A mere six months after the release of King Of America, Elvis returned with both the Attractions and old producer pal Nick Lowe on an album full of the same snotty punk that critics had been asking for since This Year’s Model. But by this time, neither his US nor UK record label knew what to do with him, so Blood & Chocolate was all but ignored. Not for lack of trying on Elvis’s part; he promoted both of the year’s albums with an ambitious tour, playing several nights in select cities, alternating performances with the Attractions, a variety of Confederates, acoustic sets, special guests, and even a request night involving a spinning wheel normally seen in the company of Vanna White. (Then again, maybe rendering all of the album credits in Esperanto was considered less than accessible. Plus, the pseudonym of Napoleon Dynamite added further confusion.)The album itself should have made lots of people happy. The band fires on all cylinders from the get-go, as “Uncomplicated” pounds the album title into your brain. After several attempts over the years, “I Hope You’re Happy Now” finally makes it to a release in its best version ever. “Tokyo Storm Warning” is a surreal Dylanesque travelogue running six dizzying minutes, and there’s a similar nasal twang in “Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head”, the breathy tale of a certain unsavory character named Mr. Misery. As if two lengthy songs in a row wasn’t enough, the six-minute nightmare within the stark “I Want You” would provide a theme song for stalkers for generations to come.
Side two has some quieter moments, they don’t exactly provide relief. “Honey, Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?” is a basic 12-bar that crashes through until “Blue Chair”, one of those commiserating-over-a-mutual-minx plaints. Another long one, “Battered Old Bird”, is a childhood snapshot of a dysfunctional household, complete with a “Strawberry Fields Forever”-inspired splice for a jarring transition. “Crimes Of Paris” is more acoustic-based, and his lyrics are getting more obtuse by the line. His new bride Cait O’Riordan provides vocals here, as well as on “Poor Napoleon”, a bedroom tale awash in feedback and white noise. And there are few album closers as satisfying as the biting kiss-off of “Next Time Round”.
Since its initial release, Blood & Chocolate has been something of a totem for fans, being the last Attractions album for ten years and the last “loud” album for even longer. As the finale to Rykodisc’s reissue campaign, their version of the CD included a handful of single sides—one of which dated from the King Of America sessions, allowed here for space reasons, while “Return To Big Nothing” was unlisted—and one unreleased track, the promising “Forgive Her Anything”. Initial copies came bundled with a bonus disc consisting of an interview about the albums reissued by Rykodisc for Record Collector magazine on a single track.
Rhino ignored the interview and used just four of the singles, and added a few other alternate takes alongside an odd sequence of acoustic demos of country covers, three of which he’d record again one day. Even more frustrating was that the disc was hardly filled to capacity, adding insult to the injury of those neglected songs. Still, the alternate take of “Battered Old Bird”, taken at breakneck speed, is hilarious, and another version of “Forgive Her Anything” only enhanced the quality and tension of the one it replaced. “New Rhythm Method” is a frenetic outtake Elvis professed to have no memory of recording, while “Leave My Kitten Alone” was learned from a Beatles bootleg and would feature onstage.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions Blood & Chocolate (1986)—5
1995 Rykodisc: same as 1986, plus 7 extra tracks (and interview disc)
2002 Rhino: same as 1986, plus 15 extra tracks
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