or better or worse, we here at Stylus, in all of our autocratic consumer-crit greed, are slaves to timeliness. A record over six months old is often discarded, deemed too old for publication, a relic in the internet age. That's why each week at Stylus, one writer takes a look at an album with the benefit of time. Whether it has been unjustly ignored, unfairly lauded, or misunderstood in some fundamental way, we aim with On Second Thought to provide a fresh look at albums that need it.

Trust is the most underrated of Elvis Costello's albums. It is certainly a stylistic mess and not a self-indulgent one (like Spike or Mighty Like A Rose ) but one that, as Tony Clayton-Lea notes, "highlighted his growing concern with being pigeonholed". Trust finds Elvis embracing the various styles he had only previously hinted at. The inside sleeve even pictures Costello and The Attractions as a big band.

"Clubland" is a natural progression from Get Happy!!, a soul-pop song with typically biting Costello lyrics. "Lovers Walk" the second song, is where Costello surprises his audience. The song features a Bo Diddly-drumbeat and some of Costello's more honest, personal lyrics. In fact, most of these songs, while still relying on wordplay, are more direct lyrically, than any other songs Costello had written. He still manages to pull out all the stops musically, with the rockabilly of "Watch Your Step", the country-pop of "Different Finger" and the new wave rock and roll of "From A Whisper To a Scream" (which features Squeeze). Interestingly enough, Costello wrote a number of these songs when he was 17, and as he notes in the My Aim is True liner notes (regarding the bonus material on that album) at that time he was taking a number of heavy cues from American songwriters. These songs are not Costello's most original, the aforementioned Bo Diddlyisms of "Lovers Walk" and "Different Finger" sound a bit too much like an old Hank Cochran countrypolitan composition. However, this does not hinder the arresting likability of the record. Because Costello is less vitriolic and more playful musically, the album can be viewed as the first fun, light album he made. Even though, at times, the mood can get heavy (he ventures into almost Brecht/Weillian levels of melodrama on "Shot With His Own Gun"), it is impossible to take him too seriously. That is not to say that Costello is joking around, but just that this is the first Costello album I would reach for after a good date or on a Sunday afternoon.

With Get Happy!! and Trust Costello made the two biggest steps in his career. He stepped out of new wave and defined himself as a singer/songwriter. He showed his audience that he could work in almost every genre there is and still craft personal, meaningful lyrical vignettes. Trust was the end of the beginning of Costello's career.