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.

Get Happy!! is my favorite Elvis Costello album. Everything I love about him comes together on this recording. The album offers everything- catchy, brilliant pop songs, Costello and The Attractions are in top-form, passionate lyrics with strong imagery ("Secondary Modern" is one of the better songs he's written), and clever, biting wordplay ("he's got double-vision/when you want him double-jointed"). More importantly, as far as Costello's catalog goes, this is the album that demonstrated his maturity as a songwriter and composer. He refused to be pigeonholed as a quirky, limited new-wave flash-in-the-pan. The album is lyrically leaps and bounds ahead of Armed Forces, and Costello has even managed to sharpen his pop sensibility.

I could listen to the first two songs on Get Happy!! for hours. Steve Nieve's introduction to "Love For Tender", which kicks off the album, is as ingrained in my head as my telephone number. But what manages to get me every time is the transition from "Love For Tender" to "Opportunity", the "BAM BAM bam bam bam ba BAM!" of the first song to the "do do do do do do doo" of the second is as fine a testament to Costello's genius as any. "Secondary Modern" and "King Horse" are two examples of what makes Costello, on this record especially, so puzzling. Both songs create the perfect mood and imply the stories that further analysis of the songs reveal. Costello once told Record Collector that he wrote "Possession" in ten minutes after falling in love with a waitress in a coffee shop. Here Costello, without being obtuse, perfectly articulates the rush and immediacy of lust. Costello's songwriting style doesn't matter; he can be as obscure or straightforward as he likes, but the listener still forms a deep, immediate emotional connection with the songs.

The album is also quite versatile; it can serve as the perfect dance party album, with the appropriate ratio of up-tempo rave-ups to slow couples-only dance songs (although, I doubt many couples would want to get close to the devastating infidelity tale "Motel Matches"). With its pained, passionate lyrics, Get Happy!! also serves as an album to play nonstop after a breakup or a crummy day.

The album closes with the only two songs that potentially deal with the politics surrounding it, a cover of the Merseybeats' "I Stand Accused" and the original "Riot Act". Costello was rumored to be responding to allegations of racism after a drunken pissing contest he had with Stephen Stills. Some critics and American fans felt that by making an album of soul music, he was either trying to say "Hey, I like black music, too" or attempting to make light of the situation. Truthfully, the album was created out of Costello's genuine love of soul music and his desire to move in a different musical direction. Another common criticism of the album is that it borrows too heavily from original soul artists. Who cares? I certainly don't. It's as damn near perfect as records come, so I'm not going to argue if his motivations weren't entirely pure or if he lifted a melody from Sly Stone.