Spike

After making Blood and Chocolate in 1986, Elvis Costello broke up long time backing band, the Attractions and seemingly disappeared from recording music. There was a near three year gap between Blood and Chocolate and Spike, unusual for the prolific artist. During this time, he wrote songs with Paul McCartney. The hit song “Veronica” and “Pads, Paws, and Claws” appeared on the album. He also was given a massive budget (Costello described this budget as equivalent to the budget for a small movie) to record the album by his new record label, Warner Bros., who he signed to after his deal with Columbia Records expired. He took advantage of this, and recorded a large amount of tracks with various musical groups in five different cities. By the end, Costello had, in his own words, enough songs for five albums. He took an hours worth of these songs from the various sessions which results in the very eclectic style of the album. The album jumps arond various styles such as jazz, swing, and rock and covers various themes and ideas such as the death penalty on “Let Him Dangle” and Margaret Thatcher on “Tramp That Dirt Down”. The album was well received by critics and sold well, becoming one of Costello’s best-selling albums of the eighties.