Editing This Year's Model (section)

==Packaging and artwork==
{{quote box|quote=We wanted to catch people's eyes. If they said, 'Why is it printed off register?' as the initial pressing was, it was because we wanted people to ask exactly that. It meant they'd pause just that little bit longer in front of our sleeve.{{sfn|Hinton|1999|loc=chap. 3}}|source=—Elvis Costello on the cover|width=30%|align=right|style=padding:8px;}}
The original UK cover artwork for ''This Year's Model'' was deliberately off-centre,{{sfn|Parkyn|1984|pp=38–39}} making the title appear as ''His Year's Model'' and the artist "Lvis Costello".{{sfn|Hinton|1999|loc=chap. 3}}{{sfn|St. Michael|1986|loc=chap. 3}}<ref name="1978 liner notes" /> The design by [[Barney Bubbles]] left a printers' colour bar intact along the right side.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lynam |first=Ian |title=The Genius of Graphic Designer Barney Bubbles |url=https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/03/barney-bubbles-feature/ |website=Red Bull Music Academy |date=13 March 2015 |access-date=18 March 2022 |archive-date=28 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128103458/https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/03/barney-bubbles-feature/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The American and Swedish sleeves were lined up correctly and not off-centre.{{sfn|Parkyn|1984|pp=38–39}} Riviera's [[F-Beat Records]] released a May 1980 issue with an aligned sleeve, which has been retained for all subsequent releases.{{sfn|Hinton|1999|p=434}}{{sfn|Parkyn|1984|pp=38–39}}

Photographed by Chris Gabrin,<ref>{{cite web |last=Gabrin |first=Chris |title=Chris Gabrin: Elvis Costello, 'This Year's Model' session |url=https://www.snapgalleries.com/product/chris-gabrin-elvis-costello-this-years-model-session/ |website=Snap Galleries |access-date=17 March 2019 |archive-date=5 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205042758/https://www.snapgalleries.com/product/chris-gabrin-elvis-costello-this-years-model-session/ |url-status=live }}</ref> the front cover depicts Costello in his signature black framed glasses, wearing a dark suit with a polka dot shirt, glaring from behind a camera on a tripod. In Thomson's words, he is "expressionless" and "both observed and observing".{{sfn|Hinton|1999|loc=chap. 3}}{{sfn|Thomson|2004|loc=chap. 5}} According to Hinton, it was a "careful reconstruction" of [[David Hemmings]] from [[Michelangelo Antonioni]]'s ''[[Blowup|Blow Up]]'' (1966). The British cover had Costello standing back with his hands open; on the American cover, he crouched forward with both hands gripping the camera like a gun;{{sfn|Hinton|1999|loc=chap. 3}} a third shot was also used for the Swedish release.{{sfn|Parkyn|1984|pp=38–39}} The back cover depicts Costello and the Attractions in a small, dimly lit hotel room reacting to a television with mock horror. Three of them are wearing black ties while Nieve dons a V-neck pullover.{{sfn|Hinton|1999|loc=chap. 3}} The inner sleeve depicts a robotic hand gripping a miniature TV on which Costello is playing, standing on one leg, and the other side depicts four colour-coded and dismembered mannequin bodies wearing string vests in a laundromat.{{sfn|Hinton|1999|loc=chap. 3}} Hinton states that the label's gimmick at the time was off-centre sleeves and avant-garde inner fold images.{{sfn|Hinton|1999|p=434}}

The Attractions were acknowledged on the LP labels but did not receive sleeve credits on the original release.{{sfn|St. Michael|1986|loc=chap. 3}}<ref name="1978 liner notes" /> The LP labels contain text between the holding spirals reading "Special pressing No. 003. Ring 434-3232. Ask for Moira for your prize".{{sfn|Hinton|1999|loc=chap. 3}}{{sfn|Parkyn|1984|pp=38–39}} Packaged with the first 50,000 copies of the LP was a free 7" [[Single (music)|single]] containing "[[Stranger in the House (song)|Stranger in the House]]", an outtake from ''My Aim Is True'' left off the album due to its country-influenced sound,<ref>{{cite AV media notes|last=Costello|first=Elvis|title=My Aim Is True (reissue)|others=Elvis Costello|year=1993|publisher=[[Demon Records]]|type=CD booklet|id=DPAM 1}}</ref> with a live cover of [[The Damned (band)|the Damned]]'s "[[Neat Neat Neat]]" as the B-side.{{sfn|Thomson|2004|loc=chap. 5}} The first American pressings contain Costello's rather than Columbia's logo.{{sfn|Hinton|1999|p=434}}