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Imperial Bedroom is the seventh studio album by English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, and his sixth with the Attractions—keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation). It was released on 2 July 1982 through F-Beat Records in the United Kingdom and Columbia Records in the United States. Recording took place at AIR Studios in London from late 1981 to early 1982 with production being mainly handled by Geoff Emerick; it was the artist's first album of original material not produced by Nick Lowe. Placing an emphasis on studio experimentation, the album saw the group use unusual instruments, including harpsichord, accordion and strings arranged by Nieve. Songs were rewritten constantly while Costello tinkered with the recordings, adding numerous overdubs.

Imperial Bedroom
Studio album by Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Released	2 July 1982 (1982-07-02)
Recorded	November 1981 – March 1982
Studio	AIR (London)
Genre	New wave baroque pop art rock
Length	50:49
Label	F-Beat
Producer	Geoff Emerick "from an original idea by Elvis Costello"
Elvis Costello and the Attractions chronology
Almost Blue (1981) Imperial Bedroom (1982) Punch the Clock (1983)
Singles from Imperial Bedroom
"You Little Fool" Released: June 1982 "Man Out of Time" Released: July 1982

Employing a variety of pop styles that embody new wave, baroque pop and art rock, Imperial Bedroom contains an ornately lush production that several commentators compared to the Beatles and Phil Spector's wall of sound. The lyrics primarily concern love and relationships, with insight into the emotional problems of individuals. Some tracks represented a reflection of Costello's failure to ruminate over the preceding five years. Squeeze's Chris Difford co-wrote the lyrics for "Boy With a Problem". The cover artwork, a painting by Barney Bubbles, is a pastiche of Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians.

Promoted under the tagline "Masterpiece?", Imperial Bedroom reached number 6 in the UK and number 30 in the US. Its singles, "You Little Fool" and "Man Out of Time", failed to break the top 50 in the UK Singles Chart. It was greeted with massive acclaim from music critics, earning Costello comparisons to Lennon and McCartney, Cole Porter and George Gershwin. Reviewers praised the songwriting, production and instrumentation, although some were mixed on its complexity. Nevertheless, it placed on several year-end lists. Its commercial performance led him to take a new direction with 1983's Punch the Clock.

Widely considered a masterpiece and one of Costello's best works, retrospective reviews have praised the songwriting, production, wordplay and performances of the Attractions, although some found its density made for a tough listening experience. Appearing on several lists of the best albums of the 1980s, and of all time, Imperial Bedroom has been reissued multiple times with bonus tracks and extensive liner notes written by Costello himself.

Background

By 1981, Elvis Costello had released six studio albums in four years. Following the release of his country covers album Almost Blue (1981), the artist was facing diminishing popularity, particularly in America, where Trust (1981) and the Taking Liberties (1980) collection of outtakes had only reached the top 30;[1] Armed Forces (1979) and Get Happy!! (1980) both reached number two.[2] Author Tony Clayton-Lea argues that he had turned into a caricature of himself by the end of the 1979 Armed Funk Tour, leading him to experiment musically across Get Happy!!, Trust and Almost Blue.[3] He had also begun to deviate away from the angry lyrics of his first three albums to more introspective territory. The weaker commercial performances of these projects caused him to re-evaluate himself as an artist, leading him to take a new direction for his next album.[3]

Costello's initial vision for his seventh studio project was to record most of it live with minimal overdubs.[4][5] He and his backing band the Attractions—keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation)—spent two weeks rehearsing the material at a remote college in Devon using this method, yielding an eight-track album.[lower-alpha 1] Finding the result sounded too similar to Trust, Costello settled on using heavy studio experimentation.[3][4]

Recording and production

The band regrouped at London's AIR Studios in November 1981, where Costello had booked 12 weeks to record the album.[4][6] It was his first album of original material not produced by Nick Lowe; Costello believed his complex ideas for the record would prove too much for the producer.[3][7] His former engineer Roger Béchirian did not return either, later telling Costello biographer Graeme Thomson: "I remember feeling a bit hurt by the fact [Nick and I] weren't going to be involved in it. It was something I really wanted to do. I know [Nick] wasn't terribly happy."[4] Lowe would later return to produce 1986's Blood & Chocolate.[7]

Instead, Costello chose former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, who the artist primarily used to "make his scattershot ideas a reality";[4] Emerick would be listed on the album sleeve as producing "from an original idea by Elvis Costello, assisted by Jon Jacobs".[7][8][6] According to Clayton-Lea, Emerick "transformed the record from what was probably originally a decent eight-track demo album into an aural tour de force".[3] Emerick's primary role was to let the musicians take charge of themselves, as a way to "draw things out of the artist".[4] Costello commented in 1995: "He was used to being thrown an incomprehensible garble of sounds and musical directions and making some sense of it. After working with the Beatles at the height of their psychedelic era, he was used to innovation."[9] The album was recorded at the same time as Paul McCartney's Tug of War,[3] on which Emerick simultaneously served as engineer while George Martin produced;[7] at some points Emerick departed for small periods to work on Tug of War—with Jacobs taking over—before resuming work with Costello.[6] The artist later explained that he and McCartney were initially set to have two different recording schedules but the latter's was moved up, forcing Emerick to work between the two.[7]

The new record marked Costello's first where the songs were not performed live before properly recording.[3] For the material itself, Costello mostly drew upon brand new songs, but took some tracks from prior ventures: "Boy With a Problem" originated during the sessions for Trust, "Kid About It" from the artist's time producing Squeeze's East Side Story (1981) and "Tears Before Bedtime" during the sessions for Almost Blue. Having begun primarily writing songs at home on the piano over the past 18 months,[5] tracks he wrote in this fashion included "Almost Blue", "...And in Every Home" and "The Long Honeymoon".[7] Costello also reached out to others for input in songwriting. He asked Sammy Cahn for input in writing what would become "The Long Honeymoon" but the writer declined, which gave Costello the motivation to finish writing it himself,[5] while Squeeze's Chris Difford co-wrote lyrics for "Boy With a Problem".[10]

With an emphasis on studio experimentation, songs were constantly being rewritten in the studio; Costello took full control of the environment and concentrated the most on the sound of the recordings. Bruce Thomas recalled:[4][3]

The thing about Imperial Bedroom was that we went away and rehearsed all the songs and then didn't do the arrangements when we got in the studio. We just improvised totally new versions, changed the lyrics, changed the melody, changed the arrangement, so it's like we learned the structure of the songs then just deconstructed them and played completely different versions. [They] were changing all the time.

