From its a cappella opening line "I don't wanna kiss you, I don't wanna touch...", Costello's third second studio album explodes with great song after great song. "No Action," "This Year's Girl," "The Beat," "Pump It Up" -- all classics, and the list goes on. If you pick up the Rhino reissue (2002), you'll get the original masterpiece, a bonus disc of 12 outtakes and extras, and some nice liner notes from the original Napoleon Dynamite. It's great to read Costello's take on his first US tour, which ended with The Attractions' classic Saturday Night Live appearance, where they played the unreleased song they wanted ("Radio, Radio") after a 4-bar fakeout on the tune the producers wanted. Classic.

Harold Check