11335 - LLOYD COLE - THE NEGATIVES (2000)

LLOYD COLE
''THE NEGATIVES''
NOVEMBER 14 2000
41:29
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1 Past Imperfect 04:40
2 Impossible Girl 03:58
3 No More Love Songs 03:18
4 What's Wrong with This Picture? 05:30
5 Man on the Verge 03:28
6 Negative Attitude 03:10
7 Vin Ordinaire 04:15
8 Too Much E 02:30
9 Tried to Rock 03:27
10 That Boy 04:41
11 I'm Gone 02:28
Tracks By Cole (& Gary Clark track 10)
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Neil Clark/Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Steel)
Lloyd Cole/Guitar, Synthesizer, Vocals
Dave Derby/Bass, Guest Artist
David Philander Derby/Guitar (Bass), Vocals
Anne Dudley/String Arrangements
Duke Quartet/Strings
Michael Kotch/Guitar, Soloist
Amanda Kramer/Keyboards, Vocals
Rafa Maciejak/Drums
Adam Peters/Synthesizer
Robert Quine/Guitar (Electric), Soloist
George Rush/Bass
Adam Schlesinger/Arranger
Jill Sobule/Guest Artist, Guitar, Vocals
Chris Wilson/Bass
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REVIEW/AMG
Erik Hage
This moody yet self-deprecating singer/songwriter's album will be nothing new to fans that have followed the long arc of Lloyd Cole's career. One listen to "What's Wrong with This Picture" -- which offers the sentiment "'Smile,' she said, 'If you want I'll look the other way/Til you regain your melancholy disposition or until you get over yourself'" over a bright guitar figure -- places longtime fans on familiar ground. Cole's uncanny melodic ear is also still in place. What is new, however, is his return to fronting a full-time band after spending his post-Commotions years (they split in 1988) as a fairly singular figure. The Negatives includes such talent as Jill Sobule ("I Kissed a Girl") and one-time Dambuilder Dave Derby, and the merry-band-of-thieves ethic seems to lend some levity to the proceedings. "Tried to Rock" casts a wry eye on Cole's early solo days (circa his 1990 self-titled solo debut), when the onetime arch '80s intellectual/singer (a la Morrissey) moved to New York, grew his hair, and embraced general debauchery. "I did not fail to see what it takes to rock/Is that which I have not," sings Cole in highly un-rock, grammatical fashion over a ponderous rock-ballad beat. The album opener, "Past Imperfect," also serves up some retrospection, offering lyrical references to Cole's "Brand New Friend" and "Lost Weekend" (as well as Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel" with "Why was my head in the unmade bed?"). Cole, at age 40, seems comfortable with himself and his career -- quirks, blemishes, and all -- and one would be hard pressed to find any of his U.K. '80s contemporaries making such a strong, winningly melodic album...if they're still making albums at all.
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11334 - LLOYD COLE AND THE COMMOTIONS - 1984-1989 (1989)

LLOYD COLE AND THE COMMOTIONS
''1984-1989"
JUNE 1989
52:54
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1 Perfect Skin 03:13
2 Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? 03:04
3 Forest Fire 05:09
4 You Will Never Be No Good 02:39
5 Rattlesnakes 03:27
6 Perfect Blue 04:16
7 Brand New Friend 04:52
8 Cut Me Down 04:27
9 Lost Weekend 03:14
10 Her Last Fling 02:43
11 Mr. Malcontent 04:49
12 My Bag 03:55
13 Jennifer She Said 03:02
14 From The Hip 03:57
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Neil Clark - guitar
Lloyd Cole - vocals, guitar
Blair Cowan - keyboards
Lawrence Donegan - bass guitar
Stephen Irvine - drums, tambourine
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REVIEW/AMG
Mike DeGagne
The lush, facile simplicity of Lloyd Cole's music is brimmed with cushioned harmonies and soft-spoken choruses, and more often than not deals with the complexity of love. Accompanied by the bright jangle of guitar that's hitched to palatable pop tempos, his work with backup band the Commotions produced a number of melody-ridden songs that are best accessed on 1984-1989, a collection of their finest material. Not unlike Orange Juice or the Blue Nile, Cole's music used polished instrumentation behind elements of subdued '80s Europop, best exemplified in songs like "Perfect Skin" and "You Will Never Be No Good." As an enduring and enjoyable compilation, 1984-1989 really does gather the cream of their music, and each song relinquishes a clean, robust sound. Some of the more beautiful tracks include the friendly candor of "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?" or the irregularity between the lines of "Jennifer She Said." "Brand New Friend" glimmers with Cole's vocal resilience, as does the pristine bounce of "Lost Weekend." All three of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' albums contribute songs to this best-of, with the stronger pieces coming from 1984's Rattlesnakes. Cole's music strays from sounding contrived or overlapped and sports comparisons to the Beautiful South in that they share the same lyrical wit and appeal. Relatively unknown in North America, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions contributed to some of the finest music to ever hover with pop ease, and this compilation lines up his best work all in one place.
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BIOGRAPHY
WIKIPEDIA
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11333 - LLOYD COLE AND THE COMMOTIONS - RATTLESNAKES (DELUXE EDITION), DISC TWO (2004) (1984)

