Elvis Costello / My Aim is True super deluxe

Elvis Costello’s 1977 debut, My Aim Is True, will be reissued as a 5CD box set in October.

The album features the songs ‘Alison’, ‘(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes’, ‘Mystery Dance’ and, in the US, ‘Watching The Detectives’, which was a non-album single here in the UK.

The idea behind this box is that traces Costello’s transformation from a young computer operator through his brief attempts to break into the London ‘singer-songwriter’ scene while recording songs in his bedroom; to eventually recording three failed singles for Stiff Records; ‘Less Than Zero,’ ‘Alison,’ and ‘(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes’ with members of the American band Clover, before forming the Attractions and having a U.K. hit single with ‘Watching The Detectives’ (on which only Costello and Steve Nieve appeared).

The My Aim Is True super deluxe features 104 “tracks, demos, masters, outtakes, live performances, interviews, and other rare recordings” half of which are previously unreleased.

CD 1 features a new 2026 remaster of the original album from the original analog tapes and adds ‘Watching The Detectives’ as the last track.

CD 2 is called The Blue Print, and gathers 17 recordings from 1975 and 1976, including 13 previously unreleased. The songs span bedroom tapes, early Pathway recordings and 13 performances from a 1976 session at the Hope & Anchor Studio.

CD 3 is dubbed The Stranger In The House and contains 28 demos, outtakes and early band recordings, 15 of which have never been released, including every surviving outtake and demo from My Aim Is True.

CD 4, Becoming The Attractions, opens with a solo performance of ‘Alison,’ from Elvis Costello’s U.K. television debut to his first live appearances under his new name to perfromances in America in late 1977 and 1978. 25 tracks, 12 previously unreleased.

The collection closes with Covered In Clover, an unreleased recording of Costello’s 2007 reunion with Clover at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. They performing My Aim Is True in its original U.K. sequence before concluding with ‘Watching The Detectives’.

It’s packaged in a hardcover bookset (see above) and each of this set’s five discs is accompanied by extensive new writing from Costello, alongside rare and unseen photographs, handwritten lyrics from his notebooks and diary entries from 1976, and lists of songs he was performing solo, as then he was being rejected by every publisher and A&R man in London before Stiff Records heard something in his songs.

This new deluxe set is in marked contrast to 2020’s Armed Forces super deluxe (watch the SDEtv unboxing) which contained nine pieces of vinyl and no CDs at all. Costello at the time was unmoved by fan complaints about the lack of CD option and actually doubled down, claiming that the compact disc “really is demonstrably inferior to vinyl, as a sonic storage system”. There is a vinyl version of My Aim Is True, an all-analogue LP version (the remaster is available as a single CD as well).

My Aim Is True (marketed, apparently without irony, as a 49th Anniversary Edition) will be released 2 October 2026 via UMe. It’s D2C only until Friday when it will become widely available (check back here for links).

