ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS – IMPERIAL BEDROOM LP – Nr MINT A1/B1 UK 1982 NEW WAVE

Elvis Costello and The Attractions – Imperial Bedroom
(F-Beat Records  1982  XXLP17)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing

Sleeve & Die Cut Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition
– a little wear to corners of outer

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), better known by his stage name Elvis Costello, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as part of London’s pub rock scene in the early 1970s and later became associated with the first wave of the British punk and new wave movement that emerged in the mid-to-late 1970s. His critically acclaimed debut album, My Aim Is True, was released in 1977. Shortly after recording it, he formed the Attractions as his backing band. His second album, This Year’s Model, was released in 1978, and was ranked number 11 by Rolling Stone on its list of the best albums from 1967–1987. His third album, Armed Forces, was released in 1979, and features his most successful single “Oliver’s Army”. His first three albums all appeared on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Costello and the Attractions toured and recorded together for the better part of a decade, though differences between them caused a split by 1986. Much of Costello’s work since has been as a solo artist, though reunions with members of the Attractions have been credited to the group over the years. Steeped in wordplay, the vocabulary of Costello’s lyrics is broad. His music has drawn on many diverse genres; one critic described him as a “pop encyclopaedia”, able to “reinvent the past in his own image”.

He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male Singer. In 2003, Costello and the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Costello has co-written several original songs for motion pictures, including “God Give Me Strength” from Grace of My Heart (1996, with Burt Bacharach) and “The Scarlet Tide” from Cold Mountain (2003, with T-Bone Burnett). For the latter, Costello was nominated (along with Burnett) for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media.

Imperial Bedroom is a 1982 album by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. It was the second Costello album, after Almost Blue, not produced by Nick Lowe. Production duties were handled by Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. “I wanted to try a few things in the studio that I suspected would quickly exhaust Nick’s patience,” as Costello put it in the liner notes to the 1994 Rykodisc reissue.

It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. In 1998 readers of Q magazine named it the 96th greatest album ever. In 1989, it was ranked #38 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 166 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #59 on its list of “Best Albums of the 1980s”. The album reached number 6 in the UK charts and number 30 in the U.S., but the singles were less successful. “You Little Fool” and “Man Out of Time” each briefly appeared in the British top 60, but neither charted in America.

Track listing

All songs written by Elvis Costello unless otherwise indicated.

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

8. “The Loved Ones” – 2:48
9. “Human Hands” – 2:43
10. “Kid About It” – 2:45
11. “Little Savage” – 2:37
12. “Boy with a Problem” (music: Costello; lyrics: Chris Difford; additional lyrics: Costello) – 2:12
13. “Pidgin English” – 3:58
14. “You Little Fool” – 3:11
15. “Town Cryer” – 4:16

Personnel

• Elvis Costello – vocals, guitar, piano
• Steve Nieve – piano, organ, harpsichord, accordion, guitar on “Tears Before Bedtime,” orchestrations
• Bruce Thomas – bass
• Pete Thomas – drums