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From the Vault...
03/08/1998
#567 |
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info
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
"Blood And Chocolate"
© Columbia Records
Year of Release: 1986
Rating:
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track listing
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Uncomplicated
I Hope You're Happy Now
Tokyo Storm Warning
Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head
I Want You
Honey Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?
Blue Chair
Battered Old Bird
Crimes Of Paris
Poor Napoleon
Next Time Round
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Elvis Costello & The Attractions related sites:
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Elvis Costello & The Attractions
"Blood And Chocolate"
Once again, Elvis Costello & The Attractions
makes another appearance here as the Album Pick of the Week
(March, 1998). This 1986 release, Blood And Chocolate,
returns Elvis in the style shown on his debut album, as rock meets
punk (at least on the first three songs.) This album is not as
grabbing as his debut, but it has that unique sound, heard in
Costello's early years.
The first three tunes have that rock/punk sound,
it does somewhat have a late-Sixties feel to
it. Tokyo Storm Warning has the Standells'
Muddy Water feel, yet it doesn't really sound
exactly like it. The Sixties feeling is somewhat heard in
the opening two tracks, too: Uncomplicated and
I Hope You're Happy Now, even though the rock/punk
sound is there too.
Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head is a typical
slow tune; pretty much in the style of previous Costello
slowies, despite the sad tale as this song tells:
Trying to get over someone. I Want You is another
slowie, as it mostly features an acoustical guitar, with
brief mixtures of a psychedelic guitar.
Honey Are You Straight Or Are You Blind
returns Elvis in the rock punk mood. Blue Chair
is more of a pop rock track. Another slowie follows,
Battered Old Bird. Crimes of Paris is another
pop-style tune, likewise Poor Napoleon. These two
have a somewhat different pop-sounding effect. Lastly,
Next Time Round ends the album as another pop-sounding
tune as the previous two songs heard.
Blood And Chocolate may not be considered Costello's
triumphant albums, but as I browsed through the lyric sheets
of the songs, I found the lyrics to most songs to be of sadness and despair.
This makes sense that a lot of the songs are not as upbeat
as most popular Costello albums. I Hope You're Happy
Now tells how one hopes for happiness for an old love.
I Want You is a desperate cry for wanting another
person, where in fact, it won't happen. Another personal
event in Costello's life at the time, was that he had just been divorced
in 1985, and remarried in 1986. So maybe these thoughts may
have been from personal experiences (???).
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