Elvis Costello – Imperial Bedroom (1982/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 50:55 minutes | 2,10 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © UMe – Elvis Costello
Imperial Bedroom is a 1982 album by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. It was the second Costello album, after Almost Blue, not produced by Nick Lowe. Production duties were handled by Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. “I wanted to try a few things in the studio that I suspected would quickly exhaust Nick’s patience,” as Costello put it in the liner notes to the 1994 Rykodisc reissue.
It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. In 1998 readers of Q magazine named it the 96th greatest album ever. In 1989, it was ranked No. 38 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 166 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at No. 59 on its list of “Best Albums of the 1980s”.The album reached number 6 in the UK charts and number 30 in the USA but the singles were less successful. “You Little Fool” and “Man Out of Time” each briefly appeared in the UK Singles Chart, but neither charted in the USA.
Having gotten country out of his system with Almost Blue, Elvis Costello returned to pop music with Imperial Bedroom — and it was pop in the classic, Tin Pan Alley sense. Costello chose to hire Geoff Emerick, who engineered all of the Beatles’ most ambitious records, to produce Imperial Bedroom, which indicates what it sounds like — it’s traditional pop with a post-Sgt. Pepper production. Essentially, the songs on Imperial Bedroom are an extension of Costello’s jazz and pop infatuations on Trust. Costello’s music is complex and intricate, yet it flows so smoothly, it’s easy to miss the bitter, brutal lyrics. The interweaving layers of “Beyond Belief” and the whirlwind intro are the most overtly dark sounds on the record, with most of the album given over to the orchestrated, melancholy torch songs and pop singles. Never once do Costello & the Attractions deliver a rock & roll song — the album is all about sonic detail, from the accordion on “The Long Honeymoon” to the lilting strings on “Town Cryer.” Of course, the detail and the ornate arrangements immediately peg Imperial Bedroom as Costello’s most ambitious album, but that doesn’t mean it’s his absolute masterpiece. Imperial Bedroom remains one of Costello’s essential records because it is the culmination of his ambitions and desires — it’s where he proves that he can play with the big boys, both as a songwriter and a record-maker. It may not have been a commercial blockbuster, but it certainly earned the respect of legions of musicians and critics who would have previously disdained such a punk rocker. And, perhaps, that’s also the reason that he abandoned this immaculately crafted style of work on his next album, Punch the Clock. –AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Tracklist:
01. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Beyond Belief (02:34)
02. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Tears Before Bedtime (03:02)
03. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Shabby Doll (04:48)
04. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – The Long Honeymoon (04:15)
05. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Man Out Of Time (05:27)
06. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Almost Blue (02:50)
07. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – …And In Every Home (03:23)
08. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – The Loved Ones (02:48)
09. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Human Hands (02:43)
10. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Kid About It (02:45)
11. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Little Savage (02:37)
12. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Boy With A Problem (02:13)
13. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Pidgin English (03:58)
14. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – You Little Fool (03:11)
15. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Town Cryer (04:15)
