Blood & Chocolate

Oh, another Elvis Costello album—and once again, it doesn't win me over. After “My Aim Is True” (immature) and “Brutal Youth” (I still don’t know if that was supposed to be a parody), I’d speculated that he might have been good in the meantime—and indeed, “Blood And Chocolate,” that weird adaptation of *Napoleon Dynamite*, is less bad than the early and late work of Declan Patrick MacManus. We’re not really talking about “good” here yet (or, now that I’ve explored Costello’s best works independently of this project: not anymore), but there are some good song ideas, and his voice is still fantastic. But as with “Brutal Youth,” more input from the producer could have improved things quite a bit—I won’t go into detail again.
And once again, the question arises: why is every piece of trash from certain artists on the list, while true legends have been completely overlooked in some cases...

He has a good ear for a hook and the bass lines arebfull of verve - but his voice, the hyperactive songs, and really percussive pounding approach get grating fast. 'I Want You' has some cool spindly guitars.

Boring!

Fuck off Elvis Costello

I'm sorry, Elvis, but I just can't take a whole album of your voice. The odd single track on the radio maybe. But not a whole 45 minutes.
The songs have merit. Nobody can dispute your songwriting talent. Though you do like to drag some songs out waaaaaay too long.

I appreciate this a lot. Costello’s crazed wails are honestly better than you’d expect for crazed wails, and the songs are well-written. I really love “Uncomplicated” as an opener, and I like “I Hope You’re Happy Now” even more. The general vibe of garagey dissonance combined with an innate poppiness is a really nice vibe. Sadly a lot of these songs don’t have enough bite, such as “The Blue Chair” or “Home is Anywhere…” or even “Battered Old Bird” at times. Thankfully there’s songs like “I Want You,” which is easily the peak of this album, to counteract this. Sadly it ends on a pretty low note, that being “Next Time Around.” Either way though it’s a pretty fun batch of tracks, albeit not one I’ll return to often.
7.5/10

Another one done!

It's kinda interesting how he sings here, almost a little detached but with a lot of effort at the same time. Sort of becomes less cool as it goes on, though the heavily Dylan inspired Home is Anywhere You Hang Your Head and I Want You in the middle are highlights. I liked Battered Old Bird at first but he just goes a little too far with it and it gets a bit too unrestrained.

4
First I've heard of Costello and tbh his voice is not what I was expecting from a man who kind of looks like woody Allen. Admittedly wasn't huge on the first track but it really got better after that

Yeah Bob, Elvis Costello's 11th album sure is essential listening. Print it.

Unmistakenly Elvis Costello. Has some of the bitterness, envy, and anger of the first two albums without all that pesky political nonsense (I miss the political Elvis). Some new and unique POV in these songs now, though - is the singer in "Poor Napolean" a woman? Nothing all that memorable except "I Want You" which is strikingly creepy, "Battered Old Bird" a surprisingly touching tune - "He'd better have a dream beyond these four walls" - and the three-chord verse/chorus banger "Next Time Round."
Totally worth a listen, but one that the anti-Elvis crowd here will present as evidence of two much Elvis.

Actually pretty great.

Seems like very generic pop-rock.

I know that context is key, but this is just kind of OK. Why does Elvis Costello get so much love from hipsters? and why the FUCK does he warrant SIX albums in this stupid-ass project? His voice is fine, the music is fine, the album is fine. So much good music left off this list but we've got six albums of this donut to slog through.

It's been nearly 350 albums since I heard Imperial Bedroom. I was wondering when I would get another Elvis Costello record. As it turned out, the album of his that I got today was another record rife with tensions.

Blood & Chocolate was the last album Elvis recorded with the Attractions backing band for eight years, largely due to growing antipathy between him and bassist Bruce Thomas. It certainly didn't help matters that the Attractions were sidelined for the album King of America, released earlier in the year. This increasing animosity towards both parties led to the recording sessions being done as quickly as possible, largely live in first takes. Now, it's nothing new for an act to be going through tumultuous times and still release one more good record before breaking up; Pink Floyd did it with The Wall, and Van Halen likewise with 1984. Could the same be said for Blood for Chocolate? I think so, but it's not quite great.

