 |  | Costello's best album: Imperial Bedroom. |  |
This is one of my favorite albums/CDs from the 80s, and should be considered essential 80s rock. Arguably, it is Elvis Costello's best album, a work of true artistic genius. Critically acclaimed Imperial Bedroom (1982) marked a turning point for Costello and The Attractions (consisting of Steve Nieve on piano, Bruce Thomas on bass guitar, and Pete Thomas on drums). It was Costello's first album of original material not produced by Nick Lowe. Whereas Costello's clever wordplay on Imperial Bedroom is dark and literate, the music is upbeat (a trademark of many of my all-time favorite albums). Although individual songs stand on their own, as the album coverr suggests they flow together on the album into one stunning musical experience.
The original album setlist includes:
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
Bonus tracks on Disc 2 include:
1. The Land Of Give And Take (Early Version of Beyond Belief)
2. Tears Before Bedtime (Alternate Version)
3. Man Out Of Time (Alternate Version)
4. Human Hands (Early Version)
5. Kid About It (Alternate Version)
6. Little Savage (Alternate Version)
7. You Little Fool (Alternate Version)
8. Town Cryer (Alternate Version)
9. Little Goody Two Shoes (Alteranate Version)
10. The Town Where Time Stood Still (Alternate Version)
G. Merritt
November 18, 2007 | | Imperial heresy? (2.5 stars) | |
Costello fans will likely brand me a heretic, but 'Bedroom' seems to me to be one of his more overrated recordings. 'Beyond Belief' and 'Man Out of Time' certainly rate consideration in a 'Best of' compilation. 'Long Honeymoon', 'Human Hands' and 'Every Home' are somewhat interesting. However, beyond that I find little that's especially compelling here.
There are treats on the bonus disc that I enjoy more than much of the original 'Bedroom' recordings, thanks in part to Steve Nieve's scorching work on the ivories. In fact, the alternative version of 'The Town Where Time Stood Still' and the toe-tap inducing "From Head to Toe" merit inclusion on my desert-island list of Elvis favorites.
June 25, 2007 | | Quite good but Costello has done better | |
Elvis has long admitted to being a Beatles fan, of course (going as far as calling them the greatest band ever in Rolling Stone). And this is the closest he got to embracing the Fab Four's occasional dipping into "classical rock" (that is, rock influenced by classical music - I'm not trying to invent a new phrase for "classic rock"). The result is an odd, but mostly satisfying effort. I say "mostly" because sometimes he goes totally overboard in places, making You Little Fool, Town Cryer, Pidgin English and ...And Every Home sound treacly, overloading them with harpsichord, strings, Baroque piano, flutes, clarinets, bassoons, lutes, hautboys, kazoos... (okay, I made a couple of those up).
Overproduced? Well, yeah. But that's part of its charm, I guess you could say. And more often than not it's a classic: Take the cynical Beyond Belief or the ballads Almost Blue and Man Out of Time. Shabby Doll, Tears Before Bedtime and The Long Honeymoon (which has the only accordion part I've ever heard that I can honestly say I like) aren't as prominent as those three, but they have the same feel and are just as good. And Costello's lyricism and immortal melodicism are diminished.
However, there are at least two better Costello records out there. Maybe three. My favorite Elvis albums are the first three (and this one), and I can honestly say at least This Year's Model and Armed Forces (and probably My Aim is True) are better. So this is quite good, but don't start here.
June 21, 2007When I first discovered this album I was in high school in '82. I bought the LP and started to feel ill, so I went home, grabbed my headphones, put the needle on the record and laid down on the couch. As the first side progressed, my temperature rose as I settled into what later became mono. I quickly became delirious and began to hover in a hallucinatory state as the music filled me. Who knows if I was still awake when the first side ended, but apparently I got up and flipped the record at some point. The perspectives in the music were distorted and mixed up. Drums were obviously being played loudly, but were buried in the mix as if they were screaming in vain to be heard. Voices whispered, crooned, howled, laughed and threatened. Hammond organs melted into harpsichords. The bass player sounded like he was either tuning up throughout the whole album or he was just kidding around. Acoustic guitars sounded impossibly swollen, as if they were trying to make the needle jump out of the groove. The lyrics were evocative of everything and nothing but in my fevered mind made perfect sense. Afraid that words would fail him, the writer used them all up as quickly as he could. I listened to this album over and over when I was in bed for weeks, trying in vain to grasp it's scope. Staring at the lyric sheet didn't help as the lyrics were all smashed together with no gaps in a single block of typewritten text as if were some sort of ransom note. The whole album sounded like the inside of someone's head with thoughts spilling every which way, some resolved, most unresolved. When I was well, I revisited the album, sure that I had imagined the whole thing. I hadn't. It remains one of my favorite E.C. albums and one of my all time favorites. Always compelling and a true one of a kind. Elvis and the Attractions all sound like they're at their wits' end, racing against madness that is hot on their trails, expressing the race in a musical language all their own. Masterpiece, for sure. (I personally prefer the Ryco version with bonus tracks on one disc, as the bonus tracks provide relief in the form of a somewhat light-hearted postscript to the intensities preceding.)
June 12, 2007| | | THE GREATEST ALBUM EVER MADE!!! | |
My favorite album is IMPERIAL BEDROOM by Elvis Costello because it has a spectacular sound. Elvis Costello has always been a great lyricist and this album show us why.Songs like Almost Blue,The Long Honeymoon,Man out of time, and just about every other song in this album is an instant classic.IMPERIAL BEDROOM is Elvis Costello's masterpiece. I would even go as far as to say that IMPERIAL BEDROOM is the greatest album of all time.Iknow that would make a BEATLE MANIAC angry at me,but i have listen to SGT.PEPPER LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND so many times before and i'm just not impress by it at all.I think it's overrated don't get me wrong it's not a bad album,but i just think IMPERIAL BEDROOM BLOWS IT AWAY BY A LOT OF MILES!!!
February 12, 2007More reviews at Amazon.com ...
(24 reviews)