LLOYD COLE AND THE COMMOTIONS
''RATTLESNAKES (DELUXE EDITION), DISC TWO''
2004
OCTOBER 12 1984
92:22
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DISC ONE (35:31)
1 Perfect Skin 03:11
2 Speedboat 04:38
3 Rattlesnakes 03:24
4 Down On Mission Street 03:44
5 Forest Fire 04:34
6 Charlotte Street 03:51
7 2cv 02:51
8 Four Flights Up 02:33
9 Patience 03:36
10 Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? 03:04
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DISC TWO (56:51)
1 Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken (Demo) 02:07
2 Perfect Skin (Demo) 03:19
3 Glory (Live) 02:29
4 Beautiful City (Live) 03:43
5 Charlotte Street (Live) 03:40
6 Sweetness (Live) 02:42
7 2cv (Live) 02:49
8 Patience (Saturday Live Radio Session) 03:21
9 Forest Fire (Richard Skinner Session) 04:13
10 Speedboat (Richard Skinner Session) 03:59
11 Rattlesnakes (Richard Skinner Session) 03:29
12 The Sea and The Sand 03:02
13 You Will Never Be No Good 02:39
14 Andy's Babies 02:52
15 Glory 02:39
16 Sweetness 02:51
17 Beautiful City (Rattlesnakes Recording 03:37
18 Jesus Said 03:11
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Neil Clark - guitar
Lloyd Cole - vocals, guitar
Blair Cowan - keyboards
Lawrence Donegan - bass guitar
Stephen Irvine - drums, tambourine
Ric Ocasek - remix on "Perfect Skin", "Four Flights Up" and "Patience"
Anne Dudley and the Commotions - string arrangements
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REVIEW/AMG
by Stewart Mason
One of the finest debuts of the '80s, and possibly the defining album of the whole U.K. indie jangle scene that also included Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera, and dozens of other bands, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' Rattlesnakes is a college rock masterpiece of smart, ironic lyrics and sympathetic folk-rock-based melodies. The Glasgow-based band (Lloyd Cole on guitar and vocals, Neil Clark on lead guitar, Blair Cowan on keyboards, Lawrence Donegan on bass, and Stephen Irvine on drums) has a level of interplay remarkable in a group that had been playing for less than two years, and for all the attention given to Cole's hyper-literate lyrics, the album's finest moments are things like the slinky interludes between the wry verses on the Renata Adler-inspired "Speedboat" and Clark's glorious extended solo at the end of the album's finest song, "Forest Fire." Originally released in the U.S. by Geffen but reissued on CD as part of Capitol's acquisition of the Commotions in 1988 (with the original cover, which had been changed for the Geffen release), Rattlesnakes consists of ten perfect, or close to it, pop songs in just a hair under 36 minutes. Kicking off with the group's first U.K. single, the impossibly wordy, stream-of-consciousness "Perfect Skin," the album is basically a series of verbal snapshots of love gone wrong among the overeducated and underemployed. Cole's low-pitched and surprisingly soulful -- for a philosophy student from the University of Glasgow, anyway -- voice flits between earnestness, compassion, and arch derision ("Must you tell me all your secrets when it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing?"), while his lyrics sketch incisive character studies filled with smart and funny one-liners, near-obsessive name-dropping, and references to enough novels and movies for a semester-long pop culture class. The title track, for example, is based on a key image from Joan Didion's stark Hollywood novel Play It as It Lays, and its chorus compares the song's heroine to Eva Marie Saint's character in the film On the Waterfront. In less skilled hands, this would all be unbearably pretentious, but Cole's sly sense of humor and self-mocking wit keep things on the right side of ambitious. The German CD of Rattlesnakes (Polydor 823 683) will be of interest to North American Commotions fans. The disc not only contains the original versions of three songs Geffen had Ric Ocasek remix for the U.S. release (which are also on the Capitol reissue); it also features a unique version of "Forest Fire" with the guitar solo coda extended by nearly 40 seconds and four B-sides from British singles of the period: "Sweetness," the wry Warhol superstars portrait "Andy's Babies," "The Sea and the Sand," and the phenomenal "You Will Never Be No Good." In any incarnation, Rattlesnakes is a classic.
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ABOUT THE ALBUM
WIKIPEDIA
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BIOGRAPHY
WIKIPEDIA
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TO THE TOP
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11332 - LLOYD COLE AND THE COMMOTIONS - RATTLESNAKES (DELUXE EDITION), DISC ONE (2004) (1984)

