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Elvis Costello has made a career of staying a step ahead of his audience. The 27-year-old began making albums just five years ago and has been churning them out as if he had a deadline to meet.
Imperial Bedroom is his sixth album.
He has also made a habit of teasing his listeners. He gives few interviews, shuns publicity and has refused to print lyrics on the album sleeves.
Until now, that is. On Imperial Bedroom he included them, all right, in one incredibly huge paragraph that's frustrating to try to read.
Another tease for his audience.
But the joke ends there. The music is solid, enthralling and in rock critic terminology, "accessible." (That means that more than just his established fans should like it, and he may even finally get some radio airplay.)
On Imperial Bedroom Costello is like a fly on the wallpaper in the bedroom of the world. He spies on us, tells our secrets and examines often painful little things in our everyday lives.
Costello makes his points in a subtle fashion here, something he hasn't always done in the past. His familiar driving beat is absent, but although most of the songs are ballads, the pace is varied. You might even call some of the tunes mellow. Credit should go to producer Geoff Emerick, who is best known as the Beatles' engineer.
It's quite a successful album; possibly his best, and certainly one of the year's best. It keeps growing and growing. I like it more and more each day.
It's also an album that should bring Costello a little closer to his audience. It should widen his audience, too, but then some of us have been waiting for Costello to become a star for a long time now.
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