#381/2061
September 15 1986
Elvis Costello
Blood & Chocolate
Genre: Power Pop
4 out of 5 (but, were it not for a couple tracks, I think it’s 3.75)
Highlights:
I Hope You’re Happy Now
Home is Anywhere You Hang Your Head
I Want You
Battered Old Bird
Something feels…off on Blood & Chocolate. It starts off with the anti’”Beyond Belief”, a terrifically minimalist album opener of an equally fantastic record. But, “Uncomplicated” is ugly. And annoying. Once it’s over, we get Elvis of the past but I can’t help but feel like he’s grown past the angry young Declan and is doing this to satisfy some obligation he has to the boys and the label.
“I Want You” is the dangerous piece of tunesmithing that latter day Beatles tried and couldn’t get to. Elvis takes longing and desperation to a new place here.
And I know I’ll take shit for this but, after this record, Elvis jettisoned the Attractions and, to be honest, I don’t think he came close to his glory days again until When I Was Cruel, 16 years later.
Yeah, yeah, there’s good stuff on Brutal Youth and on Useless Beauty, but the Buddy Holly bespectacled spindle toed nerd is left far behind until he becomes the grand master emeritus.
Don’t @ me.
Oh, go ahead. I can take it.
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