Regarding the song shaping, Costello stated: "We'd made a kind of pact in the band that we were going to try and treat each song individually rather than on previous albums where we'd had an overall production idea, which we'd thrashed out with Nick [Lowe]."[11] Emerick concurred, stating, "My co-production consisted of abandoning the arrangements that we had carefully worked out."[11]

The group utilised unusual instruments, including mellotron, harpsichord, accordion, twelve-string guitar, marimba, strings and trumpets. Once Costello was satisfied with where a track was at, Emerick used his experience to shape them.[4][7][12] However, the "idiosyncratic, piecemeal approach" led to each track being led by a specific instrument rather than displaying the Attractions as a creative unit: "Shabby Doll" showcased piano and bass, while "Beyond Belief" showcased drums,[4] which Pete Thomas performed in one take after a heavy night of drinking;[11] Costello stated that Thomas's performance led him to rewrite the number, originally titled "The Land of Give and Take", using the backing track as a guide.[5] Nieve's piano is prominent throughout the songs, particularly on "Almost Blue".[4] A contemporary review from NME's Richard Cook noted that the guitars were demoted to "mere colouration", with the keyboards drawing "the predominant melodic shape".[10] Nieve also played the distorted guitar during the fade of "Tears Before Bedtime" as "a joke".[1]

The sessions were productive despite Costello's surrounding personal struggles, including his failing marriage amidst his resumed affair with model Bebe Buell; "Tears Before Bedtime" was the result of his wife's suspicions of this affair.[4][3] His troubled personal life led to his absence on some days, during which the Attractions recorded some tracks without him, including "Pidgin English" and "Boy With a Problem", the latter of which the band posted through his letterbox after a session.[4][7] The album also saw Nieve stand out as an arranger, arranging the majority of the string sections, including three Wagnerian-like French horns for "The Long Honeymoon", brass and woodwinds for "Pidgin English", "Philly-style violin" for "Town Cryer" and a full 40-piece orchestra for "...And in Every Home". For the orchestra, Nieve conducted the musicians himself, while Martin supervised the arrangement as it contained several allusions to his work with the Beatles;[7][11] Ringo Starr visited the studio during the session.[5]

The album's original working title was Music to Stop Clocks before being changed to This Is a Revolution of the Mind, a line from James Brown's "King Heroin" (1972). Clayton-Lea found this title "would blatantly publicize the health-conscious change of attitude".[3] It was changed again to P.S. I Love You—a line from "The Loved Ones" and "Pidgin English"[1]—before settling on Imperial Bedroom, the name of a track Costello wrote and recorded after the sessions wrapped.[4][5] He later remarked that the chosen title had "just the right combination of splendour and sleaze to fit all the tracks on the album".[1]

Later work

After completing the basic tracks in November 1981, Costello and the Attractions commenced shows throughout late-December, debuting several Imperial Bedroom tracks live.[4] Reviewing the newer numbers during the New Year's Eve show, Robert Palmer of The New York Times commented: "Some of them have the harmonic and melodic sophistication of pop standards from the 1930s and 1940s."[13] On 7 January 1982, Costello and the Attractions performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London, mostly playing older hits and songs from Almost Blue and Imperial Bedroom.[4]

Costello continued tinkering with the Imperial Bedroom recordings alone throughout early 1982, including experimenting with vocal inflictions on "Kid About It", "Human Hands" and "Pidgin English".[4][5] He also overdubbed "vocal groups" onto "Tears Before Bedtime", "The Loved Ones" and "Town Cryer" as a way to contrast with the more straightforward approaches in "Almost Blue", "Man Out of Time" and "The Long Honeymoon".[7] Thomson states he wanted to move away from "having one feel throughout", a trait that had permeated Almost Blue. Costello reiterated: "I went completely the other way and used overlapping vocals and conflicting styles to suggest there was more than one attitude going on inside the songs."[4] He also commented that he believed the vocal and instrumental additions set Imperial Bedroom apart from his prior works.[7] The album was completed by March.[4]

In February 1982, Costello and the Attractions recorded several cover songs for release as potential B-sides at London's Matrix Studios. Nieve was unavailable, so they played as a trio, with Costello producing. Thomson states the standout from these sessions was a rendition of Smokey Robinson's "From Head to Toe" (1965), which was issued as a stand-alone single later in September.[4]

Music and lyrics

Representing a departure from the artist's previous albums,[14] the music on Imperial Bedroom employs a variety of styles and has been characterised by commentators as new wave,[15][16] baroque pop,[17][18][19] and art rock.[12][20] Numerous reviewers also found it Beatlesque,[18][21] and drew comparisons to Tin Pan Alley.[22][23][24] Senior AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine regarded the songs as an extension of the jazz and pop infatuations explored on Trust.[24] In The New York Times, Palmer summarised, "the music is a sumptuous mélange of pop styles, from Beatles-baroque to Phil Spector Wall-of-Sound to torch-song intimacy."[25] Rolling Stone's Parke Puterbaugh wrote that the album contains a "potent, articulate musical kick" that relates to the Who's Tommy (1969), the Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow (1968) and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper (1967).[26] Biographer David Gouldstone says the production makes the songs sound "spontaneous and immediate",[8] while author James E. Perone remarks that Costello's voice is higher in the mix, presenting a "clearer presentation" of his voice than any of Lowe's productions "by a significant degree".[12]