LLOYD COLE AND THE COMMOTIONS
''RATTLESNAKES (DELUXE EDITION), DISC ONE''
2004
OCTOBER 12 1984
92:22
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DISC ONE (35:31)
1 Perfect Skin 03:11
2 Speedboat 04:38
3 Rattlesnakes 03:24
4 Down On Mission Street 03:44
5 Forest Fire 04:34
6 Charlotte Street 03:51
7 2cv 02:51
8 Four Flights Up 02:33
9 Patience 03:36
10 Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? 03:04
**********
DISC TWO (56:51)
1 Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken (Demo) 02:07
2 Perfect Skin (Demo) 03:19
3 Glory (Live) 02:29
4 Beautiful City (Live) 03:43
5 Charlotte Street (Live) 03:40
6 Sweetness (Live) 02:42
7 2cv (Live) 02:49
8 Patience (Saturday Live Radio Session) 03:21
9 Forest Fire (Richard Skinner Session) 04:13
10 Speedboat (Richard Skinner Session) 03:59
11 Rattlesnakes (Richard Skinner Session) 03:29
12 The Sea and The Sand 03:02
13 You Will Never Be No Good 02:39
14 Andy's Babies 02:52
15 Glory 02:39
16 Sweetness 02:51
17 Beautiful City (Rattlesnakes Recording 03:37
18 Jesus Said 03:11
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Neil Clark - guitar
Lloyd Cole - vocals, guitar
Blair Cowan - keyboards
Lawrence Donegan - bass guitar
Stephen Irvine - drums, tambourine
Ric Ocasek - remix on "Perfect Skin", "Four Flights Up" and "Patience"
Anne Dudley and the Commotions - string arrangements
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REVIEW/AMG
by Stewart Mason
One of the finest debuts of the '80s, and possibly the defining album of the whole U.K. indie jangle scene that also included Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera, and dozens of other bands, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' Rattlesnakes is a college rock masterpiece of smart, ironic lyrics and sympathetic folk-rock-based melodies. The Glasgow-based band (Lloyd Cole on guitar and vocals, Neil Clark on lead guitar, Blair Cowan on keyboards, Lawrence Donegan on bass, and Stephen Irvine on drums) has a level of interplay remarkable in a group that had been playing for less than two years, and for all the attention given to Cole's hyper-literate lyrics, the album's finest moments are things like the slinky interludes between the wry verses on the Renata Adler-inspired "Speedboat" and Clark's glorious extended solo at the end of the album's finest song, "Forest Fire." Originally released in the U.S. by Geffen but reissued on CD as part of Capitol's acquisition of the Commotions in 1988 (with the original cover, which had been changed for the Geffen release), Rattlesnakes consists of ten perfect, or close to it, pop songs in just a hair under 36 minutes. Kicking off with the group's first U.K. single, the impossibly wordy, stream-of-consciousness "Perfect Skin," the album is basically a series of verbal snapshots of love gone wrong among the overeducated and underemployed. Cole's low-pitched and surprisingly soulful -- for a philosophy student from the University of Glasgow, anyway -- voice flits between earnestness, compassion, and arch derision ("Must you tell me all your secrets when it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing?"), while his lyrics sketch incisive character studies filled with smart and funny one-liners, near-obsessive name-dropping, and references to enough novels and movies for a semester-long pop culture class. The title track, for example, is based on a key image from Joan Didion's stark Hollywood novel Play It as It Lays, and its chorus compares the song's heroine to Eva Marie Saint's character in the film On the Waterfront. In less skilled hands, this would all be unbearably pretentious, but Cole's sly sense of humor and self-mocking wit keep things on the right side of ambitious. The German CD of Rattlesnakes (Polydor 823 683) will be of interest to North American Commotions fans. The disc not only contains the original versions of three songs Geffen had Ric Ocasek remix for the U.S. release (which are also on the Capitol reissue); it also features a unique version of "Forest Fire" with the guitar solo coda extended by nearly 40 seconds and four B-sides from British singles of the period: "Sweetness," the wry Warhol superstars portrait "Andy's Babies," "The Sea and the Sand," and the phenomenal "You Will Never Be No Good." In any incarnation, Rattlesnakes is a classic.
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ABOUT THE ALBUM
WIKIPEDIA
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BIOGRAPHY
WIKIPEDIA
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TO THE TOP
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7810 - LLOYD COLE - STANDARDS, LLOYD COLE. (2014)

