Customer Reviews

Blood & Chocolate

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

How is Elvis Costello like Woody Allen? Just about everyone admits they're great artists, but most people only pay attention to their early work and ignore more recent output. It's their loss. By the time he produced "Blood and Chocolate," Elvis Costello was already being taken for granted and ignored by most listeners. He repaid their neglect with one of his finest hours. This is the last howling hurrah of the original, "punk/new wave" Elvis Costello, and he and the Attractions, with an able assist from Nick Lowe, do themselves proud. Song for song, for variety and quality, this album is hard to beat. You want slam-bang rockers? Try "Uncomplicated," "Honey Are you Straight . . ." or the free-associating maelstrom of "Tokyo Storm Warning." You want near-perfect pop? Try "Blue Chair" or "Home is Anywhere You Hang Your Head." You want to be left breathless with wonder? Sit close to the speakers for "I Want You." Get it, listen to it, tell your friends. You'll thank yourself and they'll thank you.

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.

I will defer to all the laudatory comments listed here. I had one observation, 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 originally writen for a Alex Cox film that featured Costello's father on trumpet.

However, it is NOT included on the new Rhino CD. This is a curious and unfortunate omission, so FYI to all who are considering replacing the Ryko's. Perhaps Rhino will include it on one of the future Costello releases.

(UPDATE: The track never made it to any of the Rhino releases. It now only appears on The Singles Volume 3 set.)

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.

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.

Why did I spend hard-earned money on this? The remaster doesn't sound any better than the Ryko remaster; the liner notes are almost the same as the Ryko liner notes; it lacks "A Town Called Big Nothing," which is a great track (that preceded each of his 1996 concerts) that appeared on the Ryko edition; and the "new" unreleased tracks are not that interesting.

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 describes 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."

Oddly enough, this is one of the rare releases in the Rhino series to which the bonus disc is something of a letdown. Aside from the fully produced songs "Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo" and "Seven Day Weekend" (with Jimmy Cliff), the demos here are less than revelatory. 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, the alternate takes add little to their counterparts. The last four covers are interesting in that Elvis was obviously charting the course for what would eventually become "Kojak Varieties." Just don't let that stop you from getting this CD...it's a boxful of some very angry candy.

Costello's most devastating and essential album. Capping the first decade of his career and hell bent on sifting through every bit of wreckage from the same, he had in fact already turned his back on much of the turmoil by the time he recorded this. Ending his first mariage and affairs with fashion models provided him with plenty to seethe about, and the world is better for it. He had married his current wife Cait O'Riordan (bassist for the Pogues) and, as he writes in the new notes, "I wouldn't have to screw up my life anymore just so I could write stupid little songs about it". But as a final, defiant blast of noise and melody, this album couldn't get any better. While I'm certainly not one of the people who claim he's done nothing worthwhile since, I'm sincerely hoping that the forthcoming "When I Was Cruel" is his first since this one to have just an iota of its destructive force.
While it's largely comprised of charging rockers, it is, perversely, the mid tempo ballads (I Want You, Battered Old Bird) that cut the deepest. The surreally Dylanesque travelogue of Tokyo Storm Warning is both one of the catchiest and most defiantly uncommercial moments on the album (of course it was the lead-off single). Costello rages like a man obsessed (he is) and seems determined to rip his throat and heart (or, more frequently, someone elses') out on every song. In my book, this tops This Year's Model by a mile. The new bonus disc is worth the purchase alone for the closing sequence of five solo cover performances.

You read all the reviews and stuff and you watch the Live In Memphis DVD, hear "Blue Chair" live, buy Cruel Smile and hear "Uncomplicated" live, and you like the raw energy and power and all of those performances and so you figure that's what this album sounds like. I thought this would be like the perfect Elvis album, even after getting King Of America, and so I bought it. Turns out it wasn't as I expected. This really isn't too hard rocking at all. I'm no metal head or anything, I draw the hard rock line at AC/DC, any distortion after that is just noise, like Metallica. AC/DC is just good hard rock, and I didn't expect this album to be Highway To Hell, but I figured it'd reflect the live versions of the two songs and the bitterness of the Goodbye Cruel World bonus disc version of "I Hope You're Happy Now". But this is really nothing like that. "Uncomplicated" doesn't feature the bite of either of the live versions I've heard: as said, Cruel Smile, and when I saw him on the 29th of July this year. "Blue Chair" is melodic, almost acoustic pop music. "I Hope You're Happy Now" isn't as sarcastic or angry as I imagined it and think would sound better that way. "Tokyo Storm Warning" probably comes closest to the sound I imagined, but it still doesn't seem as rowdy as I was hoping. I've no problem with the slower songs really, I was just wanting the ones I'd heard rock live to rock here. Track by track:

"Uncomplicated" - I didn't like this version at all the first time I heard it after the live versions, but listening to the album several times in one night it started to grow on me. I still miss the excellent guitar solo that trails off into the rest of the sounds until it's hard to tell what's going on. Also, it's not sung quite as good this way.

