Blood & Chocolate (With Bonus Disc) [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Elvis Costello

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 19, 2002)
• Original Release Date: February 19, 2002
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B00005Y1Y0
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #101,990 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

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

See all 11 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Leave My Kitten Alone

2. New Rhythm Method

3. Forgive her Anything

4. Crimes Of Paris (Alt. Version)

5. Uncomplicated (Alt. Version)

6. Battered Old Bird (Alt. Version)

7. Seven Day Weekend

8. Blue Chair (Alt. Version)

9. Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo

10. American Without Tears No. 2

See all 15 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"A pissed-off, 32-year-old divorcé's version of This Year's Model" is what Elvis Costello once called this 1986 noise-pop masterpiece. Following the foray into acoustic roots music that informed the heartbroken King of America, Costello immediately redubbed himself Napoleon Dynamite for songwriting and DIY-cover-painting credits, teamed again with the Attractions and producer Nick Lowe, and headed for the figurative garage. Spattered with bad love and strange dreams, nervy Beatles "tributes" (the deranged "I Want You" held the same end-of-side-1 place on the original LP as John Lennon's namesake ode to Yoko did on Abbey Road), and blurt after blurt of bent tunefulness, Blood & Chocolate was for all that an exceedingly artful, criminally ignored album. "Someday they'll probably make a movie out of all of this," Costello sings on the penultimate "Poor Napoleon." "There won't even have to be a murder, just a slow, dissolving kiss." Rhino's remastered edition adds a disc of bonus tracks, including the fabulous Sir Douglas Quintet homage "Baby's Got a Brand New Hairdo" and five solo acoustic performances of soul and country nuggets that bring the set full circle to King's stylistic core. --Rickey Wright

Product Description

Rhino Records expanded reissue, completely remastered and packaged with a bonus disc of rarities. Bonus disc content -'Leave My Kitten Alone', 'New Rhythm Method, 'Forgive Her Anything' (new version), 'Crimes Of Paris' (electric version), 'Uncomplicated' (alternate version), 'Battered Old Bird' (alternate version), 'Seven Day Weekend' - Elvis Costello with Jimmy Cliff, 'Blue Chair' (single version), 'Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo', 'American Without Tears No. 2' (twilight version), 'All These Things', 'Pouring Water On A Drowning Man', 'Running Out Of Fools', 'Tell Me Right Now' & 'Lonely Blue Boy'. 2002.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Underrated and Incredible, March 13, 2002

By	Timothy P. Young (Rawlins, WY, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

As an EC fan...this is possibly the most punk album by the punk/new wave pioneer. True, it came out in 1986, but it's a raw, live-in-the-studio (mostly) rock band playing songs...

It works, better than he thinks it does.

Hard driving, desperate rock and roll from EC and the Attractions. Steve Nieve's organ punctuates madly and cascades it's way over Bruce Thomas's bass lines, creating a melody like a disastrous waterfall that pours over Pete Thomas's rock solid drumming.

The result is a discordant, spartan proceeding that has some of EC's best songs and the Attractions' best playing. Words: : Well, here's a boy if ever there was/Who's gonna do great things/I guess that's what they all say/And that's how the trouble begins/I've seen them rise and fall and through their big deals and smalls/And he better have a dream that goes beyond 4 walls."

Lyric brilliance, vocal emotiveness unrivaled by a damn good soul singer, and awesome musicality..buy it or die trying...fantastic album.

And the bonus CD... WELL! Great stuff, alternate takes of album tracks (that make me trust EC's judgement) and some demos, and some B-sides...WELL! A non-fan doesn't need any of it, but for someone who has followed a career, it's invaluable...luckily, RHINO is not charging for the second CD..buy them, realize them, enjoy them...this is songwriting at it's best!

Trust me....this is worth your time.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT RE-WORK BY RHINO, BUT..., January 23, 2005

By	BOB (LOS ANGELES, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I will defer to all the laudatory comments listed here.

I had one comment, however, regarding this new version by Rhino vs. the previous, also-excellent version by Rykodisc.

The final track on the Ryko CD was "A Town Called Big Nothing (Really Big Nothing)", a wonderful, 5-minute+ little gem that Costello originally wrote for a Alex Cox film that featured some amazing Spanish guitar playing by Costello, accompanied by his father on trumpet.

However, it is NOT included on the new Rhino CD. This is a curious and unfortunate omission, so all of you Costello fans out there who are rushing out to replace your Ryko discs, FYI!

Perhaps Rhino will include it on one of the future Costello releases.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Must Draw Blood, to taste Chocolate, January 22, 2003

By	Amy Douglas (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Okay, first of all to start, I am the hugst Elvis Costello fan, and I had worn this disk down to a nub (had it on vinyl first kiddies...)hence my travels to CD Now to get a new copy. It's really very simple. If you want to hear an album that truly cuts through the muck, and gets to the bone of the emotions regarding the complications of love, this is a MUST HAVE.

There are lots of controversies as to who some of these songs may be about. If anyone has read Bebe Buell's book Rebel Heart, then you may have read about her torrid affair with Elvis Costello during his first marriage to Mary, and hence her need to abort his child, which consequently ended their affair in a most cutting and bitter way. In fact, she claims the title of the album is devoted to the fact that when she'd be on her period, he'd buy her chocolate bars, and say "Blood...Chocolate."

Whether or not she was the intention behind possibly the most cutting, heartwrenching, gut-twisting love song ever written, "I Want You," certainly this album is Elvis at his best, and pulling no punches. No one, least of all himself, is safe from his stinging, accute verbal assault on this album. People who think they are honest songwrites, should have a listen to this before they attempt their next piece.

A MUST HAVE.