Blood & Chocolate

"A pissed off thirty-two year old, divorcee's version of 'This Year's Model,'" Elvis Costello deems this 1986 album in the Rykodisc reissue's liner notes; if anything, given its raw sonics and Esperanto sleeve credits, it's even more perverse than that 1978 masterpiece. A first finale for Costello's working relationship with the Attractions, Blood & Chocolate brings the group together for a series of songs that moves through garage noise ("Uncomplicated"), twisted folk-rock ("Crimes of Paris"), a harrowing Dylan-Lennon homage ("I Want You"), and other genre twistings. Perhaps the most underrated classic in the man's catalog, it carries six bonus tracks--including the fabulous "Baby's Got a Brand New Hairdo"--in this edition. --Rickey Wright