Echoing the lyrics of some of the tracks, the cover artwork, designed by the English graphic artist Barney Bubbles, shows Costello behind a camera on a tripod, emphasising his role as an observer.

Elvis Costello was backed on his debut album My Aim Is True (1977) by the California-based country rock act Clover,[6] whose laid-back approach he felt did not fit the sound of the times.

He was acclaimed in publications such as Time and Newsweek and approached to appear on NBC's Saturday Night Live as a last-minute replacement for the Sex Pistols, which took place the day after the tour's end.

[3][8] One of the final tracks written was "Pump It Up", which Costello began writing outside a hotel fire escape during the Live Stiffs tour, debuting the song two days later and properly recording it in the studio a week after that.

Through the music, twitching and stuttering in a series of drum bursts, rents of organ and guitar arcs, the songs breathed as if through a gas mask – tight, controlled, afraid to splutter, claustrophobic, yet with a clear view of what was happening.

[3] According to biographer Tony Clayton-Lea, rather than reusing the rockabilly and country sounds of My Aim Is True, This Year's Model opts for straightforward pop music "as influenced by punk rock".

"[13] Referencing technologies of mass control, from corporate logos to night rallies, Hinton writes that the lyrics are "strongly visual, as befits the voyeurism which fuels many of the songs".

[1] References to objects such as cameras, films and telephones are present throughout many tracks, in both positive and negative lights, which the author David Gouldstone argues creates a disillusioned world where greed and revenge are dominant.

[10] The author James E. Perone interprets songs like "Lipstick Vogue", "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and "This Year's Girl" as relating to Costello's former job working at cosmetics and perfume company Elizabeth Arden.

[32] Drawing comparisons to Aftermath's similar lyrical content,[1] Sounds magazine's Jon Savage said that "at least on occasion Elvis has the grace to make clear that it's a two-way process and he's at fault.

[13] Rolling Stone writer Kit Rachlis agreed, stating that all romances on the album are over or are about to commence, including a situation where he is unsure of whether to answer the phone or not ("No Action") or coming to terms after rejecting all compromises ("Lipstick Vogue").

[10] Writing for AllMusic, Mark Deming stated that the song "perfectly captures the giddy but terrifying feeling of a wild, adrenaline-fueled all-night party that's dangling on the verge of collapse.

[1][10] "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" is a ska-infected rocker[43] that was originally directly influenced by the works of the Who, before Bruce and Pete Thomas contributed new rhythms that made the track stand out on its own.

[2][45] Photographed by Chris Gabrin,[47] 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.

He wrote that "the penetration of the language matches the vaulting hysteria of the performance" and concluded that the record "promotes its author to the foremost ranks of contemporary rock writers", such as Bruce Springsteen.

[70] Rock Australia Magazine's Anthony O'Grady dubbed This Year's Model "the best collection of...fashion-conscious songs since Ray Davies [of the Kinks] started his 'Dedicated Follower of Fashion' period.

[74] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice also saw Costello's emotional delivery as full of anger and grimace, which he found "more attractive musically and verbally than all his melodic and lyrical tricks".

[66] Creem's Alan Madeleine found the artist proves himself "stylistically mindful": he is "distinct enough from any other extant act to be noted, yet cautious of excess experimentation in this establishmental sophomore phase.

[65] Naming This Year's Model the winner of May 1978's "disc derby" in the Los Angeles Times, Robert Hilburn wrote that Costello's vocals "bristle with conviction and bite that we rarely find in rock in the '70s".

[34] Conversely, Joel Selvin of the San Francisco Chronicle found "no new surprises" on Model, but felt the songs improved on the style exhibited on Aim, concluding that it "should satisfy his growing legion of fans, as well as gain new converts".

[76] In The New York Times, John Rockwell described This Year's Model as a "fine" record that maintains all of the artist's previous angry energy, yet "filling out the arrangements with a richness of texture (organ especially) that is very appealing".

[51][94][95] Spin's Al Shipley argued that Costello was never able surpass the record's "inventive punch",[95] while Michael Gallucci of Ultimate Classic Rock deemed it the work that "bridged his brief past with his wide-open future".

[51] Troper deemed it Costello's "most consistent" release and finest with the Attractions, finding it the artist's "most live-sounding, most punk, and most honest record of his dauntingly expansive career".

[35] PopMatters writers Jason Mendelsohn and Eric Klinger hailed the album as "simple, refreshing, and surprisingly modern" and "an object lesson that the New Wave could compete on the old school's field", respectively.

[29] Reviewing in 2008, Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield named This Year's Model as an album everyone should own, saying the songs "remain brutally funny, sung with moments of unexpected tenderness".

[93] Regarding Costello's musicianship, Uncut's Paul Moody argued that after he "dispensed with his musical safety net entirely" from My Aim Is True, This Year's Model began "his insatiable urge to 'bite the hand that feeds me'.

In 2002, Uncut magazine's Chris Roberts called Costello the "bitter bard of the punk era", writing that with This Year's Model, he "articulat[ed] a generation's ire every bit as caustically as the [Sex] Pistols' gigantic guitars".

[29] Writing for Record Collector in 2008, Terry Staunton cited it as "the post-punk distillation of the times", especially in London,[98] and ten years later, Nick Hasted named it the "template" for the transition from punk to new wave.

[3] In The Words & Music of Elvis Costello, Perone calls This Year's Model one of the "strongest sophomore efforts of any singer-songwriter", arguing that it affirmed the seeds that outlined on My Aim Is True that predicted the artist's future projects.

[102] In 1987, Rolling Stone placed the album at number 11 on its list of the best of the past 20 years, and said that Costello charted "the modern romantic terrain with keen cynicism, caustic wit and furious energy.