I've been listening to Elvis Costello's autobiography Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink on my morning bike rides recently, and yesterday listened to the chapter detailing the making of this album. It's a book I've owned for some years and never got round to reading, the hardback is too heavy to hold at bedtime, and to pack when going away!
I bought this album on vinyl at the time, but for some reason listened far more to side one than side two. Let's find out why.
The album opens with a classic first line in Beyond Belief - "history repeats the old conceits" and Costello opens this lovely song over a hugely understated backing which really gives the song room, and is a great start. Tears Before Bedtime is a typical Costello bouncy song with darker lyrics, but listen to Steve Nieve's organ (ooer Mrs!) swirling under the vocals, just magical. Shabby Doll again kicks off with minimal accompaniment (just a muted guitar) showing Costello as a fine vocalist, before the band kick in, tight as ever. "There's a girl in this dress, there's always a girl in distress", Costello's punning wordplay is as sharp as ever, and Nieve's piano slips in underneath with the harmony line, coming more to the fore as the song progresses. Long Honeymoon has a Paris jazz feel to it, and yet again, a lovely Costello song is made special by Nieve's piano and accordion.
Man Out Of Time opens with a scream and a guitar riff, and it's another lovely narrative song, with the shorter ballad Almost Blue gently easing us towards the climax of side one, the heavily orchestrated and quite magnificent And In Every Home, a triumph both of Costello's songwriting and Nieve's arrangement.
Let's metaphorically flip the disc over, and open up the second half with the jaunty The Loved Ones, followed by Human Hands, similarly upbeat musically and cryptic lyrically. Kid About It is another slower, gentle song enhanced by Nieve's piano work, but it's back to the full Attractions experience with Little Savage, a great song with a very Armed Forces feel. Boy With A Problem, co-authored with Chris Difford, is probably my least favourite track on the album, a two minute ballad and fairly ordinary by Costello's high standards, followed by Pidgin English, similarly not as stand out as much else on the album, and You Little Fool which also isn't a classic. But there's a treat to finish with Town Cryer, the slow version with orchestration, which is a fine conclusion, full of the wordplay evident on this album - "teddy bear tender and tragically hip", a little boy lost in a big man's shirt", "a little down with a lifetime to go".
My version is the deluxe 2CD version, so a quick sprint through the bonus tracks. There are early versions, alternatives and demos of much of the main album, interesting and often pointing to why the song ended up as it did. Man Out of Time continues in the frantic way the album version opens, and has nothing like the impact. The fast version of Town Cryer (which I knew from the NME Mighty Reel tape) sounds more exciting than the album version, with cost of the wordplay sounding more thrown away. Little Goody Two Shoes is a pleasant old fashioned rock'n'roll number, The Town Where Time Stood Still and I Turn Around simple enjoyable songs which didn't make the album, and it's interesting to hear the 'naked' And In Every Home, which to my mind is still a great song without the elaborate orchestration (but better with it). There's a great version of Smokey Robinson's from Head To Toe, which would later appear on the Out Of Our Idiot compilation, as did The Stamping Ground, which feels to struggle musically, and title track Imperial Bedroom, which would have been a fitting addition to the original eponymous album.
Based on the first half of the album this would be a genuine 5 star contender, but I don't feel the second half matches the standard set in the first half, with a couple of tracks which are, by comparison, ordinary. But it's definitely a great album, and should be in everyone's Elvis Top 5
4* - Some of Costello's finest songwriting combined with the Attractions at their musical peak on this album. Listen to it!
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