I'd like to see ["My Aim Is True"] on the chart within the week, please. In fact, "My Aim Is True" could, given the opportunity and exposure, rocket with ease to national prominence: the collection contains enough potential hit singles to stock a bloody juke-box, believe me.

Two of the cuts, "Less Than Zero" and "Alison",… conveniently suggest the scope of Costello's writing and provide musical reference points for the uninitiated. Elvis … has a rare talent for seizing an image, an idea or a musical style and, however familiar its original shape, creating out of it something quite powerfully individual….

"Less Than Zero" is a vivid reflection of Elvis' affection and empathy with Sixties' r&b; simultaneously, the song … introduces, through its colourful evocation of suburban perversions and wry cynicism, the mordant, Ortonesque humour that characterises several of the songs included here. "Alison," by comparison, is a classically crafted pop song enhanced by stylish guitar inflections and Elvis' restrained vocal passion. The song also reflects Costello's other principal preoccupation as a writer: it's centered, like so many of the songs in this collection, around the termination of a relationship (a theme Elvis views with authentic insight, from a variety of perspectives).

Elsewhere, Elvis deals more explicitly with the emotional violence that attends the disintegration of love affairs, and with the frustrations and occasional humiliations of early adolescent love and sexual encounters. The fierce "Miracle Man," for instance, has the song's protagonist admitting to his sexual inadequacy with an impassioned and convincing concern and painful authenticity.

The theme of rejection is examined on the irresistible "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" (probably my favourite track on the album) but here the mood is more extrovert…. This song's effervescence is challenged only by the magnificent "Mystery Dance," a perfectly realised homage to Fifties rock and roll … which presents a concise account of a guy's first sexual adventure and its disastrous development.

"My Aim Is True" is already a personal favourite—I can think of only a few albums released this year that rival its general excellence—and I can only hope its delights will be universally recognised. Hell, you can dance to it, swoon to it, sing along with it, laugh and cry with it, smooch and romance to it. And, to paraphrase Elvis Costello's "Welcome To The Working Week" I think it might thrill you, I know it won't kill you. Buy-buy.