Blood & Chocolate

Blood & Chocolate is the eleventh studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, released in 1986 through Demon Records (UK) and Columbia Records (US). It is his ninth album with his long-standing backing band the Attractions. After his previous album King of America (1986) with producer T-Bone Burnett had largely featured different musicians, this album reunited him with producer Nick Lowe and his usual backing group the Attractions.

The album peaked at No. 16 on the UK Albums Chart, and No. 84 on the Billboard 200. It placed ninth in The Village Voice's 1986 Pazz & Jop critics poll and was later included in the books 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005) and Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).

The recording of Blood & Chocolate was troubled, as the relationship between Costello and the Attractions had deteriorated during sessions for King of America. The album was generally recorded live in the studio, with minimal takes and overdubs, and featured the band performing at concert-level volume in a way that Costello felt suited the material. Following the album's release and subsequent tour, the group disbanded and would not perform together again for eight years.

Background
Six months after the Los Angeles sessions for King of America, which found Costello working with new musicians outside of his backing band the Attractions, he returned to the studio with the Attractions to work on the songs for Blood & Chocolate. Costello later reported the band's relationship as having "soured" at this time. He explained, "The Attractions' sole contribution to that album, 'Suit of Lights,' had been made during our least successful and most bad-tempered days in the studio. The air of suspicion and resentment still lingered as King of America was released and we entered Olympic Studios, London, to make what proved to be our last record together for eight years."

Recording
After the acrimonious sessions between Costello and the Attractions for King of America, the band first reconvened at Eden Studios to record "Seven Day Weekend", a song co-written by and performed with Jimmy Cliff for the film Club Paradise (1986). The band then began working on Blood & Chocolate at Olympic Studios in March of 1986, which producer Nick Lowe deemed "a much more uptight situation" than on previous albums. Sessions continued through March, April and May.

Blood & Chocolate was recorded in a single large room at high volume, with the band listening to each other on monitor speakers and playing at stage volume, an unusual practice in the studio for its time. Songs were performed through a stage PA system with no separation between instruments. Costello later said that the sessions were an attempt to recapture the same "directness and rawness" with the Attractions that he had previously achieved with the session players on King of America. As Costello recalled, "Nick Lowe was producing us for the first time in five years and, together with engineer Colin Fairley, agreed to an approach that would get the music recorded before the band and I fell out completely. [...] Although it is commonly thought that high volume in the studio creates an uncontrollable sonic picture, this approach seemed to suit the material entirely." Bassist Bruce Thomas later deemed the sound achieved at the sessions to be "a total mess" and "a soup". Additionally, writer Graeme Thomson posited that Costello deliberately "stirred up the sour atmosphere to accentuate the primitive, violent music they were making."

Most of the songs were recorded in a few takes, with most overdubs completed very quickly afterwards. "I Want You" was recorded in a single take, while "Tokyo Storm Warning" was a first take with some elements added afterward. The final minute of "I Want You" featured all instruments in the studio being recorded through Costello's vocal mike, which created, according to Thomson, "a ghostly echo behind the choked voice." "Battered Old Bird" was a composite of two different arrangements of the song, edited together with "a combination of vari-speeding and bold editing".

Costello later called Blood & Chocolate "a really beautiful sounding record."

Composition
Thomson noted that the songs for Blood & Chocolate were a response to both the poor sales of King of America and Columbia Records' "growing indifference" to Costello as an artist, and called the compositional style of the album "brutally simple and rhythmically primal, often featuring little more than two or three chords."

Several critics have likened the sound of the album to the then-embryonic grunge style: Carlo Wolf of Goldmine called it a "brash and grungy effort"; Garry Mullholland of Q deemed it "ferocious and grungy"; while Will Birch proclaimed it to be "six or eight years ahead of its time". Writing for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine categorized Blood & Chocolate as a "straight-ahead rock & roll" album, while acknowledging lesser elements of folk and country.

Regarding Blood & Chocolate's lyrical content, Douglas Wolk of Blender noted the album's "blistering songs about sexual despair and disgust." In Costello's words, "I Hope You're Happy Now" described a "fatal affair"; "Battered Old Bird" was "a macabre fairy tale" based on his childhood; "Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head" detailed "a man confirmed in his unworthiness"; "Poor Napoleon" was the "theme song" for a short story he'd written. Costello referred to "Tokyo Storm Warning" as "a psychedelic travelogue", as well as a "protest song", deeming it one of his favorite tracks. Costello added that "The rest of the songs were like the blurred and unfortunate Polaroids that people used to keep to document their worst desires and unhappy love affairs before we had the blessing of phone cameras." Thomson opined that "Elvis often undercut the songs with a degree of malevolent humor and — when it worked — it made for some exhilarating music."

Several songs were re-workings from the King of America sessions, including "Blue Chair", "I Hope You're Happy Now",  "Next Time Round" and "Crimes of Paris".

Artwork and packaging
As on King of America, Costello uses multiple names to credit himself: his given name of Declan MacManus; his stage name of Elvis Costello; and the nickname Napoleon Dynamite, his alter ego as master of ceremonies for the Attractions' spinning songbook tour. The cover art painting was credited to Eamonn Singer, which was later revealed to be another of Costello's pseudonyms: "I painted another daub for the cover of the record: a tyrant with a face resembling a cold pork chop in a tricorn hat, screaming at a broken chocolate bar full of blood or Turkish delight, it was hard to tell. After all, I wasn't that adept with the brush." The back cover and liner notes use the international auxiliary language Esperanto to list musician credits and LP sides.

