Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello brought back his old producer Nick Lowe, rehired the Attractions and cut the frantic, raw Blood & Chocolate. This is a solid set, though it tries a bit too hard to sound like the avenging Angry Young Man of old instead of just Elvis Costello. Good songs: "Tokyo Storm Warning," "I Hope Your Happy Now," "Blue Chair," and "Battered Old Bird." Great song: "I Want You," which starts off as a love song and then goes off the rails and turns into an increasingly unsettling tale of desire, anger, dread and infidelity.

To pigeonhole this as just another Elvis C. (and the Attractions) record is to ignore the plain fact that he (they) hasn't (haven'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, and until midway through side two, when the songs start portending more than they can deliver, it's so straightforward you think he must be putting you on. But he's just voicing his pain and the world's, in that order, as usual. When the two strongest songs on a pop record run over six minutes apiece, we're talking sustained vision. (Grade - A-)