Imperial Bedroom is a 1982 album by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. It was the second Costello album, following Almost Blue, not produced by Nick Lowe, the production duties handled by erstwhile Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. "I wanted to try a few things in the studio that I suspected would quickly exhaust Nick's patience," as Costello put it in the liner notes to the 1994 Rykodisc reissue.
It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. In 1998 readers of Q magazine named it the 96th greatest album ever. In 1989, it was ranked #38 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80's. In 2003, the album was ranked number 166 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album reached number 6 in the U.K. charts and number 30 in the U.S., but none of the singles charted.
"Imperial Bedroom" is also the title song from this album, although it was cut from the original release and only included on the expanded reissue editions.
The cover painting, titled "Snakecharmer & Reclining Octopus" by Barney Bubbles (but credited to "Sal Forlenza") is a pastiche of "Three Musicians" by Pablo Picasso, and letters on the zipper-like creatures in the upper right spell "PABLO SI".
