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Surprise, surprise: just when he's changed his moniker back to Declan MacManus, the bespectacled one becomes Napoleon Dynamite. Only six months after releasing his warmest, most acoustic album to date (King of America), he's bounced back with Blood & Chocolate, an album as raw, emotional, and loud as anything he's attempted.
There are a pair of totally decent melodic poppers ("I Hope You're Happy Now," "Blue Chair), a dissonant six-and-a-half-minute opus that sounds like an outtake off Highway 61 Revisited ("Tokyo Storm Warning"), and a few tunes it'll take you a few months to digest ("Poor Napoleon," "Crimes of Paris").
The centerpieces, though, are two long ballads: "Battered Old Bird" and "I Want You." "Battered Old Bird" is a story of murder, suicide and a host of other pleasantries. "I Want You" starts out as a love song, but then Elvis pulls out the dagger and starts carving out a harrowing, bitter tale of love betrayed. Nice stuff — buy one for your mom for Christmas.
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