The lyrics on Imperial Bedroom represent a major departure from previous albums, wherein every song is primarily concerned with topics of love and relationships, and delve further into the psych of dealing with emotions rather than the "revenge and guilt" fantasies of Costello's early work.[12][8][17][27] Gouldstone summarises the album as being about "the emotions, and more specifically the emotional problems, of individuals",[8] while Perone wrote that the songs "can be fully appreciated as a statement on importance of breaking through the noise and static of life to reach simple clarity and focus".[12] Puterbaugh compared its "thematic concerns" to the country albums Red Headed Stranger (1975) by Willie Nelson and The Battle (1976) by George Jones.[26] Having experienced numerous public and personal disturbances over the past five years and having little time for rumination, many of the songs, particularly "Beyond Belief" and "Man Out of Time", represent an embellishment of somber reflection.[5] Comparing to previous works, Gouldstone states that every song on Imperial Bedroom is personal, with somewhat public themes presented on "Man Out of Time" and "Pidgin English" given personal embodiments.[8] Speaking to Palmer in June 1982, Costello commented that "the more personal songs are either imaginary scenarios, observations of other people, or observations of myself".[28] The subjects in the songs are far-reaching, representing a wide range of individuals from all levels of society.[27] After having mostly third person narrators on Trust,[29] Imperial Bedroom marks a return to mostly first-person narrators, with third-person ones making appearances on "The Long Honeymoon", "...And in Every Home" and "You Little Fool".[8] Despite some of the lyrical content, Costello imagined this to be his most optimistic album to date.[7]

Side one

The opening track, "Beyond Belief", evokes 1960s psychedelia and utilises an unusual song structure, wherein there is melodic contrast from section-to-section and the chorus does not appear until the track's outro, to describe a tense relationship study between two mutually mismatched forces.[12][10][30][31] Providing commentary on the confused state of the world, the song sets up a recurring theme where people do not learn from their mistakes.[8][12] Gouldstone comments that while Costello had previous acted as an observer or outsider, with "Beyond Belief" he now acts in a more positive role than playing a cynical observer.[8] AllMusic's Bill Janovitz viewed the track's use of vocal layering, effects and instrumentation as resembling and predating techniques of sampling and looping before their widespread use in rock.[31] "Tears Before Bedtime" denotes a return to the "marital claustrophobia" of numerous Get Happy!! tracks,[8] concerning a dysfunctional relationship wherein the characters have given up hope that the fighting will end. Perone finds the song evidence of Costello's continued development in aligning moods of the words and music.[12]

"Shabby Doll" is an exploration of the feelings of anger and hate that come with rejection.[12] Taking its title from an old cabaret poster Costello saw in a hotel dining room,[lower-alpha 2][5][33] the male character describes his female lover as a "shabby doll"—meaning she was once glamorous but is now past her prime—but by the end of the song, the role have reversed and he becomes the "shabby doll".[12][8] Like other album tracks, the song displays the artist's acknowledgement of distributing blame evenly between men and women that began on Trust. Its themes of betrayal are aided by the tension-building instrumentation of the Attractions, particularly Costello, Nieve and Bruce Thomas; Perone notes that it has the least overdubs and orchestration on the album.[12][33] "The Long Honeymoon" is a tale of infidelity that employs a Latin-type groove, jazz and lounge inflections on piano and French cabaret-style accordion.[8][12][34] A more traditional song in terms of structure, Perone likens its arrangement to a 1940s/1950s torch song.[12] Its instrumental middle section boasts a rare guitar solo from Costello. Meanwhile, Gouldstone compares its themes to the Trust songs "Big Sister's Clothes" and "Shot With His Own Gun".[8]

Costello felt that the partly autobiographical "Man Out of Time" was the "heart" of the album.[5][6] Bookended by a "full-tilt fast-paced" band-led performance with screaming[12]—the initial recorded version[4]—"Man Out of Time" boasts a wall of sound production and excessive wordplay to describe three characters: the narrator, a woman and a man who holds a public position. The details are minimal and obtuse, but Gouldstone interprets it as the narrator's plea for the woman to love him after the man has left her.[8][30] The verses attack the man's character and give a glimpse into the narrator's life living in London, which is wore-torn by people like the man. However, the animosity is gone by the choruses, which sees the narrator plea for the woman to love 'a man out of time', meaning he is "outside time"; if he does not obtain her love, he will lose grasp on reality.[8] AllMusic's Rick Anderson opined that the song presents both the "best" and "worst" of the album, but found its "lush and heartbreakingly pretty" production lends the chorus its emotional weight.[22]

"Almost Blue"—titled after his preceding album of country covers—was based on Chet Baker's recording of "The Thrill Is Gone";[4] Costello wanted to emulate the trumpet and vocal arrangements of Baker's recording in his own song.[5] The album's only track that is not heavily produced,[8] "Almost Blue" is played in a somber jazz and lounge style, with an emphasis on changing harmonies. Like "The Long Honeymoon", Perone relates its arrangement to 1940s/1950s torch song,[12] while Janovitz compared its music to the "saloon singer-ballad style" of "My Funny Valentine".[35] In the song, the main character is devoid of feeling as he is lost in love, which he brought upon himself, while being in a relationship that has never reached full happiness.[8][12] Janovitz further associated its sorrow quality to Frank Sinatra's 1954 In the Wee Small Hours and 1958 Only the Lonely LPs and overall mood to Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (1959).[35]

