Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Blood and Chocolate

There's something fascinating about down-and-out celebrities. It's a fact that may be denied by individuals, but is resoundingly confirmed by the popularity of Hollywood gossip media. And perhaps that schaden-freudian reality is just what made Elvis Costello's Blood and Chocolate such an interesting album.

Released in 1986, the album is one of the most highly praised by Costello fanatics, yet is by no means his best. The instrumentals are solid, but lack the polish of Imperial Bedroom's. The lyrics are profound, but fail to capture the feeling of importance like Armed Forces (Costello's only album to breach the top 10 on U.S. pop charts).

What makes Blood and Chocolate a classic is its odd juxtaposition with Costello's previous work. While his prior albums are from the standpoint of an aggressive, pissed off young man, Blood and Chocolate presents the artist as a vulnerable and (as Costello put it himself) "pissed off divorcee."

The effects of his first divorce are blatantly clear on this album. He wavers erratically between the roles of the wounded victim of an unrequited love and the finger pointing ex-husband who's been pushed too far.

Many of the songs play like open wounds as Costello pours his heart out to the listener. "Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head," for example, opens with the autobiographical lines, "Here comes Mr. Misery/ He's tearing out his hair again/ He's crying over her again."

Other tracks are, by comparison, far more accusatory. "I hope that you're happy now like you're supposed to be/ and I know that this will hurt you more than it hurts me," Costello seethes during the bridge of "I Hope You're Happy Now."

Both personas interweave in "I Want You," an emotional, almost unsettling song in which Costello painfully imagines the goings-on between his ex-love and her new flame. In a low, weary voice he obsessively lays his worries out for all to hear: "It's knowing that he knows you now after only guessing/ It's the thought of him undressing you or you undressing."

Of course, had Costello picked a more introspective approach with Blood and Chocolate, the album as we know it would seem more than a little hypocritical. After all, Costello can't even begin to claim he practiced "high fidelity" (bad pun intended) during the marriage.

Blood and Chocolate is thematically an atypical Costello album. The wall established by the artist (through scathing melodies about Oliver Cromwell, the radio industry etc.) to sustain a personal distance from his audience has been torn down. The destruction of said barrier allowed Costello to reinvent himself (symbolized by his use of the pseudonym Napoleon Dynamite long before director Jared Hess unknowingly stole the name) as a more mature and musically expansive songwriter.