Blood & Chocolate

Elvis Costello

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 1, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 1986
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hip-O Records
• ASIN: B000OHZJN2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,247 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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." --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elvis' Seminal Work, December 10, 2007

By	Kevin C. Brown "KevAZ" (Fountain Hills, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Blood And Chocolate (MP3 Download)

I've been an Elvis fan since Day One, no matter what format he decided to take. 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.

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE PLACE WHERE THEY TAKE YOUR SPINE..., February 27, 2008

By	K. H. Orton (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Angry Candy, May 5, 2007

By	Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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. 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." 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.