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Elvis Costello, a.k.a. Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus, a.k.a. The Imposter, a.k.a. H. Coward, a.k.a. Napoleon Dynamite, a.k.a. Eamonn Singer, stands as one of the most important musicians of our time. His latest album with the Attractions, Blood & Chocolate, recombines the talents of Pete Thomas (drums), Bruce Thomas (bass), Steve Nieve (keyboards) and Nick Lowe (producer and guitarist), to recreate the formula that brought the band's sound to the forefront of the music scene in the late 1970s.
Released barely six months after Elvis' last effort, King of America, an album which conspicuously was released under the title The Costello Show, and featured all three Attractions on only one track, and various jazz artists and members of Elvis Presley's TCB band on the rest, Blood & Chocolate unleashes a newfound tributary of emotion and taps into the ever expanding, progressive lyrical genius of the King.
Elvis Costello and the Attractions last album together, Goodbye Cruel World, was both musically and lyrically stagnant, and the accompanying tour, although fresh with newfound fans drawn in by the commercial hit radio hype of the hits "The Only Flame In Town" with Daryl Hall and "Everyday I Write The Book," (from the Punch the Clock album) failed to quell the rumblings that maybe Elvis Costello was over the hill.
The T Bone Burnett-produced Costello Show record reaffirmed the faith of both critics and fans. Stripped of all the glitter-sound (like the TKO horns), King of America signaled a brilliant — and much needed — lyrical change for Elvis. Instead of working to incorporate his emotion into his lyrical catch phrases, the words were wrapped around the emotion.
The strengths of musicians, it has been said, lies not only in their ability and sense to know when and how to play, but also in their ability to know when and how not to play. Blood & Chocolate, admittedly, does not emphasize the Attractions. Most notably, the flamboyant keyboard jungle tracks of Steve Nieve, staples on almost every preceding album, are simply underplayed. But drummer Pete Thomas takes the forefront with a consistent neo-aborigine beat on most tracks that balances well with Costello's lyrics.
The Attractions are fully utilized on very few of the album tracks. Most, like the romantic "I Want You," with its lazy tempo, seem better suited for the simple Costello and guitar collaboration. This is the main reason Blood & Chocolate excels. Elvis left himself no option on King of America, when he chose to work with jazz greats Earl Palmer, Ray Brown, Jerry Scheff, James Burton and Ron Tutt from Elvis Presley's TCB band, but to exploit their famous talents. There is no such pressure to fill Blood & Chocolate's tracks with unnecessary extra noise when working with longtime bandmates who understand the direction and integrity of the change.
The lyrics on the new album also stand above King of America. Elvis is at his best when lamenting love-lost and love-lorn relationships. Blood & Chocolate is stripped of all the vehement political attacks that have popped up on previous Costello works. Spewing lines of bitter resentment like, "He's contemplating murder again / He must be in love," and "As I stepped out upon the landing my heart was already down the stairs," while passionately pleading "I can't say anymore than 'I love you' / Everything else is a waste of breath," and, simply, "I want to show you / How I love you," his words assimilate his vocal intonations and emotional outpourings.
On "Battered Old Bird," Elvis' choral wails strike a powerful nerve as if, for the first time, his feelings have been purely expressed on a record. In the past, Costello's "screams" have sounded slightly held back by some inner devil's advocate hinting that this presentation might be too "unclassy." The devil has been exorcized.
Line after line stand out as comparable to any Elvis has released in his career. With the chorus of "Crimes of Paris," "You're not the girl next-door or the girl from France / Or the cigarette-girl in the sizzle hot pants / All the words of love seem cruel and crass / When you're tough and transparent as armoured glass / You're an everyday girl in an everyday mess / Who'll pay for the Crimes of Paris," it's quite easy to forget the failings of Goodbye Cruel World.
Blood & Chocolate also features guest appearances from Nick Lowe on guitar and Cait O'Riordan, Elvis' fiancee and member of The Pogues, who adds backing vocals on two tracks and is credited on "Tokyo Storm Warning," the single from the album.
By counterworking the guitar-oriented sound with some Elvis' best writing, Blood & Chocolate has to be Costello's finest work since Imperial Bedroom. Of course, critics uniformly shouted that King of America was his best work since Imperial Bedroom. Keeping with the trend, thankfully, it appears Elvis, still a young 31, is stronger than ever. As Elvis sings on the opening track, "This is only / This is only / This is only / The beginning."
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