The 49th anniversary of My Aim Is True, Elvis Costello’s debut album, is being celebrated with a five-CD box set, featuring a whole host of bonus material.
My Aim Is True (49th Anniversary Edition) will feature 104 tracks, 52 of which were previously unreleased. It includes a 2026 remaster of the original album, along with demos, outtakes, live performances and interviews. All five CDs come with extensive liner notes from Costello, as well as rare and unseen photos, handwritten lyrics from his notebook and more.
The set is being previewed with the release of four previously unreleased recordings that show the evolution of one of the song’s classic tracks, “Watching the Detectives.” Among those tracks are a live performance featuring The Attractions, recorded on July 8, 1978, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.
“Making my first record seemed like the beginning of something that I’d imagined for a long time, before I had any sense of a potential audience, let alone the expectation and the assumptions of others about songs written and performed in mere minutes,” Costello writes in his liner notes. “Nevertheless, I raise a chaste glass to My Aim Is True and all who sail in her.”
My Aim Is True (49th Anniversary Edition) will be released Oct. 2. The original album is also getting an 180-gram black vinyl and CD reissue. All are available for preorder now.
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