Album: Imperial Bedroom
Year: 1982
“Masterpiece?” adverted Columbia Records marketing department when Imperial Bedroom appeared, a provocation along the same lines as Epic Records declaring The Clash “The Only Band That Matters” way back in 1980.
My gut reaction then as now was “no.” Imperial Bedroom is the sound of Elvis Costello overthinking things, which — given how fucking smart he is — is kind of a surprise that it didn’t happen more often.
Still, if I thought that a lot of the arrangements were fussy and overcluttered, the songs that did break through to me are among my favorites he ever released. Like the nearly unstoppable “Beyond Belief,” which for a couple of dazzling minutes answers the “Masterpiece?” question with a resounding “yes!”
“Beyond Belief” starts quietly, with Pete Thomas’ hungover drums and Bruce Thomas walking-up-to-the-bar bass burbling underneath Elvis as he uses every one of his voices to sing nearly line:
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues
I’m just the oily slick
On the windup world of the nervous tick
In a very fashionable hovel
It’s all tension with no release in sight as Steve Nieve starts swirling around the music while Elvis references his old producer’s one big hit — asking “Do you have to be so cruel to be callous?” and not even bothering for an answer when suddenly, beamed directly from outer space, yet another Elvis breaks into the song:
I might make it California’s fault
Be locked in Geneva’s deepest vault
Just like the canals of Mars and the great barrier reef
I come to you beyond belief
But as fast as outer space Elvis shows up, he’s gone, and “Beyond Belief” is back to endlessly circling around itself. But now, it’s been broken, it’s been derailed, and you know that whatever’s coming next, it’s gonna change the course of the song once and for all.
And sure enough, not coming from outer space, but clearly heading there, “Beyond Belief” finally hits something even remotely recognizable as a chorus. But, of course, it’s really a coda:
I’ve got a feeling
I’m going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief
Whoa! Lemme hear that again!
I’ve got a feeling
I’m going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief
And again!
But it’s already fading. It’s getting away! Come back, you stupid coda! You were just getting to be even remotely normal and understandable, and now you’re leaving!
That right there folks, is how you open your most ambitious album to date: with a ground-breaking song that is ever-changing, unknowable and yet completely within your idiom.
“Beyond Belief”
“Beyond Belief” performed live in 1983
To underscore your point, it all happens in two and a half minutes. Along the way, you see your Alice.
I don’t think I can read fast enough to keep up.