Everyone has a different opinion when it comes to their personal pick for the most under-appreciated musician.

For guitar purists it may be Allan Holdsworth. For British Invasion freaks it may be The Kinks. Others may feel Billy Joel has never received his due. Ultra hipsters, on the other hand, may say Fugazi and Pavement have never gotten the respect they deserve.

My pick for the overlooked genius award is Elvis Costello, the nerdy-looking white guy who often wears big glasses and recently made an acclaimed album with New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint.

Terminally known as the man who shares a first name with the most famous singer of the 20th century, Costello has nonetheless had a career as diverse as Neil Young and has never plummeted as low as others who have been around for 30 plus years.

Costello has an ear for pop melodies that rivals that of Sir Paul McCartney and while he is praised by plenty of critics and lauded by Nick Hornby, he has never been accepted into the mainstream as he should be.

At the time of writing and recording what is arguably his best album, “This Year’s Model,” Costello was a mere 22 years of age, which forces college students like myself to ponder, “could I do anything that cool?”

Released in 1978, “This Year’s Model” is Costello’s second album and his first with his backing band, The Attractions.

“This Year’s Model” is Costello’s most coherent album, as there truly is not a bad bar contained therein, and more importantly every single bar is catchy.

An album full of young-adult angst and intelligent sarcasm, “This Year’s Model” contains some of Costello’s best songs, including “No Action,” “Radio, Radio,” “The Beat” and “(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea.”

Instead of letting fans down with a wretched third album, Costello released “Armed Forces,” an album that completed a trilogy of albums that can still rival any other trio of classic albums.

From there, Costello never really loosened his grip and released great albums one after the other, a feat that few artists can truly attest to. He ventured into country with “True Blue,” Americana with “King of America,” soul with “Get Happy” and even a darker sound with the masterful “Imperial Bedroom.”

The pop encyclopedia himself has begun to gain more mainstream notoriety as mainstream acts such as Green Day and Death Cab for Cutie have professed a love of his music and the lead singer of Incubus has referred to “Alison” as the greatest song ever written.

Like Dylan, Young, Reed and Bowie, Costello’s best albums are behind him. However, Costello truly has been more consistent than the aforementioned artists and has a knack for pop songs that only a handful of people share.

Did I mention he was a computer programmer before he became a pop genius?

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