Song of the Day: Elvis Costello & The Attractions “Beyond Belief”

In 1982, Elvis Costello stunned the music world with his seventh studio album, Imperial Bedroom. Completing a sequence of musical left turns taken in 1980-81 (the enthusiastic pop-soul of Get Happy!!, the ambitious, eclectic jazz-pop of Trust, and the surprising country stylings of Almost Blue), Imperial Bedroom is the most clear-eyed expression of Costello’s mercurial musicality. His label Columbia Records promoted the album with a single word, “Masterpiece?”

Costello chose to work with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick (who recently passed away on October 2nd at the age of 72) to lavish his finely-detailed McCartney-esque pop songs with layered post-psychedelia production. With The Attractions’ ensemble performance as a solid foundation, Emerick delivers his best post-Beatles production work: Imperial Bedroom is complex and bursting with musical ideas.

Album opener “Beyond Belief” is a fitting introduction and a breathtaking statement of intent. The textured pop of “Accidents Will Happen” (from 1978’s Armed Forces) serves as prototype of sorts. Costello’s previously immediately soaring pop vocal on “Accidents” stays grounded in an affected lilt on “Beyond Belief,” a controlled delivery of literate lyrics in a tightly wound melody that never repeats itself in traditional pop fashion. Set in an “almost empty gin palace,” Costello’s barfly addresses a beautiful young woman, interpreting her sweet smile as a malicious indifference.

Matched by The Attractions’ measured backing, the song floats along on Bruce Thomas’s single bass note, Steve Nieve’s keyboards, and Pete Thomas’s complex jazz rhythms. Only in the coda does the band surge forward like The Attractions of old, bringing a touch of punk aggression to the swirl of sound Emerick shaped for “Beyond Belief”. Masterpiece? A resounding yes.

 
Attesting to the power of great songwriting performed by a great band, here’s a searing, precise live rendition of “Beyond Belief” from 1983:

[Verse 1]
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
I hang around dying to be tortured
You’ll never be alone in the bone orchard
This battle with the bottle is nothing so novel
So in this almost empty gin palace
Through a two-way looking glass
You see your Alice
You know she has no sense
For all your jealousy
In a sense she still smiles very sweetly
Charged with insults and flattery
Her body moves with malice
Do you have to be so cruel to be callous
And now you find you fit this identikit completely
You say you have no secrets
And then leave discreetly

[Chorus]
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

[Verse 2]
My hands were clammy and cunning
She’s been suitably stunning
But I know there’s not a hope in Hades
All the laddies cat call and wolf whistle
So-called gentlemen and ladies
Dog fight like rose and thistle

[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
I’ve got a feeling
I’m going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief
I’ve got a feeling
I’m going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief