8. Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Imperial Bedroom (1982)


1. Beyond Belief
2. Tears Before Bedtime
3. Shabby Doll
4. The Long Honeymoon
5. Man Out of Time
6. Almost Blue
7. ...And in Every Home
8. The Loved Ones
9. Human Hands
10. Kid About It
11. Little Savage
12. Boy with a Problem
13. Pidgin English
14. You Little Fool
15. Town Cryer

Having released six studio albums and one live album in the space of about five years, you could forgive Elvis Costello and the Attractions for being a little jaded upon returning to Eden Studios to record yet another LP. At first, this was exactly how things went - for the first couple of weeks of recording the band simply pounded out a selection of sludgy, hungover and uninspired songs which sounded like little more than a pale imitation of their earlier work. It took a moment of sober reflection, the hiring of Geoff Emerick to sit in the producer's chair and the renting of Eden for a further six weeks to turn what could so easily have been one of Elvis Costello's worst albums into an absolute, horrifically overlooked masterpiece. From sounding like they were trying to beat the songs into submission, Costello and co took a much more overdub-heavy, considered and compositional approach to recording to produce a labyrinth of an album with shades of new wave, rock 'n' roll, 30s torch music and even classical and psychedelia.

Overall, the album is a grim, mid-tempo affair and, as with the best album-openers, Beyond Belief reflects this nicely - a gloomy, bass-driven number, propelled by a fantastic drumbeat from Pete Thomas and featuring the kinds of alternating keys and notes in the vocal tracks which dominate this album's sound. The 'I've got a feeling - I'm gonna get a lot of grief - once this seemed so appealing - now I am beyond belief' chorus is another sign of what lies ahead on the record, with regards to the jaded, disenchanted lyrical theme. Tears Before Bedtime, while still coming from the same sort of grim manipulation of new wave area, is the first truly brilliant song on show, being slightly more upbeat musically while doing little to sacrifice Costello's pissed-off-young-man lyric. The following Shabby Doll is a bit of a standout. Despite carrying the musical and lyrical themes along nicely and not being a bad song at all, it doesn't go anywhere very interesting musically and is a tad overlong, and probably the weakest point on the album.

The next six songs though are definitely among Costello's finest and more than make up for it. The Long Honeymoon gets by on the back of a wailing accordion, keyboardist Steve Nieve's jazzy piano flourishes (which are one of the common strong-points of the album) and Costello's occasional swathes of distorted guitar, and is the first true artistic departure here. Nieve shines again behind the keyboard on the monolithic Man Out Of Time, which is another example of how much the new studio approach benefited the songs (it's earlier recording is just a turgid, sludgy rock song). Nieve's given the space to shine on Almost Blue but this time in a very different way, as the Attractions show their versatility as a backing band by recording a slow, mournful and deeply affecting torch song. To mark the middle of the album though is an artistic u-turn which borders on the bizarre. For ...And In Every Home, over a sparse band performance Nieve and a certain George Martin compose a madly ambitious arrangement for a 40-piece string-and-horn orchestra for Costello to sing over, resulting in another absolutely superb song which doesn't sound too far removed from classical music. The Loved Ones and Human Hands delve into comparably accessible territory, both being terrific, uptempo piano-led tunes (the latter of which features one of Costello's best vocal performances) which wouldn't have made bad choices for singles. That said, they don't sacrifice the ambitious approach to studio craft which dominates the album one little bit.

Over the next trio of songs, Imperial Bedroom takes a turn for the darker, starting with the jazz-styled Kid About It; another very fine song indeed. Little Savage bears the same resemblance to Costello's earlier new wave output as Beyond Belief and Tears Before Bedtime, being a dark and pretty miserable song (featuring a damn cool organ solo in the bridge). Boy With a Problem is a sister-song to Almost Blue, being a deeply emotional musical ballad with another superbly tight rhythm section performance and virtuoso piano track from Nieve.

After which we move on to the last section of the album, this one being an excellent trio to put the lid on a brilliant record. Pidgin English is what makes Imperial Bedroom an album that warrants a rambling review in a nutshell - labyrinthine vocal overdubs, wonderful lyrics, fitting and non-intrusive orchestral arrangements, a tight rhythm section, an intelligent mid-song tempo-change, etc. Lovely Spanish guitar solo too. No idea what's with the video (it seems to fit somehow though). You Little Fool, driven by Nieve's work on the harpsichord, has the same kind of spine as Pidgin English, this time put through a psychedelic mangle (if you can imagine such a thing) with yet more sublime results. In fact, this is the closest Costello would ever come to writing a psychedelic song. The closer, Town Cryer, is up there with You Can't Always Get What You Want, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide and all the very best and heartstring-tugging curtain calls. Following a frankly perfect piano intro, it's a slow-burning, torch-lighting end to a brilliant record. The string arrangements (again composed by Nieve and Martin) which take the song to its fadeout are musical perfection as well.

What we've got at the end of the day is one of the very best albums of the 80s which somehow so many overlook. The fact that, despite widespread critical acclaim, it didn't spawn any hit singles could possibly explain that, but who cares eh. What matters is that here is where fifteen songs come together to produce one of the moodiest, most intelligently written and composed rock albums from one of Britain's most overlooked talents. It's all about Costello's wordplay, Emerick's production values, the rhythm section's adaptability, the orchestral arrangements and Nieve's wonderful work from behind the piano keyboard when it comes to this classic. Bloody marvellous stuff.