis wins.