102: Blood & Chocolate (with Scott Bunn) (Patreon)

In the latest in a recurring series on the albums of Elvis Costello, Scott Bunn, the author of the wonderful Recliner Notes blog, joins me from Asheville, North Carolina for an in-depth discussion of EC’s final album for Columbia Records before the breakup of his band The Attractions, Blood & Chocolate.

After a creative low point in the wake of the end of his first marriage, and with a dysfunctional band who were nearing their end, Costello roared back in 1986 with both King of America and Blood & Chocolate, the latter a strange, loud rock record about breakups, jealousy, infidelity and increasingly psychotic cuck fantasies, set against an apocalyptic world spinning off its axis.

We go track by track into the album; along the way we discuss the role his new partner Cait O’Riordan played in its creation and the various personae Costello inhabits on the record, including his alter-ego Napoleon Dynamite (yes, that name derives from this album, though unacknowledged by the film’s director)

Follow Scott Bunn on Twitter, check out the Recliner Notes blog, and listen to Scott’s indie radio podcast!

"I Want You" - Fiona Apple (live with Costello’s band), 2006

Selected essays on Costello songs, from the Recliner Notes blog

"Suit of Lights"

"Uncomplicated"

"Tokyo Storm Warning"

"My Dark Life"

“Life After Rehab”, an interview with Cait O’Riordan, from the Irish Independent, March 30, 2008