There certainly was a consensus to throw back to the rock and roll styling of Elvis's 1970s album run, to the point of bringing Nick Lowe back for production once more. Yet the overall sound seems noisier and looser, with distorted guitars, a punchier rhythm section, and rushed production that didn't have time to be further polished. It almost sounds like a precursor to grunge. Adding to that sentiment are the generally dark lyrics, chock full of revenge fantasies, guilt-ridden scenes, and outright spite. From the stomping obsession on "Uncomplicated" into the jealous musings on "I Hope You're Happy Now" and "Next Time Round", the snapshots of apocalyptic scenarios on "Tokyo Storm Warning", the lowly ballads of "Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head" and "Blue Chair", and the troubled relationships detailed in "Crimes of Paris", there's a seedy underbelly to the stories and sceneries Elvis sang about on this record.

That said, I think there is a limit to Elvis's dark lyricism. The obsessive romance in "I Want You" came off as a meandering re-tread of The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". The conceit of "Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind" seemed way too on-the-nose in describing this woman's feelings for another girl. Finally, "Poor Napoleon" was a plodding malaise in the arrangement of this song about a one-night stand, with Pogues bassist Cait O'Riordan's guest vocals being very underutilized compared to the preceding "Crimes of Paris".

Still, I think Blood and Chocolate turned out pretty good despite tensions between Elvis Costello and the Attractions. It was certainly worth a listen.

Songs as long as the titles

This comes out of the gate so strong! 'Uncomplicated' is original and cool. And then the rest is just more Elvis Costello's usual time. I generally like his usual thing, but how many albums of it do we need?

Not really a fan of him.

It's alright, but it's not the best Elvis Costello album by far. It's not even in the top 5. It wasn't terrible, that being said.

Elvis Costello opened my eyes to something interesting: '60s rock and roll revival as a viable path for new wave. It's kind of hard to pin down exactly what his sound is, but this is the description that makes the most sense to me. And this sounds interesting, which is too bad, because I think Costello's music is just fine. Blood & Chocolate has some interesting highs, but as a whole, I would say the album works out to be just approximately fine. I really do like Elvis Costello's lyrics and vocal presence. I think the best word for his writing is "witty", he has a lot of cool images and ideas you can catch if you're listening close enough. And the vocal approach is *sort of* in the punk tradition, and it works for me consistently. But the songs on this album are really hit or miss. At Elvis Costello's worst, I think his sound is more dated than classic, and he has a good few songs that just aren't that interesting. But every once in a while he will choose to do something extremely interesting for a brief period of time, and remind you that he kind of has these little flashes of new wave-y art house sensibility. And there some songs here that I do just like. Uncomplicated is loose and rockin' and I like it. Tokyo Storm Warning's writing kind of reminds me of Dylan. Battered Old Bird goes to some really interesting places with some really interesting vocal flairs. My favorite song here is the (thankfully lengthy) I Want You. The really tense, angular and skeletal place it ends up in as soon as we hear that weird little electric guitar is my favorite thing on the album. And the way the song builds is really cool.

I'm kind of struggling to rate this, it's not bad: there are cool moments, a few good songs, and the writing is good. But a lot of the time, it kind of undershoots, relying too much on it's rock and roll revival sound, and just ends up kind of boring. I'm gonna put it at a respectable 2 for now.

Elvis Costello has more dimensions to him than I realised, with this album going to some surprisingly dark places, contrasting with what I would have considered his more typical jubilant mood. Interestingly the title track was the only one I didn’t particularly vibe with, the rest of the record is a lot smoother. The slow, mournful ballad I Want You is the best song I’ve ever heard from him - a career highlight!