My Greatest 100 (or so) Albums...

King of America (Columbia, 1986) and Blood and Chocolate (Columbia, 1986) Elvis Costello. In 1986, EC put out two fantastic, and stylistcally different records. King of America came out early in the year and featured:

"Brilliant Mistake" – 3:44
"Lovable" (MacManus, Cait O'Riordan) – 2:52
"Our Little Angel" – 4:06
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus, Gloria Caldwell) – 3:17
"Glitter Gulch" – 3:14
"Indoor Fireworks" (Elvis Costello) – 4:10
"Little Palaces" – 3:51
"I'll Wear It Proudly" – 4:21
"American Without Tears" – 4:30
"Eisenhower Blues" (J. B. Lenoir) – 3:43
"Poisoned Rose" – 4:09
"Big Light" – 2:33
"Jack of All Parades" – 5:17
"Suit of Lights" – 4:02
"Sleep of the Just" – 3:48

That's 15 great songs. EC's record company, Columbia, made a terrible mistake at this point and issued Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, as the single and video, which quite mistakenly gave the impression that Elvis was in the cover song/decline portion of his career. Nothing could have been further from the truth, and just to prove it in September of 1986, Elvis Costello and the Attractions back with producer Nick Lowe released Blood and Chocolate which would have put any doubts about E's career direction to rest. However; Columbia did not promote the record and Elvis left the label. Here are the 11 great tracks:

Uncomplicated" – 3:26
"I Hope You're Happy Now" – 3:07
"Tokyo Storm Warning" (Costello, Cait O'Riordan) – 6:24
"Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head" – 5:04
"I Want You" – 6:40
"Honey Are You Straight or Are You Blind?" – 2:08
"Blue Chair" – 3:09
"Battered Old Bird" – 5:50
"Crimes of Paris" – 4:19
"Poor Napoleon" – 3:21
"Next Time Round" – 3:35

Awesome stuff for `86, and you can get it at Amazon.