The name "Napoleon Dynamite" would later be used for a 2004 cult film by Jared Hess, who denied that the title was inspired by Blood & Chocolate.

Release
Blood and Chocolate was released on 15 September 1986.

The tracks "Tokyo Storm Warning", "I Want You", and "Blue Chair" were all released as singles, although the latter was not the recording from the album, but an earlier one made with T Bone Burnett during the King of America sessions with the Confederates band. The UK CD of Blood & Chocolate included an alternative mix of "Uncomplicated" which "lacks the anvil sound after the 'horse that knows arithmetic' line and a guitar part from the guitar break near the end." This version is also available on the CD-only release of Girls + Girls + Girls (1989). With the exception of a compilation released in the UK, Out of Our Idiot (1987), this album would be the final release on his Demon/Columbia contract, Costello signing with Warner Brothers for his next LP, Spike (1989).

In 1995, the album was reissued on CD by Rykodisc Records in the U.S. and Demon Records in the U.K., featuring six bonus tracks, including the 1987 single version of "Blue Chair" recorded during the King of America sessions. A limited-edition version of this release came with a bonus disc entitled An Overview Disc, consisting of a 78-minute interview with Peter Doggett, conducted on 21 July 1995, in which Costello and Doggett discuss his career and releases up to 1986. In 2002, Rhino Records reissued the album again, this time with a second disc of 15 bonus tracks.

Tour and break-up
Immediately after the sessions for Blood & Chocolate came to an end, Costello and the Attractions appeared at the Self Aid charity festival on 17 May 1986 and appeared at other European festivals through early July.

Afterward, the band embarked upon an ambitious and expensive U.S. tour, commencing with a five-night run at the Beverly Theater in Beverly Hills, California on 1 October. In addition to performances with the Attractions, the tour consisted of solo sets from Costello, as well as performances with both T Bone Burnett and the Confederates, namely James Burton, Jerry Scheff, Jim Keltner and Mitchell Froom. The centrepiece of the tour was unveiled on October 4: "The Spectacular Spinning Songbook", a carnival wheel containing different song titles that a member of the audience was brought on stage to spin to determine the next performance. Guest MCs for the evening were John Doe and Tom Waits. Chris Willman of the Los Angeles Times called the concert a "spectacle akin to a meeting of PT Barnum, any slick TV game show host you want to name and The Troggs." Similarly, the Times' Robert Hillburn deemed the five-night run "one of the most memorable engagements ever in Los Angeles rock".

The Attractions then performed three dates each in San Francisco, Chicago and Boston, with MCs Huey Lewis (San Francisco), the Chicago Bears (Chicago) and Penn & Teller (New York). Benmont Tench took over keyboard duties for Froom in the Confederates during the tour's Philadelphia dates. Over the course of the U.S. tour, Costello performed over 125 different songs.

The UK tour only featured the Attractions, commencing at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin on 2 December and ending in Liverpool on 9 December, after which Costello informed the Attractions that he was disbanding the group. After one final appearance, wherein the Attractions joined Costello on stage during his solo appearance at the Glastonbury Festival of 1987, the group folded. It would be their last appearance together for seven years.

Commercial
Blood & Chocolate peaked at No. 16 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 84 on the Billboard 200. The singles "Tokyo Storm Warning" and "I Want You" peaked at Nos. 73 and 79 in the UK, respectively. The non-album single "Blue Chair" peaked at No. 94.

Critical
Robert Christgau of The Village Voice felt that the band hadn't "sounded so tough- or single-minded since This Year's Model. Like Little Creatures, it's a return to basics with a decade of growth in it".

In retrospective reviews, Armond White of Entertainment Weekly praised Blood & Chocolate as a "blistering" and "wildly infectious" effort. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic lauded the album as "lively" and "frequently compelling."

In The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for the year's best albums, Blood & Chocolate finished at number 9. The album was also included in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2000 it was voted number 475 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.

Track listing
All songs written by Declan MacManus (Elvis Costello), except "Tokyo Storm Warning", by MacManus, Cait O'Riordan.

Track times and side labels adapted from U.S. Columbia Records LP.

Flanko unu (Side one)
 * 1) "Uncomplicated" – 3:23
 * 2) "I Hope You're Happy Now" – 3:05
 * 3) "Tokyo Storm Warning" – 6:22
 * 4) "Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head" – 5:03
 * 5) "I Want You" – 6:39

Flanko du (Side two)
 * 1) "Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?" – 2:07
 * 2) "Blue Chair" – 3:38
 * 3) "Battered Old Bird" – 5:48
 * 4) "Crimes of Paris" – 4:19
 * 5) "Poor Napoleon" – 3:20
 * 6) "Next Time Round" – 3:34

Personnel
Credits adapted from 2002 Rhino CD liner notes.

Elvis Costello and the Attractions
 * Elvis Costello (as Napolean Dynamite) – vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bellows (4), canes (4), knives (4), Vox Continental electric organ (6), harmonium (8), bass (10), tambourine (10)
 * Steve Nieve – piano, organ, harmonium (8)
 * Bruce Thomas – bass guitar, saxophone
 * Pete Thomas – drums, saxophone

Additional musicians
 * Nick Lowe – acoustic guitar (4–7, 11)
 * Cait O'Riordan – vocals (9–10)

Technical
 * Nick Lowe – producer
 * Colin Fairley – producer
 * Elvis Costello (as Eamonn Singer) – 'Napolean Dynamite' painting
 * Keith Morris – photography
 * Michael Krage – design