Tag Archives: Blood and Chocolate

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Song of the Day #6,298: ‘Crimes of Paris’ – Elvis Costello

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…

#6 – Blood & Chocolate – Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello had such a good 80s run that my #6 album of 1986 was just his second-best release that year. I’ll get to the other one next week.

After a series of genre exercises (country, baroque pop, 60s soul, New Wave, Americana), Blood & Chocolate was a muscular rock-n-roll album, Costello’s first since 19878’s This Year’s Model. When Costello snarls out the album’s title in the opening moments of first track ‘Uncomplicated’ to the strains of an aggressive electric guitar, you know you’re in for a wild ride.

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Song of the Day #2,712: ‘Tokyo Storm Warning’ – Elvis Costello

bloodandThe Random iTunes Fairy was definitely in an Elvis Costello mood today. The first spin of the dial turned up an alternate version of Imperial Bedroom‘s ‘Kid About It,’ which already had its moment in the Random Weekend spotlight in April of 2013.

My second try landed on ‘Tokyo Storm Warning,’ one of a few epic tracks on 1986’s Blood & Chocolate.

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Song of the Day #906: ‘Next Time Round’ – Elvis Costello

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.

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Song of the Day #905: ‘I Hope You’re Happy Now’ – Elvis Costello

Just six months after King of America hit shelves, Elvis Costello released another full-length album, 1986’s Blood & Chocolate.

I wish I’d been a fan at that point because I can’t imagine the glee with which this release must have been met right on the heels of its classic predecessor.

Costello has always been a prolific artist but putting out two of his best albums within half a year of each other is an embarrassment of riches.

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Song of the Day #258: ‘Home is Anywhere You Hang Your Head’ – Elvis Costello

bloodandIn a move that’s pretty much unheard of these days, Costello followed up King of America the same year with another stellar album, Blood & Chocolate.

Where King of America is acoustic and country-influenced, Blood & Chocolate is electric and pure rock-and-roll. It’s opening track, ‘Uncomplicated,’ bursts from the speakers with a wall of shredding guitars as Costello spits out the ominous threat “You think it’s over now but we’ve only just begun.”

Indeed.

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