LLOYD COLE
''STANDARDS, LLOYD COLE.''
JUNE 24 2013
41:21

1 - California Earthquake 3:49
2 - Women's Studies 4:11
3 - Period Piece 3:26
4 - Myrtle And Rose 5:17
5 - No Truck 2:50
6 - Blue Like Mars 4:19
7 - Opposites Day 4:14
8 - Silver Lake 2:41
9 - It's Late 3:08
10 - Kids Today 2:54
11 - Diminished Ex 4:16
Words and Music by Lloyd Cole except California Earthquake (John Hartford)

Drums - Fred Maher
Bass, vocals - Matthew Sweet
Keyboards - Blair Cowan
Guitars - Will Cole, Mark Schwaber, Matt Cullen
Piano, vocals - Joan Wasser
Harmony vocals - Dave Derby, Mark Schwaber, Will Cole
Percussion - Mike Wyzik
Guitars, keyboards, programming - Lloyd Cole

REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
After a decade spent issuing mostly acoustic singer/songwriter offerings, Lloyd Cole returns to rock & roll proper with Standards. This 11-song set was crowd-funded and recorded in Los Angeles, New York, and Massachusetts. Cole enlists the help of old friends in his rhythm section: bassist Matthew Sweet, drummer Fred Maher, and former Commotions' keyboardist Blair Cowan, and features appearances by Joan "As Police Woman" Wasserman and her guitarist son Will. Though he'd once sworn off electric rock, Cole changed his mind, and has re-embraced the rootsy, hooky pop/rock he made decades ago. His songwriting signature -- wry humor -- is firmly entrenched here, as are his dark love songs, but they've been refined -- not tempered -- by the ensuing years. Interestingly, Standards (itself an ironic title since there aren't any) opens with a cover of John Hartford's "California Earthquake," written for Mama Cass Elliot. Crunchy drums, pounding piano, and electric power chords intro his delivery. Compared to anything he's done in a decade, this is positively thunderous. It's followed by the highlight "Women's Studies," which owes small debts musically to Bob Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie" and the Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers." The lyrics, however, are pure Cole. He juxtaposes various images from his memory yet refuses to enshrine them: " ...If Josef K was from Edinburgh/And Fast Product from Prague/That could have been kind of funny/Or maybe not that funny at all." One can also hear Dylan in his delivery of the bubbling "Period Piece" and the elegiac rock of "Diminished Ex." Yet wrapped in that trademark sparkling guitar sound and punchy yet sparse drums (as well as occasional keyboards that range from a cagey synth to a stabbing organ), they are unmistakably his own. Few can write breakup tunes as well as Cole, evidenced here by "Blue Like Mars," which cuts loose with a stinging lead guitar break, and "Myrtle and Rose," which contains the line: "...the longer you were gone, the less the longing...." One can unmistakably hear a kind of tribute to Television's "Marquee Moon" in the doubled guitars riff and interplay on the killer "Opposite Day." "It's Late" is a lithe rocker that crosses his Negatives' sound with neo-psych sounds and the longing spirits of Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers. His humor permeates the breezy "Kids Today" (and hits the same height of irony as some of Mose Allison's better tunes) yet demonstrates how well he understands the ironies involved in the aging process. The production here is crisp and clean, but sometimes moves afield, revealing layers under the melodies. That said, there is no noodling here. Standards finds Cole at a place of razor-sharp renewal. He uses the past unapologetically yet vitally, and delivers a record fans will find both irresistibly familiar and firmly of this moment in his career.

