Imperial Bedroom

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; Armed Forces (1979) and Get Happy!! (1980) had both reached the top 15. He had experimented musically with Get Happy!!, Trust and Almost Blue, and began to write more introspective lyrics than the angry material of his first three albums. However, 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. Costello's initial vision for his seventh studio project was to record most of it live with minimal overdubs. 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. Costello eventually settled on using heavy studio experimentation when he found the material sounded too similar to Trust. ==Recording and production==

engineer Geoff Emerick (pictured in 2003) to produce the album, as he felt his ideas would be too complex for Nick Lowe. The band regrouped at London's AIR Studios in November 1981, where Costello had booked 12 weeks to record the album. He chose former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick to produce the album, who the artist primarily used to "make his scattershot ideas a reality"; Emerick would be listed on the album sleeve as producing "from an original idea by Elvis Costello, assisted by Jon Jacobs". Emerick's primary role was to let the musicians take charge of themselves, as a way to "draw things out of the artist". 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." On 7January 1982, the band 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. Costello continued tinkering with the Imperial Bedroom recordings alone throughout early 1982, including experimenting with vocal inflections on "Kid About It", "Human Hands" and "Pidgin English". 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". The biographer Graeme Thomson states that he wanted to move away from "having one feel throughout", a trait that had permeated Almost Blue. He also commented that he believed the vocal and instrumental additions set Imperial Bedroom apart from his prior works. The album was completed by March. ==Music and lyrics==

A departure from the artist's previous albums, The subjects in the songs are far-reaching, representing a wide range of individuals from all levels of society. After having mostly third person narrators on Trust, Imperial Bedroom utilises mostly first-person narrators, with third-person ones making appearances on "The Long Honeymoon", "...And in Every Home" and "You Little Fool". Despite some of the lyrical content, Costello imagined this to be his most optimistic album to date. "Tears Before Bedtime" returns to the "marital claustrophobia" of numerous Get Happy!! tracks, concerning a dysfunctional relationship where 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. "Shabby Doll" is an exploration of the feelings of anger and hate that come with rejection. Taking its title from an old cabaret poster Costello saw in a hotel dining room, "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. Perone likens its arrangement to a 1940s/1950s torch song. Its instrumental middle section boasts a rare guitar solo from Costello. Gouldstone compares its themes to the Trust numbers "Big Sister's Clothes" and "Shot With His Own Gun". Costello felt the partly autobiographical "Man Out of Time" was the "heart" of the album. "Almost Blue"—titled after his preceding album of country covers—was based on Chet Baker's recording of "The Thrill Is Gone". The album's only track that is not heavily produced, "Almost Blue" is played in a somber jazz and lounge style, emphasising changing harmonies. In "Almost Blue", 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. Janovitz associated its sorrow quality to Frank Sinatra's 1955 In the Wee Small Hours and 1958 Only the Lonely LPs and overall mood to Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (1959). 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, Gouldstone interprets it as a study of the waste of lives and marriage destruction. Side two Costello described "The Loved Ones" as "the horror of a parade of relations at the fate of a doomed and wasted youth". A mid-1960s pop number, Perone found its impressionist imagery catches a despised man in the midst of being alienated from society. "Human Hands" is an operatic love song about the desire for human contact, with images of masturbation and prostitution. 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 result in failure. Costello wrote "Kid About It" the morning after John Lennon's murder and reflects his mindset following the event. "Little Savage" returns to a more conventional pop/rock song style and structure. The music contrasts with the lyrical theme of the difficulties and failures of relationships, wherein the main character tells his lover his drinking eases the "emotional baggage" of their relationship. (pictured in 2013) co-wrote the lyrics for "Boy With a Problem" "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. The song depicts a marriage going through a tough period, in which the husband is drinking again and both parties are committing acts of violence on one another. The ending gives a sense of hope that she will forgive him. In a stylistic detour, "Pidgin English" echoes 1960s psychedelia to a major extent. In an example of Imperial Bedrooms 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". Costello elaborates that "among the colloquialisms and lyrical puzzles of 'Pidgin English', there is a longing for the simple words to express love". 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 argues the introspective tone comes off as a deliberate personal confession. Reviewing Imperial Bedroom on release, Trouser Presss Scott Isler argued that the line "love and unhappiness go arm in arm" perfectly describes the album thematically. Gouldstone contends 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. ==Artwork and packaging==

of Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians (1921). 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). Costello was taken aback upon seeing the painting for the first time, believing Bubbles had responded to "the more violent and carnal aspects of the songs". The painting depicts a resting woman with laced hands surrounded by zipper-like creatures—which spell out "Pablo Si"—sitting next to ringmaster-type figure, wearing what Costello interpreted as a tricorn hat. In his book Let Them All Talk, Hinton describes the picture as "a violent exercise in harsh red and blues". The cover won the Creem readers' poll for the best album cover of 1982. The original LP's inner sleeve boasted photographs by David Bailey of the entire band in black-and-white. The one of Costello, in which he glares into the camera with his chin resting on his fist, was used as the sleeve photo for the "Man Out of Time" single. Imperial Bedroom was Costello's first album to include a lyric sheet. In a 1995 interview with the 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. 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". ==Release and promotion==

Although the album was finished by March 1982, its release was pushed back four months due to financial disputes between F-Beat and Columbia Records. Costello and the Attractions toured Holland and Oceania from April to June as pre-release promotion. Released on 2July 1982, He gave further apologetic comments in The New York Times, Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times. ==Critical reception==

Upon release, Imperial Bedroom was greeted with near universal acclaim. Drawing comparisons to Sgt. Pepper, Puterbaugh declared in Rolling Stone that Costello had written his masterpiece following years of experimentation. Critics expressed admiration for Costello as a songwriter and artist. Several declared him the finest songwriter in pop music, Isler argued in Trouser Press that the album's recognition would improve over time, similar to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966). Reviewers highlighted the music, lyrics, Nieve's piano and orchestral work, and Emerick's production, although Billboard magazine questioned whether Costello's longtime fans would appreciate it compared to the more "rough-edged rock" of Costello's Lowe-produced records. Several gave high praise to the Attractions, Critics were, however, divided on Imperial Bedrooms complexity. While some argued it made Imperial Bedroom an album that would enjoy repeated listens, More negatively, some believed the album was more "artifice than art" and lacked innovation. Bill Carlton of the New York Daily News wrote that Costello lacked the voice to convey the lyrics emotionally, describing the album as "pompous, narrow-minded, pseudo-literary hooey mired in incoherent, desultory musical forms, boring, lifeless melodies and log-jammed lyrics". Imperial Bedroom made appearances on several lists of the year's best albums, including number one placements by Record Mirror and The Village Voice on its annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. NME placed it number two, behind Marvin Gaye's Midnight Love; the publication also placed "Man Out of Time" as one of the year's top ten tracks. Additionally, The New York Times ranked it 1982's seventh-best album, while Rolling Stone included it in its list of the year's top 40 albums, recognising the LP as Costello's "most fully realized" and "most compassionate" album to date. Time included it in their list of the year's best albums. ==Tour and subsequent events==

Costello and the Attractions toured America from July to September 1982. The singer boasted a more friendly on-stage demeanor compared to previous tours, including a stunt in which, during the encore of the show that coincided with his 28th birthday, he appeared in a full gorilla suit. The setlists embraced funk and R&B flavours and mostly consisted of material from Get Happy!!, Trust and Imperial Bedroom, as well as covers and old hits. He received backlash from fans who only wanted to hear older hits, which challenged him; he had previously rejected fan requests. Additionally, the studio craft of Imperial Bedroom meant the tracks, particularly "...And in Every Home", "Beyond Belief" and "Man Out of Time", were harder to play live. Despite the massive critical success of Imperial Bedroom, its modest commercial performance forced Costello to reevaluate his musical style. Columbia, remaining eager for another Armed Forces, showed little interest in the artist's less commercial works. By 1982, Costello had garnered a loyal fanbase, largely through his own merits, but 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 briefly toured Britain from mid-September to early October, road-testing several new songs that would appear on 1983's Punch the Clock. ==Retrospective appraisal==