In contrast to "Almost Blue", "...And in Every Home" vaunts the most extravagant production on the album. Its music is led by Nieve's orchestral arrangements,[12][20] which one reviewer likened to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper.[34] With lines such as "she's only 35, going on 17", the lyrics depict stagnant views of relationships, whose individuals' act in age-inappropriate ways; the characters cheat on their spouses with individuals half their age in an attempt to recapture their youth.[12][20] Gouldstone interprets it as a study of the waste of lives and marriage destruction.[8] In the 2002 reissue liner notes for Imperial Bedroom, Costello described the song as "a snapshot of a disappointed young woman, with the boyfriend in prison and a strong feeling that life should be offering something more."[5]

Side two

Costello described "The Loved Ones" as "the horror of a parade of relations at the fate of a doomed and wasted youth".[32] Gouldstone dubbed the track a "collection of bitcheries",[8] while Perone found its impressionist imagery caught a despised man who is in the midst of being alienated from society. Containing connections to mid-1960s pop,[12] Costello proclaimed the passage on the bridge was his favourite of Nieve's contributions to the album.[5] The operatic "Human Hands" is a love song about the desire for human contact, with images of masturbation and prostitution.[12] According to Gouldstone, the narrator's seclusion is accentuated through references to the hostility of the outside world. Like "Man Out of Time", "he needs love to protect him from the chaos surrounding him", although his repeated attempts at love result in failure.[8]

In the 2002 liner notes, Costello stated that "Kid About It" was written the morning after John Lennon's murder and reflects his mindset following the event.[5] A gospel-inspired waltz with a simple arrangement,[6][12] AllMusic's Stewart Mason compared the track's "1950s cool jazz" sound with that of "Almost Blue".[36] In the song, the narrator pleads to his lover but believes she is behaving immaturely and not taking the relationship seriously. Wanting to return to a less complicated time, he is done playing games and wants to fully settle down.[8][12] For his vocals, Costello sang in his lowest octave "for greater intimacy" and strained on some of the higher notes, which Mason felt added "vulnerability" to the "emotionally open lyrics".[5][36] "Little Savage" marks a return to a more conventional pop/rock song style and structure.[lower-alpha 3][12] The music is contrasted with the return to the lyrical theme of "the complexities and failures of relationships",[8] wherein the main character tells his lover his drinking eases the "emotional baggage" of their relationship.[12] Gouldstone observes the term 'savage' has an unclear meaning here, which offers multiple interpretations: "[It is] not only a fairly effective portrait of a difficult relationship, but also a brave piece of self-examination".[8]

"Boy With a Problem" mixes midcentury torch with contemporary rock and connects prominent lyrical ideals throughout the record, including alcoholism, domestic violence, impotence, relationship dysfunction and lack of self-esteem.[12] More specifically, the song depicts a marriage going through a tough period, wherein the husband is drinking again and both parties are committing acts of violence on one another. Nevertheless, the ending gives a sense of hope that she will forgive him. Gouldstone positively compares Difford's lyrics to Costello's own writing, finding they are heavily "Costellian".[8] In a stylistic detour, "Pidgin English" echoes 1960s psychedelia to a major extent.[12][37] Mason observes that the vocals are double-tracked in both stereo channels, giving the appearance of dueling inner dialogues.[37] In an example of Imperial Bedroom's focus on breaking free from the static of daily life, the song offers an expansion on the themes of "Human Hands", with Perone stating that it displays "numerous images of people's inability to articulate their emotions in a stream-of-consciousness style and contrasts the resulting confusion with the oft-repeated fade-out phrase "P.S. I love you."[12] Gouldstone interprets it as possibly referring to "the semi-literate collection of clichés that passes for communication for some people".[8] In the 2002 liner notes, Costello elaborates that "among the colloquialisms and lyrical puzzles of 'Pidgin English', there is a longing for the simple words to express love".[5]

In another departure from the previous track, "You Little Fool" is a more straightforward number akin to mid-1960s pop equipped with a harpsicord;[8][12][38] Author Mick St. Michael viewed it as "one step" from the Rolling Stones' "Mother's Little Helper" (1966).[1] In a lyric mirroring Trust's "Big Sister's Clothes", a teenage girl is ready to grow up to adulthood while her parents do not understand her nor approve of her love life. Presenting a depiction of love as, in Perone's words, "an exercise in vanity for the young", "You Little Fool" offers a culmination of the album's themes of "dejection over the messes people make of their lives".[8][12] The final track, "Town Cryer", is a soft "middle-of-the-road soul" ballad that uses Nieve's orchestral arrangements to the fullest extent on the album; by the song's extended coda, the orchestra overtakes the rest of the band.[12][39] Lyrically, Costello utilises heavy wordplay to portray a man who has lost at love and has reached his breaking point: he dubs himself a "town crier" and is anxious to make his tears public. Gouldstone considers the tone introspective and asserts that it comes off as a deliberate personal confession.[8][12] Reviewing Imperial Bedroom on release, Trouser Press's Scott Isler argued that the line, "love and unhappiness go arm in arm", perfectly describes the album thematically.[17] Gouldstone provides further discussion in God's Comic, contending that if the album itself is a quest to improve satisfaction following the overall dissatisfaction of Costello's earlier albums, the LP ends relatively the same as how it started; however, he maintains the journey itself has been "an enriching experience", and the long fade out of "Town Cryer" allows the listener to process the album as a whole before it ends.[8]

Artwork and packaging

The cover artwork, a painting titled "Snakecharmer & Reclining Octopus" by Barney Bubbles (credited to "Sal Forlenza"), is a pastiche of Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians (1921). Upon seeing the painting for the first time, Costello was taken aback, believing Bubbles had responded to "the more violent and carnal aspects of the songs".[lower-alpha 4][11][32] The painting depicts a resting woman with laced hands surrounded by zipper-like creatures—which spell out "Pablo Si"—sitting next to, in Costello's words, "a pathetic little ringmaster figure", wearing what he interpreted as a tricorn hat.[32] In his book Let Them All Talk, Hinton describes the picture as "a violent exercise in harsh red and blues".[lower-alpha 5][11] The cover won the Creem readers' poll for the best album cover of 1982.[40] The original LP's inner sleeve boasted photographs by David Bailey of the entire band in black-and-white.[11][41] Costello appears in his half-moon glasses with clean cuffs resting his chin on his fist, glaring into the camera with cold and dark eyes; the same image was used as the sleeve photo for the "Man Out of Time" single.[11] One reviewer likened his appearance to Hoagy Carmichael.[16]

