Details: Amazon.ca
"A pissed-off, 32-year-old divorcé's version of This Year's Model" is what Elvis Costello once called this 1986 noise-pop masterpiece. Following the foray into acoustic roots music that informed the heartbroken King of America, Costello immediately redubbed himself Napoleon Dynamite for songwriting and DIY-cover-painting credits, teamed again with the Attractions and producer Nick Lowe, and headed for the figurative garage. Spattered with bad love and strange dreams, nervy Beatles "tributes" (the deranged "I Want You" held the same end-of-side-1 place on the original LP as John Lennon's namesake ode to Yoko did on Abbey Road), and blurt after blurt of bent tunefulness, Blood & Chocolate was for all that an exceedingly artful, criminally ignored album. "Someday they'll probably make a movie out of all of this," Costello sings on the penultimate "Poor Napoleon." "There won't even have to be a murder, just a slow, dissolving kiss." Rhino's remastered edition adds a disc of bonus tracks, including the fabulous Sir Douglas Quintet homage "Baby's Got a Brand New Hairdo" and five solo acoustic performances of soul and country nuggets that bring the set full circle to King's stylistic core. --Rickey Wright
