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Blood & Chocolate

Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Blood & Chocolate Audio CD

A fair review of the Elvis Costello & the Attractions "Blood & Chocolate" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Elvis Costello & the Attractions reviews here, or go back to the Elvis Costello & the Attractions tabs.

Band: Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Title: Blood & Chocolate
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-05-01
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

One of Declan's many masterpieces....
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). . . .

THE PLACE WHERE THEY TAKE YOUR SPINE...
Welcome to "the place where they take your spine & turn it into soap flakes". .

Costello has always been angry, he built his reputation on it. But on BLOOD & CHOCOLATE, all kid gloves are off. Those great pop hooks & bitter turns of phrase are there, but here he deliberately keeps things as ugly as possible. Playing almost in mockery of stuff like "Oliver's Army". It's the sonic equivalent of burning oneself in effigy. Smothered in decidedly claustrophobic production, the whole album sounds as if Costello is hell bent on nailing The Attractions kicking & screaming into his own coffin.

"Uncomplicated" clangs in like a ringside bell. One immediately gets the sense that everyone's playing in the dark, pissed as hell, determined to beat any semblance of melody into a pulp. Steve Neive hits the Wulitzer like a drunken carny. Pete Thomas seems to be pounding on the decapitated heads of those he hates. As if in spiteful opposition, Bruce Thomas plays as if he's creeping up to push the shiv in. As for Costello, he gleefully lives up to the self-deprecating nickname "little hands of concrete", spitting out his lyrics as if he couldn't stand the taste of them.

In short, everyone seems to be hell bent on playing their instruments as if they were billy clubs, flogging the same damn horse. This is particualry evident on the likes of "Tokyo Storm Warning" & "Honey Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?". Costello has never sounded so pissed off.

Elsewhere, the atmosphere could only be described as perverse. "Poor Napolean" reeks of a 10 day bender & "Anywhere You Hang Your Head" is the sonic equivalent of a suicidal hangover.

A major highlight is "I Want You". Easily one of the creepiest & most powerful songs Costello & Co. have ever recorded. I suppose the whole album could be summed up with the lines, "the truth can't hurt you, it's just like the dark/ it scares you witless but in time you see things clear & stark".

The most epic number has to be "Battered Old Bird". Despite it's maudlin tone, never has the boardinghouse come so close to Bedlam. The characters are more like inmates from an asylum than tenants. He's never recorded anything like it.

In the liner notes Costello confesses that B & C sounds like a "pissed off 32 year old divorcee's" answer to the likes of THIS YEAR'S MODEL. It also could be considered the sound of Costello not only breaking up with The Attractions, but himself as well. One listen to later albums like BRUTAL YOUTH & USELESS BEAUTY & it's evident they were far more than a mere backing band.

This album is definitely not for beginners or fickle fans who could never get beyond the first three albums. It's his TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT or SONGS OF LOVE & HATE. Separating the connoisseurs from the tourists.

.

Elvis' Seminal Work
I pull out Elvis once a day at minimum, but if I were asked to take only one of his works with me, I wouldn't hesitate to name Blood & Chocolate. I've been an Elvis fan since Day One, no matter what format he decided to take.

Here's a clue how much I enjoy it, my 38 yr old (as of 2007) Golden Crown Amazon parrot can sing every word of this album. Alice's favorite artists are Elvis, Jimi and INXS. But she only sings the words to the songs of Blood & Chocolate. Otherwise she's the opera diva with a loud voice, but no words.

I can't place my finger on what exactly it is about this album that hits me so, but it might be the deep lyrics and their meaning. Or it just might be that it's a great beat to belt out as you paint your blue chair.

Angry Candy
Nick Lowe came back on board and they threw subtlety to the wind for "Blood And Chocolate," Elvis Costello's angriest album since "This Year's Model. After the extremes of "King Of America," "Punch The Clock," and "Imperial Bedroom," Elvis Costello made what he probably suspected people would conceive of as a typical "Elvis Costello and the Attractions" album. " Fueled by his recent divorce and a few rancorous Hollywood romantic disasters, Elvis himself described the inspiration for most of this material as "Messing up my life so I could write stupid little songs about it. "

"I hope you're satisfied with what you've done. " That opening line sets the tone of "Uncomplicated," and the oncoming barrage for the album. EC unleashes wave after wave of vitriol backed by The Attractions' and Lowe's artful distortion. The distorted sound matches the emotional content of many of the songs, and one of Elvis' most brilliant performances of all time is here. On "I Want You," he drags you into a hellish confrontation that moves at half the album's general pace. With more than a passing nod to John Lennon and The Beatles' song of the same name, Elvis vents with derisive passion, till the sounds slowly drop away and with little more than the sound of him deeply breathing the title over and over, the song comes to a close.

"I Want You" is reason enough to have "Blood And Chocolate," but if you need more, there's the bizarre Dylanesque travelogue of "Tokyo Storm Warning. " Next to "Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)" from "Mighty Like A Rose," it's one of EC's weirdest songs and contains the wonderful line about the "Japanese Jesus Robots telling teenage fortunes. "

Perhaps it's in the fact that the recording of "Blood And Chocolate" was done as quickly as possible with as few takes as necessary, but for the most part, this was Elvis most relentless CD since "This Year's Model (With Bonus Disc). " Just don't let that stop you from getting this CD. . . it's a boxful of some very angry candy.

You can see a complete list of all Elvis Costello & the Attractions discography, or go back to the Elvis Costello & the Attractions tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.