Imperial Bedroom
"Masterpiece?" was the word--in Columbia Records' ad campaign, anyway--whenImperial Bedroomappeared in 1982. As the album plays, though, the emphasis occasionally seems better placed on the question mark. This is a very good, sometimes dazzling album, but as a heart wrencher it holds not a candle toKing of America, and as a singular example of elegant pop craft it can't top Costello's 1998 collaboration with Burt Bacharach,Painted from Memory(not too shabby as a heart wrencher itself, come to think of it). Of course, there are plenty of small miracles, and one huge one in the mind-bending "Beyond Belief."Imperial Bedroomis gorgeous more often than not, but in a way, there's more heart in the simple Smokey Robinson and the Miracles cover, "From Head to Toe," that appears as a bonus track on the Rykodisc edition.--Rickey Wright