Imperial Bedroom was Costello's first album to include a lyric sheet,[12] which Gouldstone interpreted as to possibly not be misheard or misinterpreted.[8] They appear in a continuous flow, without punctuation nor breaks in between songs and in all caps.[17][10] In a 1995 interview with author Peter Doggett, he explained that up until that point, he was uncomfortable with having "little poems" printed on the sleeve, preferring his words to be heard rather than read.[9] Upon deciding to include a lyric sheet, Costello instructed Bubbles to remove the punctuation as he wanted the final result to be a graphic effect rather than "stressing any order or hierarchy on the page".[lower-alpha 6][32] Speaking to Doggett, he said: "It makes for quite interesting reading. You can make up your own lines, starting in the middle of one song and into the next one."[9] Eric Klinger of PopMatters later argued that the sheet "lent to the air of mystery and challenge to the listening", making it "even more of an immersive experience".[42]

Release and promotion

Although work on the album finished in March 1982, its release was pushed back four months due to, in Costello's words, "contractual things in America"; Thomson states this meant financial problems between F-Beat and Columbia Records. Costello and the Attractions toured throughout Holland and Oceania from April to June as promotion before the album's release.[4] Upon its release on 2 July 1982,[6][24] Imperial Bedroom reached number six on the UK Albums Chart and number 30 on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart;[43][44] it spent 12 weeks overall in the UK top 100.[1] Elsewhere, the album peaked at number 18 in Norway,[45] 30 in Sweden,[46] 37 in New Zealand,[47] 45 in the Netherlands and 49 in Australia.[48][49] F-Beat also issued a now-rare collectible double promotional LP, A Conversation with Elvis Costello, featuring album tracks interspersed with comments by the artist on the makings of each track.[1][9][11]

The album's accompanying singles fared worse. The first, "You Little Fool", backed by the Lowe-produced outtakes "Big Sister" and "The Stamping Ground", was released in June 1982 and reached number 52 in the UK.[50][51] The second, "Man Out of Time", backed by an alternate version of "Town Cryer" was released in late-July and peaked at a lower number 58; both failed to chart in the US.[50][51] The label, who were expecting another massive success akin to Armed Forces, were ultimately disappointed with the performance of Imperial Bedroom.[11][3] Costello later opined that the label's choices of singles were poor and "did little" to designate the album's change of style from previous records; he felt "Beyond Belief" would have performed well as the first single.[5][9] The non-album single "From Head to Toe", issued in September, performed better than both Imperial Bedroom singles.[5] Clayton-Lea opines that Costello was "swimming against the commercial tide" in the age of New Romantic bands such as Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, the Human League and Soft Cell.[3]

Imperial Bedroom underwent a promotional campaign under the one-word tagline, "Masterpiece?", which Thomson opines attracted as much positive publicity as it did negative.[4] Costello also began conducting interviews with the press again, explaining: "In the beginning [of my career], I did a few interviews, and I didn't feel they went very well, so I just stopped doing them. [...] Then when the time went by, and I felt there were some thing that were perhaps necessary to explain, I changed my mind."[4] With interviews being essential to album promoting at the time, Costello's initial refusal did little to help in his diminishing sales numbers.[4] During a particular interview with Rolling Stone's Greil Marcus, he atoned for the incident that occurred during the American Armed Funk Tour in March 1979, in which he engaged in a drunken exchange with Stephen Stills, insulting various American musical artists using racial slurs, including James Brown and Ray Charles. Having been silent about the incident since a New York press conference shortly after its occurrence, Costello felt he was ready to explain himself. In the interview, he admitted: "It's become a terrible thing, hanging over my head. It's horrible to work hard for a long time and find that what you're best known for is something as idiotic as this."[52] He gave further apologetic comments in The New York Times, Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times.[lower-alpha 7][4][3]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Initial reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
Record Mirror	[54]
Rolling Stone	[26]
Smash Hits	9/10[55]
Sounds	[56]
The Village Voice	B+[57]

Upon release, Imperial Bedroom was greeted with near universal acclaim.[4] Puterbaugh declared in Rolling Stone that Costello had written his masterpiece following years of experimentation, further commending the amount of care and detail the artist put into it: "In every aspect of this masterfully wrought, conceptually audacious project, he's managed to bulwark his emotional directness with vision and clarity."[26] Reviewers believed the album stood amongst the artist's best work,[58] with Sounds magazine's Dave McCullough arguing that it sees Costello reach a "kind of peak of peaks";[56] Musician magazine's J. D. Considine even asserted that the LP stood as Costello's Sgt. Pepper.[58] In a highly positive review for NME, Richard Cook proclaimed: "This is pop music organised to an incredible sophistication. However it has been achieved, ... it sets out parameters of sound that seem to alter within the inner ear: which means that Costello has finally achieved a synthesis of words and music that correlates to the duplicity of each."[10] Cook further asserted that "it's as if he's viewed the whole of rock music's bloated history and systematised an entirely different set of coordinates that still, amazingly, operate inside a recognisable—indeed, classic—pop medium. In the construction of the tunes the spirit of pop survives; in their delivery it is virtually exorcised."[10]

