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Last February, Elvis Costello's King of America was widely hailed as the best album of his career. Now it appears that it won't even rank as his best this year. With Blood & Chocolate, Costello has reunited with the Attractions and producer Nick Lowe, and has recaptured the energy and excitement of his late '70s work.
For those who thought Costello was maturing in the direction of the Band with King of America, or in the direction of Cole Porter with Imperial Bedroom, the sound of Blood & Chocolate will come as a shock. Beginning with the opening riff to "Uncomplicated," clanging guitars bang against pounding rhythms, garage-band organ matches garbage-can drumming. Costello has once again left the refinement of the penthouse behind. This music has a lot more back-alley muscle to it.
Although the music's raw nerve and jagged emotion recall the Elvis of old, only "I Hope You're Happy Now" sounds like it could have fit comfortably on 1978's This Year's Model. The majority of the songs are longer, more adventurous and less mannered than much of Costello's earlier material.
The musical mood ranges from the taut, twisted intensity of "I Want You" to the warm, double-tracked vocals on "Blue Chair" to the spare, bleak "Battered Old Bird." "Tokyo Storm Warning," written with fiancee Cait O'Riordan of the Pogues, sounds like Costello's take on "19th Nervous Breakdown."
If there were any fears that love would turn Costello into a hopeless romantic, they are answered in "Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head." "Here comes Mr. Misery / He's tearing out his hair again," he sings, his phrasing almost Dylanesque in its smoky intimacy. "He's contemplating murder again / He must be in love."
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