Album · Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Blood & Chocolate by Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Blood & Chocolate is an album by Elvis Costello & the Attractions, released in 1986. 1 song from it has charted on rock radio countdowns, with 33 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “I Want You”, on 33 lists with a best position of #16.
Blood & Chocolate, released in September 1986 on Demon and Columbia, is the sound of Elvis Costello dragging the Attractions back into the room and letting the sparks fly. After the rootsy detour of King of America, he recalled Steve Nieve on keys, Bruce Thomas on bass and Pete Thomas on drums, plus old producer Nick Lowe, and set everyone up together at Olympic Studios in London. Tensions were running high, and the takes were mostly live and mostly first.
You can hear every bit of that friction. The production is raw and garage-rough, the songs are all revenge, guilt and bad dreams, and "I Want You" is a slow, obsessive crawl that runs well past six minutes. Cait O'Riordan of the Pogues pitches in on backing vocals. It was his lowest-charting album yet, and Costello and the Attractions then went their separate ways for eight years, but hindsight has ranked it among his finest.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Blood & Chocolate on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I Want You | 33 | #16 | – | 1986–2022 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.