Audio CD review:
Elvis Costello - Blood & Chocolate (With Bonus Disc)

Elvis Costello - Blood & Chocolate (With Bonus Disc)

Band: Elvis Costello Title: Blood & Chocolate (With Bonus Disc) Rating: Release Date: 2002-02-19 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Uncomplicated 2: I Hope You're Happy Now 3: Tokyo Storm Warning 4: Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head 5: I Want You 6: Honey, Are You Straight Or Are You Blind? 7: Blue Chair 8: Battered Old Bird 9: Crimes Of Paris 10: Poor Napoleon 11: Next Time Round 12: Leave My Kitten Alone 13: New Rhythm Method 14: Forgive her Anything 15: Crimes Of Paris (Alt. Version) 16: Uncomplicated (Alt. Version) 17: Battered Old Bird (Alt. Version) 18: Seven Day Weekend 19: Blue Chair (Alt. Version) 20: Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo 21: American Without Tears No. 2 22: All These Things 23: Pouring Water On A Drowning Man 24: Running Out Of Fools 25: Tell Mr Right Now 26: Lonely Blue Boy

Nothing Sweeter than Blood & Chocolate The original Attractions sound of This Years Model and Get Happy, absent for the last few albums, is back in its full, guitar throwing glory under the guidance of friend and producer Nick Lowe. Recorded at a time of admitted great strife within the EC/ Attractions camp Blood and Chocolate is chock full of EC's usual pop masterpieces (Blue Chair), cruel indictments of middle class culture (Tokyo Storm Warning), and stark and brutal confessions of love and humiliation (I Want You). The instrumentation doesn't waver much from the Attractions basic line up of guitar, bass, keyboards and drums with Nick the Knife adding acoustic guitar to beef up the predominately live in the studio recording. And though, as the liner notes and various tales of the time proclaim, the group was coming apart at the seams the tension seems to work. The bonus disc is an Elvis fans delight, filled with neat little outtakes, cuts that didn't make the final album and solo performances of songs that would eventually end up on Kojak Variety. ". . . while the KKK convention are all stranded in the bar/ they wear hoods and carry shotguns in the main streets of Montgomery/ but they're as helpless here as babies as they're only here on holiday" . Declan MacManus rules.... I have loved the fact that Costello has changed over the years, trying ever musical style known to man, writing probably around 1000 songs or so, and has never really made a godawful album (Goodbye Cruel World, generally considered his worst album, has some good tunes on it). This, along with Imperial Bedroom, is my favorite Costello/MacManus album (I actually prefer his real name, Declan MacManus). Declan released 2 albums in 1986, King of America (another masterpiece), and this one. This one is much rawer and more powerful. The opener, Uncomplicated, is superb. The next one, I Hope You're Happy Now, is cool, too, but the 2 masterpieces are Tokyo Storm Warning, a breathless, amazing piece of wordplay and music, and the song I Want You is one of the best songs about love (and anger) I've ever heard. Costello has been really amazing throughout his career. He can still turns the anger on, but it never defined him as an artist or as a human being. He's not stuck in arrested development, like some rockers can be. He continues to grow as an artist. He may have started out as a punk, but he isn't a punk, and honestly, never really was. He has a ton of depth that really comes out in his music. Declan rules. . . For the record, the name "Napoleon Dynamite" was a pseudonym used by Declan on this album. It was appropriated for the movie years later, even though the director claimed he never heard of this album (which I doubt personally). Call me stupid This is a good as anything Elvis has ever released. Why did I put this album aside? Why did I think this was a bad record? I guess I was just plain stupid. I think sometimes the best albums sound awful the first time you hear them. Why is that so? Because something worth listening to takes some effort from the fan. I have also rediscovered Spike, another brilliant recording that I thought was a mistake. . I love Elvis Costello... . . And because I love Elvis Costello, I love this album. It's super sweet. Good cleaning-the-house-music. Also good for game nights with friends and wine. Upbeat and sort of goofy. . . and who can resist Elvis' lyrical mastery? No one, that's who. Great CD My favorites are Aim Is True, Almost Blue, which I've had since their initial LP release, and King of America, which is new to me and is SO great. I don't know THAT much about Elvis Costello, but I recently bought his whole catalog on CD except for just a few recent releases. Blood And Chocolate is real nice to listen to. There's certainly nothing wrong with it, like there is something kind of wrong with "Spike". The essays by Elvis Costello on the Rhino discs are great. . You can see a complete list of all Elvis Costello discography, or go back to the Elvis Costello tabs