Imperial Bedroom

The Attractions, Elvis Costello | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 30, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rykodisc
• ASIN: B0000009UX
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,689 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #87 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > Singer Songwriters

Track Listings

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

16. From Head to Toe [*]

17. The World of Broken Hearts [*]

18. Night Time [*]

19. Really Mystified [*]

20. I Turn Around [*]

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

"Masterpiece?" was the word--in Columbia Records' ad campaign, anyway--when Imperial Bedroom appeared in 1982. As the album plays, though, the emphasis occasionally seems better placed on the question mark. This is a very good, sometimes dazzling album, but as a heart wrencher it holds not a candle to King of America, and as a singular example of elegant pop craft it can't top Costello's 1998 collaboration with Burt Bacharach, Painted from Memory (not too shabby as a heart wrencher itself, come to think of it). Of course, there are plenty of small miracles, and one huge one in the mind-bending "Beyond Belief." Imperial Bedroom is gorgeous more often than not, but in a way, there's more heart in the simple Smokey Robinson and the Miracles cover, "From Head to Toe," that appears as a bonus track on the Rykodisc edition. --Rickey Wright

Product Description

Japanese reissue of 1982 album, packaged in a miniature LPsleeve. JVC. 2003. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rhino gets it right, December 2, 2002

By 

Christopher Ingalls (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imperial Bedroom (Audio CD)

Double-dipping is okay, I suppose. Normally I'd be vehemently opposed to "triple-dipping" (re-re-releasing an artist's work), but since most of my Elvis Costello CDs were stolen last year, Rhino's reissuing of the entire EC catalog is a welcome idea to me, and one that is accomplishing the seemingly impossible task of improving on Rykodisc's similar reissue project.

Rhino is apparently reissuing Elvis' entire recorded output (unlike Rykodisc, he's not just reissuing the Columbia years), and releasing them three at a time roughly twice a year (in no discernible order, it seems). The best thing about Rhino's project is that every release is a two-disc package, with all the bonus material on disc two. This makes for quite a lot of bonus material.

"Imperial Bedroom" was a higly welcome reissue. I first bought the vinyl copyof this masterpiece in 1986, then I bought the Columbia CD in 1993 and the Rykodisc version in 2000. It seems like the fourth time's the charm.

For those of you not familiar with this album, it was released in 1982 to wide critical acclaim. The lush production and strong songwriting make it, in my opinion, one of Elvis' best and most certainly his most intelligent. The album's been a part of my life for 16 years and I know the thing backwards and forwards. The moody "Beyond Belief." The epic, beautiful "Man out of Time." The latin-tinged, accordian-fueled "Long Honeymoon." Steve Neive's psychotic orchestrations on "...and in Every Home." And that's just part of side one.

The Rhino disc two is a veritable treasure trove for anyone interested in this album. There's tons of alternate, early versions of oterwise great songs, giving them an intersting new edge. "Kid About It" is pared down a bit. "Little Savage" is given an R&B-ballad shot in the arm. "Beyond Belief" was originally named "The Land of Give and Take" with slightly different lyrics. "Town Cryer" is given a fast-paced disco treatment, making it sound like an Abba song (that description may sound like sacrilege to an EC fan, but believe me, it sounds great).

There's lots of stuff that was also featured on the original Ryko bonus track section, like the cover of Smokey Robinson's "Head to Toe," the gleeful, upbeat "I Turn Around," and the unused waltz-like title track (a lot of this stuff is also familiar to long-time fans in the form of various B-sides and compilation albums, like the excellent "Out of Our Idiot" collection).

Die-hard EC fans from back in the day will be in heaven, rediscovering this classic in a new light. New EC fans will also be very happy with this purchase. I can't imagine anyone not liking "Imperial Bedroom." Rhino's version makes ignoring this classic even more of a crime.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget the Greatest Hits and buy this one!, August 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Imperial Bedroom (Audio CD)

It's been almost 15 years since Elvis came out with Imperial Bedroom. Although it may seem like a transition album between his new wave/punk persona and his less successful, more experimental albums to follow, this is where he puts it all together. I've always felt that songwriters have peaks and valleys. Some have only one peak and try to live off it forever. One only has to look at the solo careers of the Beatle to understand that they were at their peak while they were in their 20s and early 30s. McCartney could never understand why he couldn't write another "Yesterday" or "Hey Jude". But he couldn't. And I don't think Elvis will ever match the inspired excellence of this album. From beginning to end, it commands your attention, shifting between quirky, catchy jingles, to unpredictible and moody melodies. It has a certain "Sgt. Pepper" sound to it. I've picked up every Elvis album since in the faint hope that he might repeat or! surpass Imperial Bedroom and prove that he didn't peak in 1982. Although each album has something comparable with Imperial Bedroom, nothing compares to the sum of the parts of what I can easily say is his greatest album.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elvis shatters the expectations, May 5, 2007

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Imperial Bedroom (Dig) (Spkg) (Audio CD)

When "Imperial Bedroom" first hit the shelves, critics were falling over themselves with superlatives. Even Columbia's "Artist...Masterpiece?" ad campaign was begging the question. Was this the album that would crack the new wave stereotype that had been hung around Elvis Costello's neck since "My Aim Is True?"
The answer was yes...and no.

Granted, hiring Geoff Emerick to put his Beatle-esque touches made for a handsome, rich sound, more than any other album in EC's discography. The expansiveness paid off right from the album's opener, "Beyond Belief." Toying with his own range and the overlapping vocal parts, Elvis' willingness to experiment rocked the foundations of all the early "punks" of the period. (Think of how closely Joe Jackson's "Night And Day" and The Police's "Synchronicity" followed.) The experiments were also inherent to the arrangements. The high pitched strings that slip out of the album's fade to "Town Cryer" were four cellos overdubbed to sound like an entire string section, as I recall.

Working from the pretext that they could experiment like the Beatles did, each song was tinkered and toyed with till (as you can hear in the comparisons to the bonus disc's demo versions) they barely resembled their original ideas. It made the original album's side one a song suite of near "Sgt. Pepper" proportions, with the standout of "Man Out Of Time" marking the perfect bridge between the Elvis of old and the Elvis of new. His anguished howl that breaks the song open and then ushers it into the heartbreak of "Almost Blue" reset the boundaries of compositions in 1982.

Comparisons to Gershwin and Porter were also being tossed around when "Imperial Bedroom" first came out, one suspects they had more to do with overzealous critics trying to make associations with "serious music" than to the obvious merits of Elvis' songwriting prowess. The debt to Tin Pan Alley ("The Long Honeymoon") is truly there. But the lyrical jabs and jibes are still pure Costello, and a line like "In a private detective overcoat and dirty deadman's shoes" would be perfect for that kind of stage production cross. I'd be hard pressed to imagine Cole Porter working up the anger behind "Shabby Doll."

In short, the dark and introspective "Imperial Bedroom" was a turning point for Elvis, final proof that he was at the crest of the still expanding wave of British writers that had begun emerging in the early 80's. It was likely the best album of 1982 as well.