"I Hope You're Happy Now" - As said, not so angry as I wanted it, Elvis said the couple years going by put some humor in it, but I didn't think it would work as a funny song. It's like pop music here! I have yet to hear a live version, but I have high hopes.

"Tokyo Storm Warning" - This one's a gem. You'd think a song with one chord until the short last line of the chorus where it finally changes would get repetitive. Repetitive, technically yes, but boring or tiresome, not in the slightest. Excellent song with excellent lyrics and imagery. Everyone likes to use the word 'travelogue' whenever possible, so I guess I should too. The best travelogue since "I'm Mandy, Fly Me".

"Home Is Anywhere You Hang your Head" - This song speaks to me in ways few have - almost literally, but that's another story. As I said, I don't mind the slower songs on this album not being power ballads, because that would just suck. I like this song a lot.

"I Want You" - So many fans rave about this being so great. You ain't heard nothing if you ain't heard it live. I've got the I Never Talked To Jim Reeves CD, and that version absolutely murders this one. It just doesn't have the exceptional acoustic intro which is the most redeeming thing about this version.

"Honey Are You Straight Or Are You Blind" - This is actually practically the same song as "Mystery Dance" if you look at it musically, which is a good thing. The only problem I have with is maybe the keyboards on the intro should have been played a bit lower. It doesn't sound so pleasing to me, but that's just me. Otherwise, it's a good rock n' roll song like they used to make 'em. Live version is kind of interchangeable; no marked improvement.

"Blue Chair" - Pop music! It doesn't really sound bad, but the version on Live In Memphis is SO much better, I can hardly believe.

"Battered Old Bird" - Excellent song, sung very well. It feels like something is missing when I think about it, but when I'm listening to it I've got no complaints.

"Crimes Of Paris" - In many ways the "Jack Of All Parades" of this album. I love this song for so many reasons. It's catchy and melodic, it's got good lyrics, Cait O'Riordan's voice sounds heavenly in the last line of the chorus, but I really prefer the version on the bonus disc. It keeps closer in line with my feelings of what the album should be, despite the only real difference being he plays it on a barely distorted electric guitar and it doesn't have the vocal overdubs. I really only miss Cait's voice on it. Otherwise it is excellent. Oh, and I don't understand what all the "Oh Oh Oh Oh"s are for in the middle section.

"Poor Napolean" - Somebody said this is the only song that slows down the album. Not true. It's a good song, probably Steve Nieve's only noteworthy appearance with the cool organ, but that's not his fault (Elvis wanted this to be a guitar record and asked him to basically play rhythm, which he said was hard for Steve to do. An excellent player like him show some self restraint, especially when he'd always been allowed to go mad scientist on all the old albums? Poor Steve!). It sounds suitably murky from the recording setting. The thing that gets me is this almost makes it seem like there's some kind of story in the album, but there really isn't, but I want there to be. Maybe they should make a movie of all this.

"Next Time Round" - Another song that's catchy and kind of rocky, but the song never promised to rock my socks off like "Uncomplicated" so I'm not mad. A very suitable end for the album.

Highlights of the bonus disc:
On the bonus disc it really carries the feeling of the color red of the album cover. Does anyone know what I mean? It just feels red. The solo songs he plays at the end feel very combustable, despite their only difference from any other time Elvis plays solo being that he plays it on a pretty clean sounding electric guitar. "Leave My Kitten Alone" isn't actually very much different from the Kojak Variety version, but for some reason it is so much better, giving The Beatles' version a run for its money. It's that red feeling I think and the grittiness that comes with it. "New Rhythm Method" and "Forgive Her Anything" are excellent and all three of these songs would have fit in on the album perfectly. I'm not sure why "Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo" is here and not on King Of America's bonus disc other than for time extension. Don't argue with me that it's because The Attractions play on it, because it was recorded during the King Of America sessions with The Attractions. The single version of "Blue Chair" is just incomprehensible to me, what with those weird and unnecessary overdubs. I wish the original version without them was either included here or on the King Of America disc. I'm not sure why they did "Uncomplicated" as they did, but whatever. You get to hear what "Battered Old Bird" would sound like if it were fast which is... interesting. I don't know, some people apparently really like it a lot that way, but don't be surprised if you like the original better. This twilight version of "American Without Tears" expands upon the lyrics of one of Elvis's best songs, though it doesn't really sound much like the original. I'm just happy for a continuation of a great song and I'll just imagine the second version being done the way the original was. This solo version of "Running Out Of Fools" is actually better than the one on Kojak Variety, in my opinion, though I'm not sure if the version of "Pouring Water On A Drowning Man" found on that album can be surpassed. All in all, this whole set is great, thus the five stars, great songs and some good, worthwhile bonus material, it's just not what I was expecting from reviews, interviews, and alternate performances, and I just thought I'd say it.