It’s tough to decide which Blood & Chocolate song to highlight today.

I’m tempted to go with ‘Battered Old Bird,’ a bizarre epic that paints a surreal picture of the inhabitants of an apartment building (based on Costello’s real neighbors from his childhood home).

Or the creepy, obsessive ‘I Want You,’ the album’s 7-minute centerpiece, on which Costello repeats the title phrase ad nauseum while imagining his lover’s infidelity. But the truth is, I’ve been spoiled by Fiona Apple’s live version of that song (performed with Costello on guitar) and pretty much consider that masterpiece the definitive version.

But I’m opting to go with the album’s final track, the poppy crowd-pleaser ‘Next Time Round,’ because it just clicks for me in a way that some songs do, quietly sneaking up to become favorites when you least expect it. Those other songs I mentioned are “important” and endlessly dissected by critics and fans — they’re songs that are supposed to be favorites if you know your stuff.

‘Next Time Round’ isn’t like that at all. It’s almost a throwaway, slapped onto the end of the album in order to play things off in a more upbeat fashion following some of the emotionally wrenching downers that precede it. But damned if this isn’t the song that sticks with me most.

Of course even this throwaway contains some great Costello lines, including my favorite, this closing couplet: “You used to take the breath out of me, now I think you’ll be the death of me.”