BIOGRAPHY
By by Jason Ankeny
Through both his lauded work fronting the Commotions and his more eclectic solo efforts, Lloyd Cole established himself as one of the most articulate and acute songwriters of the post-punk era. Born January 31, 1961, in Buxton, England, Cole formed the Commotions in 1982 while studying philosophy at the University of Glasgow. Originally a large soul band, the group eventually trimmed itself down to a quintet that included keyboardist Blair Cowan, guitarist Neil Clark, bassist Lawrence Donegan, and drummer Stephen Irvine.

The uncommon quality of Cole's songwriting earned the Commotions a contract with British Polydor, and in 1984, they debuted with Rattlesnakes, a wry, heartfelt record of jangling guitar pop stuffed with references to the likes of Jules et Jim, Simone de Beauvoir, Norman Mailer, and On the Waterfront; "Perfect Skin," the shimmering first single, reached the U.K. Top 30. Produced by the hitmaking team of Alan Winstanley and Clive Langer, 1985's Easy Pieces was a slicker effort that included the singles "Lost Weekend" and "Brand New Friend," both of which earned significant airplay on alternative radio outlets.

Following the release of 1987's Mainstream, Cole disbanded the Commotions and moved to New York City to establish himself as a solo performer. There he joined forces with noted session drummer Fred Maher, who enlisted ex-Voidoid Robert Quine on guitar and an up-and-coming singer/songwriter named Matthew Sweet to play bass for Cole's eponymously titled 1990 solo debut, which continued much in the vein of his work with the Commotions. Released in 1991, Don't Get Weird on Me, Babe marked a major artistic shift, as the entire second half of the album explored lush, string-sweetened cabaret music, arranged by Paul Buckmaster (known for his work with Elton John and the Rolling Stones).

Commercial success continued to elude Cole, however, and it took 1993's Bad Vibes -- a diverse effort touching upon psychedelia and electronics -- a year to find U.S. distribution. By the time of 1995's Love Story, his sound had come full circle; a return to the more minimalist, folk-rock-inspired work with the Commotions, the LP not coincidentally marked Cole's reunion with the band's guitarist, Neil Clark. The new millennium sparked a new union for Cole, for his 2001 album The Negatives not only showcased the album's namesake, but the name of his new band. Collaborations with Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne, Ivy), Jill Sobule, and Michael Kotch (Vitamin C, Eve's Plum) were featured on the new record, as well as production credits from Stephen Street (the Smiths, Blur). Extensive touring followed.

Cole resurfaced in 2004 with the understated Music in a Foreign Language LP. Recorded largely at home, the album featured a cover of Nick Cave's "People Ain't No Good." In 2006, Anti-Depressant -- in which Cole compellingly dealt with the positive and negative aspects of aging -- was released. Broken Record followed four years later. The 2013 album Standards was co-funded by fans and featured contributions from Fred Maher and Matthew Sweet. He released an interesting electronic record, Selected Studies, Vol.1 in March 2013 with the Krautrock legend Hans-Joachim Roedelius. It received favorable reviews and provided another unique chapter in Cole's distinguished career.