Imperial Bedroom is an album that has Elvis Costello ( Declan MacManus) at the top of his game as a songwriter. It's true that the album contains very few of his hits but every song is good regardless.  What I find striking about  Imperial Bedroom is how many different styles EC attempts to write in, we get Jazz ( Almost Blue ), Pop ( The Loved Ones ) Surrealist Rhyme ( Man out of Time ) it almost like a `master-class' in post Beatles songwriting.  By the end of the album (I would say the last 7 songs) each song tops the last getting more and  more melodious and clever until a wonderful crescendo with Town Crier, one of my all time favorite album closers.  Beautiful!  The band is also in top form with Steve Naive creating some the best arrangements in rock since the Beatles Abbey Road (comparison intended).  To make things even more  Beatlesque and masterful the album was produced by Geoff Emerick, the Beatles engineer from many of their masterworks.  Of course the strings on And in every Home are great but I really love his piano playing on The Loved Ones.  Whenever I hear that track I am reminded of the Scherzo from Schubert's Trout Quintet which Naive may have been quoting musically.