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Blood and Chocolate, Elvis Costello's newest album, comes quick on the heels of the clunky, sensitive King of America. Longtime fans complained that Elvis had gone soft, and he was criticized for leaving his superb backing band, the Attractions, out in the cold for most of that record.
Well, the boys are back here, but they could sound happier about it. Then, it probably would be too much to ask them to play this stuff and be happy about it, if you catch the drift.
The album opens with a bitter warm lag in the melodyless "Uncomplicated," "Blood and chocolate / I hope you're satisfied..." If Elvis is addressing his fans, or critics, he's in for a bit of a disappointment because this selection won't satisfy a soul. Not anyone who's worn out his copy of My Aim is True, This Year's Model or Imperial Bedroom, that's for sure. And it's not about to win him any new listeners, which is sad considering the lack of recognition his brilliant earlier work received.
So, just how disappointing is Blood and Chocolate? Let's just say that the man whose sinister pop of the late 1970s paved the way to mass appeal for new wave music would have been better off to have named this album My Aim Isn't Quite as True As It Used To Be. That's how disappointing it is. He's that far off the mark.
This isn't to say that there aren't a few near-misses here, because there are. And a near-miss for Elvis always, for time.eternal, will be superior to a bull's-eye from, say, Bryan Adams or the Outfield. It's just that there's a different and higher standard for Elvis. Near-misses like "Poor Napoleon," "Crimes of Paris" and "I Want You" just can't compare to "Radio Radio," "Alison," "Everyday I Write the Book" and "Oliver's Army."
"Crimes of Paris" comes closest, at least in texture. It feels like a great Elvis song. Elvis' latest love, Cait O'Riorders of the Pogues, provides some quiet and stunning backing vocals. The Attractions are controlled, perhaps a bit too controlled, but no matter, and Elvis' vocals are as comfortable as ever. But no one who tells you that he understands what the song is about could pass a polygraph. No one. Is the song about designer clothing?? Is it about European values and attitudes? Heck, it could be about skeet-shooting, and I dare anyone to prove that it isn't.
"Poor Napoleon" comes close, too, and it's no coincidence that O'Riordan turns up here as well, repeating the song's title twice, but to grand effect. Elvis is at his thoughtful, craftsmanlike best here: "You can take the truthful things you've said to me / And fit them on the head of a pin." There is none of the forced screams, shrieks or growls here that appear elsewhere on Blood and Chocolate, which only sound like Elvis imitating himself. No, here he relies on clever lyrics and the moodiness that the Attractions, particularly bassist Bruce Thomas, lay behind him. It's a nice piece of work, reminiscent of the band's better efforts on Imperial Bedroom and Punch the Clock.
Elvis moves on to some new ground with "I Want You," which demonstrates his C & W influences before moving into the Abbey Road Beatles era. Here's a warning, though: This one is unlikely to appeal to forms of his earlier, breakneck albums. No, this one is slow as molasses, nearly a love dirge, if there is such a thing. Elvis covers all of the emotions that accompany love in the time it takes to boil an egg. He maintains his reputation for brilliant, thoughtful lyrics for this song alone: "If you need a second opinion as you seem to these days / You can look in my eyes and you count the ways / I want you."
The anger, the fear, the sadness, the depression, the joy. They're all here — love's greatest hits — and though the song may go on a little longer that it should (exactly how many different ways can Elvis sing, "I want you"?) it's nice to hear the emotions.
That's the good news. Here's the bad: The remainder of Blood and Chocolate is either unlistenable, unmemorable or both. Whoever picked "Tokyo Storm Warning" as the single from the album should be sent back to Music Appreciation 101 — quick. It's punkish-psychedelic slop that suffers from a serious lack of melody. There's nothing to recommend about the song other than a line or two of Elvis being clever ("Death wears a big hat 'cause he's a big bloke.") But, wait, look at this one: "Japanese God - Jesus robots telling teenage fortunes." Run that one by me one more time?. It doesn't make any more sense if you play it backwards, so don't even try.
"Home is Anywhere You Hang Your Head" is a great title, but a great title can't sustain a song. You know, Elvis used to bat wordplay like this around like a tetherball, one-liners coming rapidly and from all directions. Now he tries to build an entire song around a single, cute pun.
There is little to recommend the rest. Steve Nieve's roller-rinkerish keyboards are as welcome as ever, and Pete Thomas' drumwork has never been in doubt. No, it's Elvis; that's the problem here.
It's as if he and producer Nick Lowe sat down, threw back a few Buds and tried to figure out just what made the first few albums so unbelievably right. Then they tried to mimic them. The nastiness, the anger, the ugliness. They're back, and that's a mistake.
What made My Aim is True, This Year's Model and Armed Forces such perfect and influential records wasn't the bitterness. It was the sincerity. The bitterness was sincere. Elvis wasn't trying to sound rough or possessed; he just was that way.
That's exactly why Blood and Chocolate, for the most part, misses its target. There's too much effort, too much feigned emotion and a sorry lack of sincerity.
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