Imperial Pollroom

Lots of fantastic songs to vote for here: "Almost Blue", "You Little Fool", "Man Out Of Time", "The Loved Ones", "Boy With a Problem"....

But it is "The Long Honeymoon", one of his best ever songs!

I didn't realize there were any songs on this after "Beyond Belief."

"...And In Every Home" is a wonder. But true, a lot of other gems here.

Imperial Boredom, lol. The second side is Costello boilerplate. "Beyond Belief" is somepin special though.

i'd pick "pidgin english" not just as the best thing on here, but one of e.c.'s all-time best. and bruce thomas' bass playing on this thing is fucking brilliant; in fact, i'll go so far as to say that it's nearly as significant a voice on the record as elvis'.

"you little fool" gets points for referencing cheap trick's "voices" ("imaginaaaaationnnn")

"Almost Blue", only because The Reputation's version slays me every time.

Not a favourite. Slightly drunk and voted The Loved Ones after singing some choruses to myself, but realised almost immediately it should have been Beyond Belief or Man Out of Time.

Man Out of Time. This album is irritating, cannot listen to it all the way through. maybe the beginning of the end of Interesting Elvis Era.

This was the start of the era when Elvis would make really sophisticated music. It didn't always turn out good, but at its best - as on "Imperial Bedroom", "Spike" and "Brutal Youth" - it was better than his 70s output even.

Elvis Costello wrote great songs already in the 70s, which alone made three fantastic albums, but it wasn't until later that those fantastic and sophisticated tunes got ambitious and sophisticated arrangements to go with them. This started on "Imperial Bedroom" and production-wise it was perfected on "Brutal Youth".

Brutal Youth is a very good record, yes, but I don't pair it with this one style-wise at all.

"Man Out of Time" pwnz

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Man Out Of Time for me

Curious to see the reuslts of this one. Hope Kid About it gets at least a LITTLE love...

You Little Fool today! You Little Fool tomorrow! You Little Fool forevermore!!!

of all reasons to hate on Geir, his propensity for punny poll thread titles is really the most valid.

I went with "...And In Every Home". I got this record when I was really into E6 and that whole scene was happening, and critics would mention Imperial Bedroom as a key influence. So I was pretty disappointed to find that it wasn't that great, and wasn't nearly as baroque as what I'd been looking for (got the Left Banke and that was more of what I wanted). So for that reason, "...And In Every Home" was the only one that really caught my fancy, then and now.

any critic listing imperial bedroom as a key influence on e6 probably hasn't heard much of either.

yeah totally

Another 'Man Out of Time' vote - with 'Beyond Belief' and '...And In Every Home' close behind.

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