Tracklisting

My Aim Is True Elvis Costello / 5CD super deluxe

• • CD 1
    1. Welcome To The Working Week – 2026 Remaster
    2. Miracle Man – 2026 Remaster
    3. No Dancing – 2026 Remaster
    4. Blame It On Cain – 2026 Remaster
    5. Alison – 2026 Remaster
    6. Sneaky Feelings – 2026 Remaster
    7. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes – 2026 Remaster
    8. Less Than Zero – 2026 Remaster
    9. Mystery Dance – 2026 Remaster
    10. Pay It Back – 2026 Remaster
    11. I’m Not Angry – 2026 Remaster
    12. Waiting For The End Of The World – 2026 Remaster
    13. Watching The Detectives – Single Version
  • CD 2: The Blue Print
    1. I Turn Around – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    2. Losing You – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    3. Leverman – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    4. Citizen Junction – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    5. I Hear A Melody – Pathway Studios
    6. Poison Moon – Bedroom Recording
    7. Wave A White Flag – Bedroom Recording
    8. Mercury Wings – Ms. Dore’s Tape**
    9. Jump Up – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    10. No Star – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    11. Walk On – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    12. Radio Soul – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    13. Clean Money – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    14. Don’t Put A Levy On My Love – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    15. Play It Safe – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    16. Imagination (Is A Powerful Deceiver) – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    17. I Can’t Turn It Off – Hope & Anchor Studio
  • CD 3: The Stranger in the House
    1. Radio Sweetheart – My Aim Is True Outtake
    2. Cheap Reward – Bedroom Recording
    3. Mystery Dance – Bedroom Recording
    4. Stranger In The House – My Aim Is True Outtake
    5. Running Out Of Angels – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    6. Just Like A Jukebox – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    7. I Don’t Want To Go Home – Pathway Studios
    8. Blame It On Cain – Bedroom Recording
    9. Blue Minute – Ms. Dore’s Tape**
    10. Pay It Back – Bedroom Recording **
    11. Exiles Road – Flip City – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    12. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Flip City – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    13. Sweet Revival – Flip City – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    14. Pay It Back – Flip City – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    15. Imagination (Is A Powerful Deceiver) – Flip City – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    16. Living In Paradise – Hope & Anchor Studio**
    17. Welcome To The Working Week – Pathway Studios
    18. Miracle Man – Bedroom Recording**
    19. Miracle Man – Pathway Studios
    20. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes – Ms. Dore’s Tape**
    21. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes – Pathway Studios
    22. Waiting For The End Of The World – Pathway Studios
    23. Living In Paradise – My Aim Is True Outtake
    24. Call On Me – Pathway Studios
    25. Watching The Detectives – Pathway Studios Trio Version**
    26. No Action – Pathway Studios Trio Version
    27. Poison Moon – Ms. Dore’s Tape**
    28. Stranger In The House – Ms. Dore’s Tape**
  • CD 4: Becoming The Attractions
    1. Alison – What’s On Granada Reports
    2. Introduction By Dave Robinson – Live, The Nashville Room
    3. Mystery Dance – Live, The Nashville Room
    4. Pay It Back – Soundcheck, The Nashville Room
    5. Radio Sweetheart – Soundcheck, The Nashville Room
    6. Sneaky Feelings – Soundcheck, The Nashville Room
    7. Crawling To The U.S.A. – Soundcheck, The Nashville Room
    8. Lip Service – Pathway Studios**
    9. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes- with Introduction Top Of The Pops**
    10. Interview No. 1 – Good Afternoon with Mavis Nicholson
    11. Watching The Detectives – Good Afternoon Broadcast**
    12. Interview No. 2 – Good Afternoon with Mavis Nicholson
    13. Hoover Factory – Good Afternoon Rehearsal**
    14. I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself – Live Stiffs, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K.
    15. Whole Wide World – Live Stiffs, University Of Leicester, Leicester, U.K.**
    16. KSAN Intro – Old Waldorf, San Francisco, CA
    17. Pump It Up – Old Waldorf, San Francisco, CA**
    18. Lip Service – Unknown Field Recording**
    19. Mystery Dance – Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA**
    20. Blame It On Cain – Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA**
    21. Less Than Zero (Dallas Version) – Warner Theater, Washington D.C.
    22. Waiting For The End Of The World – The Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, OH**
    23. Miracle Man – Warner Theater, Washington D.C.
    24. Watching The Detectives – Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA**
    25. I’m Not Angry – Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA**
  • CD 5: Covered in Clover
    1. 1. Welcome To The Working Week (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
       2. Miracle Man (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    1. No Dancing (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    2. Intro To Blame It On Cain (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    3. Blame It On Cain (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    4. Alison (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    5. Intro To Sneaky Feelings (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    6. Sneaky Feelings (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    7. Intro To Red Shoes (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    8. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    9. Less Than Zero (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    10. Mystery Dance (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    11. Pay It Back (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    12. I’m Not Angry (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    13. Waiting For The End Of The World / Gloria (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    14. Watching The Detectives (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    15. Moon (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    16. Intro To The Love Trilogy (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    17. Love Has No Pride (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    18. Love Is Gone (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**
    19. (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – November 8, 2007)**