In later decades, Imperial Bedroom has received acclaim as one of Costello's best records, with some proclaiming it his masterpiece. On its 40th anniversary, Allison Rapp of Ultimate Classic Rock stated that Imperial Bedroom was one of Costello's most mature attempts at wrestling with one's existentialism. The production has been praised for its intricacy, offering a listening experience that rewards repeated listens. Others have argued the album has aged well and highlight its wordplay, Bruce himself considered it Costello and the Attractions' best record: "We were all throwing in musical ideas." In his book The Words and Music of Elvis Costello, Perone contends that the LP demonstrated that the band could thrive in a more musically expansive environment compared to previous albums. Actor Robert Downey Jr. named Imperial Bedroom his favourite album of all time in 2005. Speaking to Uncut, he stated: Imperial Bedroom has not been without its detractors, particularly regarding the production. Writing for Blender magazine, Douglas Wolk stated that the "hyperdense songwriting" and elaborate orchestrations make for a difficult listening experience, 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. Over two decades later, Slant Magazine listed the album at number 59 in a similar 2012 list. 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". Three years later, the album was also included by Ultimate Classic Rock in their list of the 100 best rock albums of the 1980s. In 1998, readers of Q magazine named it the 96th greatest album ever. Five years later in 2003, Rolling Stone placed Imperial Bedroom at number 166 on list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list. The album was also voted number 321 in the third edition of writer Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000), and included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. ==Reissues==

Imperial Bedroom was first released on CD through Columbia and Demon Records in January 1986. 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 sessions as Matrix Studios in February 1982. The additional material received a positive mention by David Cavanagh in Q. ==Track listing==

All songs written by Elvis Costello, except where noted. Original album Side one • "Beyond Belief" – 2:34 • "Tears Before Bedtime" – 3:02 • "Shabby Doll" – 4:48 • "The Long Honeymoon" – 4:15 • "Man Out of Time" – 5:26 • "Almost Blue" – 2:50 • "...And in Every Home" – 3:23 Side two • "The Loved Ones" – 2:48 • "Human Hands" – 2:43 • "Kid About It" – 2:45 • "Little Savage" – 2:37 • "Boy With a Problem" (lyrics: Costello, Chris Difford) – 2:12 • "Pidgin English" – 3:58 • "You Little Fool" – 3:11 • "Town Cryer" – 4:16 1994 bonus tracks All tracks produced by Elvis Costello. • "From Head to Toe" (Smokey Robinson) – 2:34 • "The World of Broken Hearts" (Mort Shuman, Doc Pomus) – 3:01 • "Night Time" (Patrick Chambers) – 2:52 • "Really Mystified" (Tony Crane, John Gustafson) – 2:03 • "I Turn Around" (Demo) – 2:09 • "Seconds of Pleasure" (Version 2 of "The Invisible Man") – 3:43 • "The Stamping Ground" (Demo) – 3:09 • "Shabby Doll" (Early version) – 4:18 • "Imperial Bedroom" (Demo) – 2:47 2002 bonus disc • "The Land of Give and Take" (Early version of "Beyond Belief") – 3:05 • "Tears Before Bedtime" (Alternate version) – 3:03 • "Man Out of Time" (Alternate version) – 3:43 • "Human Hands" (Early version) – 2:44 • "Kid About It" (Alternate version) – 3:18 • "Little Savage" (Alternate version) – 3:07 • "You Little Fool" (Alternate version) – 2:59 • "Town Cryer" (Fast version) – 2:15 • "Little Goody Two Shoes" (Alternate version of "Inch by Inch") – 3:10 • "The Town Where Time Stood Still" (Alternate version) – 2:57 • "...And in Every Home" (Rehearsal) – 3:12 • "I Turn Around" – 2:09 • "From Head to Toe" (Robinson) – 2:34 • "The World of Broken Hearts" (Shuman, Pomus) – 3:01 • "Night Time" (Chambers) – 2:52 • "Really Mystified" (Crane, Gustafson) – 2:03 • "The Stamping Ground" – 3:09 • "Shabby Doll" (Demo version) – 4:18 • "Man Out of Time" (Demo version) – 3:27 • "You Little Fool" (Demo version) – 3:11 • "Town Cryer" (Demo version) – 3:03 • "Seconds of Pleasure" (Demo version) – 3:19 • "Imperial Bedroom" – 2:47 ==Personnel==

Credits adapted from AllMusic: • Elvis Costello – vocals, guitar, piano • Steve Nieve – piano, organ, orchestrations, harpsichord, accordion, guitar on "Tears Before Bedtime" • Bruce Thomas – bass • Pete Thomas – drums Production • Geoff Emerick – producer • Jon Jacobs – assistant producer • Daniel Hersch – mastering • David P. Bailey – photography • Barney Bubbles – cover design ==Charts==