Elvis Costello "My Aim Is True" [1977]

Combining the worst instincts of Bruce Springsteen and Barry Manilow, Elvis Costello's career was designed to create a wall between the real punk riots happening outside in 1977 and the mediocre confines of the major-label gated community. Elvis Costello's (his moniker itself combining the names of a popular, fat white doofus of American comedy and Lou Costello) tunes were "new wave" for the conservative establishment, which makes him perhaps the most vile recording artist of all time. Backed here by an earlier version of the damnable Huey Lewis & the News band, Elvis pretends to be punk with nerdly high-school tales about not getting laid and making terrible fashion choices (amazing he could never see one begat the other). The very epitome of a snot-nosed brat, the most amazing thing about this guy is he refuses to go away, even this many years later, like a turd that won't flush. "My Aim Is True" is but his first "movement."