Several critics were unanimous in their admiration for Costello as a songwriter and artist.[lower-alpha 8] Several declared him the finest songwriter in pop music,[14][59][58] earning comparisons to Lennon and McCartney, Cole Porter and George Gershwin.[31][38][60] In The New York Times, Palmer wrote that "anyone who doubts that Mr. Costello is the finest songwriter churned up by rock's new wave should start [with this album]".[25] Critiquing his songwriting, John Swenson said in Circus that his "finely tuned storytelling illustrates love's universal elusiveness",[27] while Smash Hits writer David Hepworth asserted: "Like steel going through butter, the songs are offset by an edge that only a craftsman could manufacture."[55] Some critics even felt that the album found Costello at the forefront of musical innovation, despite lacking major commercial appeal.[lower-alpha 9] Record Review's David M. Gotz argued that the artist lacked youth appeal, but his work nonetheless "continues to be a stimulating experience for those who have enough time and sense to listen. [...] But he is definitely writing and performing some of the best songs in pop music."[61] Meanwhile, Isler argued in Trouser Press that Costello's "blend of 'pop' music with unpop imagery and organization is in synch with [the] times, grounding today's uncertainties on yesterday's verities". Writing in October 1982, Isler declared that Imperial Bedroom "can't be ignored" despite being "too idiosyncratic to launch any trends, and possibly too involuted for mass appeal", noting the initial reception received by the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds in 1966, an album that had to be "redeemed by history".[17]

Many reviewers gave commendation to individual elements found throughout Imperial Bedroom. Several highlighted Nieve's piano and orchestral work, while others praised Emerick's production.[lower-alpha 10] Writing for The Face, Ian Birch examined the production has "introduced irony and distance which allows for fury, ambiguity, laughs and smart window dressing. The balance is brilliant and lets Costello get away with blue murder."[64] Billboard magazine, on the other hand, questioned whether Costello's longtime fans would appreciate Emerick's elaborate production compared to the more "rough-edged rock" of Costello's Lowe-produced records.[65] Several gave high praise to the Attractions, with John Griffin of the Montreal Gazette calling them "unquestionably the finest back-up trio working in pop today".[38] Regarding their musicianship, Gotz commented: "The Attractions remain a constant source of superb musical coordination for Costello. Throughout, their playing and arranging provides strength. Their instrumental spicings are always timed perfectly to bounce off a poignant lyric or a clever hook."[61] However, some noted the band played a lesser role in the arrangements on Imperial Bedroom compared to previous records.[34][14] Critics also recognised Imperial Bedroom as an album that would enjoy repeated listens due to its complexity.[26][34][38]

The music and lyrics were particularly highlighted.[55][61] Robin Denselow found Costello's singing more relaxed in The Guardian,[34] while Considine and Record Mirror's Simon Hills labelled his singing the strongest of his career.[54][58] On the other hand, Barry Alfonso was more negative in LA Weekly, finding the vocal performances did not live up to the quality of the material.[14] Commenting on the music, Newsweek's Jim Miller wrote that "the sound is crisp, dense with detail, smartly crafted, very poppy, terribly studied."[59] Meanwhile, Dave Marsh proclaimed in The Charlotte Observer that Imperial Bedroom was "the first album by any new-wave heavyweight to come to terms with modern recording technology without abandoning Top 40 form".[63]

Amongst other elements, several reviewers noticed a change in attitude from the artist's previous albums,[15][65] with Alfonso describing Imperial Bedroom as "the most benign album he's recorded yet, a far cry from the bulk of his material four years ago."[14] In addition, some noted that Costello maintained the heavy wordplay he was known for,[38][10] but this attracted both positive and negative reactions. In The Washington Times, Charles McCollum compared the songs to "emotional minefields", wherein "a word or a sentence can blow up in the face of the unsuspecting listener".[23] On the other hand, Birch felt that more care was placed into blending the words together with the arrangements,[64] while Considine stated that Costello has created "some of his most graceful lyrics to date" and sports an "unparalleled command of rock's stylistic vocabulary".[58] Meanwhile, some critics were divided on the album's accessibility,[14][59] with a few finding the LP was not "easy-listening".[23][59] Isler noticed that the lack of traditional verse/chorus song structures make the album "only superficially accessible, receding like a desert mirage when the listener tries to come to grips with it".[17] More negatively, Ken Tucker of The Philadelphia Inquirer griped that "In song after song, Costello forces you to become nothing more than a picky English teacher, grading his self-conscious compositions."[16]

A couple reviewers expressed more mixed sentiments on the album. Creem's Richard C. Walls felt that the album was "too complex" to be considered a masterpiece, drawing a negative comparison to This Year's Model (1978). He further argued that Imperial Bedroom is "more of a potpourri of attitudes, impressively clever but ultimately indecisive", nevertheless finding Costello's musical journey up to that point "fascinating".[15] Additionally, Geoffrey Himes of The Washington Post, while deeming the LP the artist's "most ambitious effort yet", he felt it fell short of his best work due to "his own cleverness often muffling the impact of the songs".[18] Meanwhile, critic Robert Christgau praised Costello's songwriting and felt that certain songs "are as great as songwriting ever gets" in The Village Voice, but criticised the album for concentrating too much on technique, arguing that the result made the emotions seem literate rather than heartfelt and the finished work "pretentious".[57]

Other reviewers were more negative towards the album, with some finding it was more "artifice than art" and lacked innovation.[66][16] Adam Sweeting examined in Melody Maker: "There's an uneasy sense that we've been this way before. There's nothing in the shape of the songs to demarcate them from prime Costello of the past, and lyrically he doesn't hit any new bases, skewer any radically new approaches." Sweeting yearned for less cleverness and songs that stick and ultimately expressed disappointment in the album, concluding, "Frankly Elvis, I expected more."[66] Others wrote that Costello lacked the voice the convey the lyrics in an emotional way,[67] with Tucker stating, "the tunes drag and disappear entirely whenever Costello wants to make some tiresome literary point. He's become too subtle for his own good."[16] In a very negative review for the New York Daily News, Bill Carlton described the album as "pompous, narrow-minded, pseudo-literary hooey mired in incoherent, desultory musical forms, boring, lifeless melodies and log-jammed lyrics".[67]

Imperial Bedroom made appearances on several lists of the year's best albums, including a number one placement in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll,[68] and a number two placement by NME, behind Marvin Gaye's Midnight Love; the publication also placed "Man Out of Time" as one of the year's top ten tracks.[69] Additionally, The New York Times ranked it 1982's seventh best album,[25] while Rolling Stone included it in their list of the year's top 40 albums, recognising the LP as Costello's "most fully realized" and "most compassionate" album to date.[70]

Tour and aftermath

Costello and the Attractions embarked on a tour of America on 14 July 1982, which lasted through 6 September.[4] The singer boasted more friendly on-stage demeanor throughout compared to previous tours,[11] including a stunt where he appeared in a full gorilla suit during the encore of the show coinciding with his 28th birthday. Embracing funk and R&B flavours, the setlists consisted of covers, old hits, and mostly material from Get Happy!!, Trust and Imperial Bedroom.[4] Nevertheless, Costello found fans primarily only wanted to hear old hits such as 1978's "Pump It Up", which he felt presented a challenge for him; he had previously rejected fan requests. Additionally, the studio craft of Imperial Bedroom meant the tracks were harder to play live, particularly "...And in Every Home", "Beyond Belief" and "Man Out of Time".[4]

Despite the massive critical success of Imperial Bedroom, its modest commercial performance forced Costello to reevaluate his musical style. Columbia, who remained eager for another Armed Forces, showed little interest in the artist's less-commercial works.[4] Although he had garnered a loyal fanbase—largely through his own merits—Costello knew his heavily artistic and challenging material was doing him more harm than good, so he decided to change direction with his next record. He and the Attractions toured Britain from mid-September to early-October 1982, road-testing several new songs that would appear on 1983's Punch the Clock.[3][4][24]

Retrospective appraisal

Professional ratings

Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[24]
Blender	[71]
Chicago Tribune	[72]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[73]
Entertainment Weekly	A+[74]
Mojo	[75]
Q	[21]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[76]
Uncut	[77]

Imperial Bedroom has continued to receive acclaim in ensuing decades, with several considering it one of Costello's most essential records.[24][42] Reviewing in 1991, Greg Kot described the album in the Chicago Tribune as "an elaborately produced meditation on sexual politics",[72] while Entertainment Weekly's Armond White deemed it "a bid for greatness, and then some".[74] Three years later, Q magazine's David Cavanagh wrote that the record's elaborate arrangements make it Costello's "most endlessly rewarding" album, further commending Nieve's contributions and the rich musical styles.[21] Bruce Thomas later considered it Costello and the Attractions' best record: "We were all throwing in musical ideas."[11]

The album's 2002 reissue brought positive reviews. Mojo's Mat Snow described the album as "a virtuoso demonstration of the singer's craft in defiance of a natural gift you could parody as Nerd King Cole". Finding it filled with "lush orchestration" and "glitterly detailed" songs that still have room to breathe, he further gave praise to Bruce Thomas's basslines and compared to that of Paul McCartney, calling his work "models of dramatic invention".[78] Meanwhile, Uncut's Nick Hasted found the album has aged well and dubbed it the "one where musical ambition and emotional force combined".[77] The record has also attracted attention outside music critics, with actor Robert Downey Jr. naming Imperial Bedroom his favourite album of all time in 2005. Speaking to Uncut, the actor stated:[79]

My first impression of it was that I could imagine someone spending their entire life thinking an album like this out, having enough life experience, getting the musicianship right. There was just so much on it. So many words, so many ideas. And every song is a triumph. It took me about 10 years to even begin to understand it. [...] [Costello's] made so many great albums, but Imperial Bedroom is the one that says: 'This is where the bar has been – now how about this, you fuckers?'

Despite its acclaim, Imperial Bedroom has not been without its detractors. Writing for Blender magazine, Douglas Wolk stated that the "hyperdense songwriting" and elaborate orchestrations make for a "rather tough" listening experience,[71] a sentiment echoed by Slant Magazine.[80] Others, including Treblezine's Tyler Parks, have found it "pretentious" and "obsessed with its own virtuosity",[30] while Jason Mendelsohn of PopMatters believed its lush set pieces were the record's greatest strength and weakness, becoming so "overwrought" it makes you yearn for the artist's simpler works.[42] Costello himself admitted in the 2002 liner notes that the record "is not exactly easy listening as it is".[5]

Nevertheless, Imperial Bedroom is still widely regarded as Costello's masterpiece.[31][21] Reviewers praise the production,[42] wordplay,[80] and the performances of the Attractions.[71][6] Janovitz argued that it was the album where the artist "spread his wings as a songwriter",[35] further deducing: "If Costello was the Dylan or Van Morrison of the new wave, then 1982's Imperial Bedroom was his Blonde on Blonde or Astral Weeks."[31] Erlewine asserted that the album proved the artist could "play with the big boys, both as a songwriter and a record-maker", simultaneously earning him the respect of musicians and critics who disregarded him as a punk rocker.[24] Parks dubbed it a "perfect pop album", one whose characteristics that make it "accessible and enticing" make it challenging and "exasperating" to the listener at the same time.[30] Klinger opined that the album "has that joy of discovery usually reserved for debut albums", while the greater attention to detail allowed instrumentation to shine through. Reviewing Costello's entire career, he argued that its musical styles predated the artist's collaborations with Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint and the Brodsky Quartet.[42]

