Elvis Costello's 40 best songs

4 - Man Out of Time (Imperial Bedroom, 1982) 

Elvis Costello told songwriter.com: "At the time of Imperial Bedroom, I came to terms with the fact that I was sacrificing the power of certain songs to this mad pursuit of tempo. Everything had to be delivered forcefully. I don’t know whether it was just a natural process or, literally, cumulative exhaustion of what were very intense years. Man Out of Time is the one time I said, 'No, stop. Let’s play this at the right tempo.' And we went for this bigger, more open sound. I think it’s a really good record. A lot of songs are about the sort of disgust with your own self. There were a lot of things that I wasn’t very happy with during that time. I wanted songs to blow up the world. There was a famous political scandal in England going on then. It all sort of got wrapped up in the song. Sometimes a song will have a personal meaning and a public meaning. Man Out of Time is one of those." Costello is pictured here performing his Spinning Songbook gigs, a neat Costello touring gimmick in which a garish wheel of fortune dictates the set list, frequently spun by a celebrity MC, which has included Tom Waits. 

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