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People Magazine tells us there's a new, mellower Elvis Costello these days. Having re-adopted his given name Delbert MacManus, he spends tranquil days feeding pigeons in the park with his new sweetheart, Cait O'Riordan of the Pogues. Well, you could have fooled me.
On this album, Elvis portrays romance as worse than a crack habit. As the title Blood & Chocolate suggests, it's an addiction that more often than not leads to violence and despair. And I still don't know which name he prefers; he likes to call himself "Napoleon Dynamite" on this one.
The songcraft on Blood & Chocolate is, of course, first-rate. Note especially the great pop melody and brilliantly original imagery of "Blue Chair": "We can watch our troubles rise like smoke into the air and drift up to the ceiling."
Nor can we ignore the Attractions, one of the premiere backup bands in the business today. While the album ends unconvincingly on a mixture of self-pity and suicidal defiance, it is a worthy addition to Costello's "rogue's gallery" and should be owned by any Napoleon Dynamite fan.
Anyway, the usual cast of characters is here: women flipping through lovers like Rolodex cards, the rejects becoming either burned-out derelicts or homicidal maniacs. The hypnotic bondage of love is encapsulated in "I Want You," which rivals in its obsession the John Lennon song of the same name. This longish ballad also demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of Costello's singing. While the honest heartache of the opening lines is awkwardly expressed by El's froglike croaking, his voice gains dimension as the sarcasm gradually deepens.
"Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head" would be better served by George Jones or John Anderson, who could bring to it the proper sense of country melancholy. By contrast, Napoleon D.'s show-stopper is "Battered Old Bird," a bitterly poignant
study of the effects of domestic strife on children.
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