Costello's biographers have also mostly reacted positively to Imperial Bedroom. Although St. Michael dismisses the production and dislikes the vocal treatments,[1] Gouldstone opines that "whatever your opinion of the production, Imperial Bedroom remains a collection of high-quality songs", albeit addressing that live renditions of some of its songs, such as "Shabby Doll", are superior to the studio recordings. Apart from 1986's King of America, Gouldstone dubs the album Costello's "most positive and constructive album", gives particular regards to its tunefulness and wordplay, and ultimately calls it "a fitting climax to a trilogy of unquestionable quality" following Get Happy!! and Trust.[lower-alpha 11][8] In Let Them All Talk, Hinton proclaims Imperial Bedroom as "an album of astonishing vitality and musical optimism" that "remains perhaps his most perfect achievement", occupying "an aural richness" that would return on 1996's All This Useless Beauty.[11]

Meanwhile, Thomson describes it in Complicated Shadows as a "crafted, instantaneously beguiling and bewildering" record that "endlessly" rewards repeated listens, particularly over Armed Forces and Trust. Further commending its innovation, humour, maturity and brighter tone than the latter, he concludes: "It was a coherent, audacious fulfilling of much of Elvis's immense potential."[4] Bestowing additional recognition in The Words and Music of Elvis Costello, Perone declares Imperial Bedroom Costello and the Attractions' studio masterpiece—"a grand achievement in showcasing the[ir] compositional, vocal, orchestrational and production—with "Man Out of Time" representing the "highpoint" of artist's wordplay.[12] He acknowledged the album's position as not being one of Costello's best-known or most influential works, but nevertheless stands as "certainly Costello's most ambitious and perhaps most sophisticated-sounding album". Furthermore, Perone contends the LP demonstrated that the band could thrive in a more musically expansive environment compared to previous albums, an expanse associated with art rock and album-oriented rock than anything they ever produced during their time together before or since.[12]

In lists ranking Costello's albums from worst to best, Imperial Bedroom has consistently ranked as one of the artist's best works. In 2021, writers for Stereogum placed it at number seven (out of 27), deeming it "one of several releases by the artist that belong in any discerning rock music fan's collection", although they noted that Emerick's production, although benefits the quality of the songs themselves, can be too much at times.[82] A year later, writing for Spin magazine, Al Shipley placed it at number three (out of 31), calling it the artist's "trippiest, most impeccably detailed headphone record".[83] Michael Gallucci also placed it at number three (out of 29) in Ultimate Classic Rock the same year, considering it one of the artist's best works, one that, with its lush production, presents more "moods than songs": "its widescreen coloring a lush, mature stroke of brilliance".[19]

Rankings

Imperial Bedroom has made appearances on several best-of lists. In 1989, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 38 on its list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the '80s.[84] Over two decades later, Slant Magazine listed the album at number 59 on its list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s in 2012.[80] Staff writer Huw Jones stated that the album "affirms Costello as a poet laureate for the counterculture and a restless musical genius all in the space of 50 topsy-turvy minutes."[80] Three years later, the album was also included by Ultimate Classic Rock in their list of the 100 best rock albums of the 1980s. The publication asserted: "After setting the bar for dense, layered post-punk with 1979's 'Armed Forces', Elvis Costello raised it again with 'Imperial Bedroom'."[60] In 1998, readers of Q magazine named it the 96th greatest album ever.[85] It was also voted number 321 in the third edition of writer Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[86] Three years later in 2003, Rolling Stone placed Imperial Bedroom at number 166 on list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,[87] maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list.[88]

The album was also included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[89] Based on the album's appearances in professional rankings and listings, the aggregate website Acclaimed Music lists Imperial Bedroom as the 4th most acclaimed album of 1982, the 42nd most acclaimed album of the 1980s and the 313th most acclaimed album in history.[90]

Reissues

Imperial Bedroom was first released on CD through Columbia and Demon Records in January 1986.[91] Its first extended reissue through Demon in the UK and Rykodisc in the US on CD came in May 1994, which was packaged with a slew of bonus tracks, including various outtakes and tracks recorded during the Matrix studio sessions.[92][91] The additional material received a positive mention by Cavanaugh in Q.[21] Imperial Bedroom was again reissued by Rhino Records on 19 November 2002 as a two-disc set with additional bonus tracks, including material from the initial two-week rehearsals preceding the sessions.[93][5] The album was later remastered and reissued by UM^e on 6 November 2015.[94]

Track listing

All songs written by Elvis Costello, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Beyond Belief" – 2:34
2. "Tears Before Bedtime" – 3:02
3. "Shabby Doll" – 4:48
4. "The Long Honeymoon" – 4:15
5. "Man Out of Time" – 5:26
6. "Almost Blue" – 2:50
7. "...And in Every Home" – 3:23

Side two

1. "The Loved Ones" – 2:48
2. "Human Hands" – 2:43
3. "Kid About It" – 2:45
4. "Little Savage" – 2:37
5. "Boy With a Problem" (lyrics: Chris Difford, music and additional lyrics: Costello) – 2:12
6. "Pidgin English" – 3:58
7. "You Little Fool" – 3:11
8. "Town Cryer" – 4:16

Personnel

Credits adapted from AllMusic:[95]

• Elvis Costello – vocals, guitar, piano
• Steve Nieve – piano, organ, orchestrations, harpsichord,[4] accordion,[12] guitar on "Tears Before Bedtime"[1]
• Bruce Thomas – bass
• Pete Thomas – drums

Production

• Geoff Emerick – producer
• Jon Jacobs – assistant producer[7]
• Daniel Hersch – mastering
• David P. Bailey – photography
• Barney Bubbles – cover design

Charts

Weekly chart performance for Imperial Bedroom

Chart (1982)	Peak Position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[49]	49
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[48]	45
New Zealand Albums (RIANZ)[47]	37
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[45]	18
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[46]	30
UK Albums Chart[43]	6
US Billboard Top LPs & Tape[44]	30

Notes

References

Sources

External links

• Imperial Bedroom at Discogs (list of releases)

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