When this album came out in 1982, it was a sonic, lyrical, and musical revelation for Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Time has not diminished it. Geoff Emerick's elegant production affords the Attractions a chance to  truly demonstrate their amazing musical chops: Pete Thomas's exquisite,  never overdone drumming; bassist Bruce Thomas melodically galavanting  "up the thin bits" a la Macca; and king of the keyboard jungle  Steve Nieve flexing his musical muscle with tantalizing orchestral  arrangements. This was also the first Elvis album to print the lyrics, but  without punctuation or traditional spacing. In hindsight, this made the  sleeve--yes, we're talking vinyl here--an unplugged interactive experience.  This always was the best-sounding Costello album, but Rykodisc's version  betters the Columbia and Demon editions in that regard AND adds no less  than nine bonus tracks of b-sides, demos, and unreleased songs. Without a  doubt the finest and most musically well-rounded album this quartet ever  made. That's not a slight to all their other fine albums, but this was  their Pepper. They finally had the time and budget to make what they  wanted, and they came through with flying colors. Let's just hope the world  doesn't forget about Imperial Bedroom. Anyway, it will always be our little  secret treasure.