|
Rock's most reputable poseur returns with his second album within the year, and in a way, Blood and Chocolate marks Elvis Costello's return to his roots.
Not American roots rock a la this year's King of America or the pre-rock of Imperial Bedroom or even the soul stylings of Get Happy. No, this time Elvis Costello returns to his own musical roots —roots with which he became the definitive angry young man prior to his fixation with exorcising the musical beast within.
Produced by longtime partner-in-crime Nick Lowe, who produced Costello's most arresting work, Blood and Chocolate is closer in spirit to his Armed Forces days than his later stabs at accessibility with Punch the Clock. And with this LP, Costello blends the musical fire of his youth with the lyrical maturity of his recent releases for an endeavor as rich and invigorating as the LP's title suggests.
This is not to say Costello has returned to a format which many of his fans have wished to see — this is not a rehash of This Year's Model. Costello has too much integrity for that. But it is a return to what appears to be Costello's most natural musical surroundings. In other words, he's not trying to be Cole Porter, he's back to being Elvis Costello.
After using them sparingly on his last album, Costello employs the estimable talents of his long-time cohorts, the Attractions (keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas), restoring the edge that has been missing from Costello's later forays into rock chameleonism. And it's evident from the beginning, with the tribal-like "Uncomplicated" and the organ-propelled "I Hope You're Happy Now."
But Costello shows his maturity on the wonderfully melodic "Blue Chair," where he sees a glint of optimism in a broken romance: "Down in the Blue Chair / You say that your love lasts forever when you know the night is just hours... And wherever she is tonight / I want her anyway."
Blood and Chocolate finds Elvis Costello stripping off his masks and playing it as straight as he can. But then again, it may be only "This Year's Model."
| 
