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From the Vault...
11/09/1997
#550 |
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info
Elvis Costello &
The Attractions
"Imperial Bedroom"
© Rykdodisc Records
Rating:
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track listing
Beyond Belief
Tears Before Bedtime
Shabby Doll
The Long Honeymoon
Man Out Of Time
Almost Blue
...And In Every Home
The Loved Ones
Human Hands
Kid About It
Little Savage
Boy With A Problem
Pidgin English
You Little Fool
Town Cryer
From Head To Toe
The World Of
Broken Hearts
Night Time
Really Mystified
I Turn Around
Seconds Of Pleasure
The Scamping Ground
Shabby Doll
Imperial Bedroom
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Elvis Costello & The Attractions
"Imperial Bedroom"
Let's just say that I am a TRUE Elvis Costello fan!
When I first learned of Elvis, I was reading one of the local
newspaper articles on rock music. Of the articles, one was
about favorite rock albums. Costello's first album My Aim
Is True was listed as a must. Out of curiosity, I bought
the album; little did I know about him, and that this was his debut album.
After listening to it, I was hooked! I therefore picked up one of his greatest
hits compilations, and saying to myself, "I know that one!"
too many times, recognizing the many songs the minute I
heard them. Anyway, it was obvious that Costello had
quite a few albums under his belt, and more would follow.
One thing I realized is that when you start listening
to a greatest hits compilation, and you really enjoy it,
you often wonder about the other songs that didn't make the
greatest hits package. Especially when a performer has a
large collection of previous recorded material, and you have
purchased every album. One thing
about Greatest Hits compilations, they will throw an unreleased
tune or two, or even a brand new one, and you say in disbelief,
"Hey, I've got 99.9% of all these songs, and now I have to
waste my hard-earned cash for just a couple of new tunes?"
(The Van Halen Greatest Hits compilation comes to mind.
Elton John's is another. Do you think we'll ever see Candle
In The Wind 1997 on a future E.J. G.H. package?)
In Elvis Costello's case, he had so much material,
but so many songs had to be chosen for each album.
So, when Rykodisc reissued his albums in the 1990s,
not only did they release the original albums, they
included many unreleased tunes as bonus tracks! (They called
them Extended Plays). Imperial Bedroom contains 15
original songs, plus 9 extended play tunes (unreleased).
Costello's early albums were in the styles of new wave
punk and rock. Imperial Bedroom features Costello
in a new light, as he performs tunes in the areas of pop
(most often heard throughout) and (a little of) jazz.
Pop tunes like Beyond Belief, Man Out Of Time,
The Loved Ones and Little Savage captures Elvis
in a style that would later become his general pop music style.
Two songs, The Long Honeymoon and Almost Blue
have that definite lounge-jazz sound; where you can imagine
listening to these tunes in the corner of a smoky bar, seeing
Humphrey Bogart or Mickey Spillane/Stacey Keach's Mike Hammer
character socializing. ...And In Every Home is a tune
that really caught me by surprise -- it features a classical
orchestra backdrop -- I thought I was listening to one of those
famous classical composers, like Mozart, or something; very
impressive.)
From the Extended Play section, From Head To Toe is
a great, great tune! It has that early Beatles-que sound.
Another song in the Costello-pop style is
Night Time. And Really Mystified is a reminder
of a tune that could have easily matched the tunes heard on his debut
album. It really mystifies me how these three songs were overlooked,
and not included in the original Bedroom lineup, or any previous
release..
Imperial Bedroom is worth checking out. This album
defines Elvis Costello as one of the many performers in the ranks of
of pop music. This year (1997), Elvis Costello has just released
another greatest hits compilation, featuring his work with the Warner
Brothers label. In my opinion, you're better off just buying each original
album by him, because there will be songs you'll hear from an original
album that should of easily been included as part of a greatest hits album.
But you know how difficult that can be, especially when you
have such great material as Elvis Costello does.
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Review or any portion may not be reproduced
without written permission. Cover art is the
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Rykdodisc Records
and is used for reference purposes only.
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