Lloyd Cole Albums (13)
What The Critics Say
While not many on this side of the pond have noticed, Lloyd Cole, that smart, blackly humorous and self-deprecating songwriter has been assembling a nice catalog, chock-full of fine recordings. Luckily for us, his association with One Little Indian makes provisions for American releases for those who do understand that Cole is one of the most unique, tender, witty and biting songwriters out there, and he also writes a hell of a love song. Anti Depressant is the great double edge in Cole's catalog. In Cole's thinking, while it's true that an anti-depressant can make you feel better, the simple fact that you need one makes clear the appearance of depression. Many of these songs have that double edge in them. Cole produced this set and plays almost everything here with help from a few guests, most notably Jill Sobule, former Commotions bandmate Neil Clark on slide guitar, with string arrangements by David Trenholm from King Radio. Anti Depressant is an interesting mirror image to 2003's dark and moody Music in a Foreign Language. These songs are about mid-life, its traps, compromises, disappointments, and the hidden delights found in aging. Desire is not absent in these songs, it's merely channeled differently, and new ones pop up in the gaps where others have either been realized or forgotten. Beginning with the jaunty pop of "The Young Idealists," Cole examines his youth thinking the world was his and his friends. That idealism may not have been wrong, but it was certainly naive. Then he reports quite honestly about trading in futures as part of the neo-con economic dream and its saturation in rampant materialism. The acceptance of that folly is well-documented here. It's an unromantic look back, and an unflinching acceptance of the present. It's utterly journalistic, yet funny and sad too. "Woman in a Bar," is classic Cole -- albeit on a piano rather than a guitar. Strings float and underscore the sung lines, contemplating sexual play, infidelity, working life, the desire for contact after children have gone to bed, grown-up monogamous life, being in a bar alone after it all. He ends this sardonic tale with "No longer angry, no longer young, no longer/driven to distraction/Not even by Scarlett Johanssen/A few moving parts need to be replaced/the engine starts/but only on Tuesday..." Melancholy yes, but even more self-accepting and delightfully self-deprecating. This is Cole at his best, sophisticated but not cryptic. Well-versed in folk, pop, rock and cabaret styles, his quips are dramatic, but wonderfully dry. But when he needs to turn all this over in favor of a straight-up love song, he does it better than almost anyone: check "New York City Sunshine," for all his wandering among "the junkies and the millionaires," there is an unspoiled, wide-eyed look into the face of his Other. He acknowledges his own poverty of spirit, his shallowness, and his inability to impress as being the best he can do because it's what's real. The strings swoop and wind, float and hover all through Cole's gorgeous melody. Cole's engaging most of the instruments on his own makes for a solid, well-paced stroll through his latest batch of concerns. It's a yuppies record, but this yuppy laughs at the contradictions in his life because he's accepted them. Wit doesn't rock, it rolls, and generously, through an intimate look at not only aging, but at the gracefulness of it all. Solid, delightful, and moving. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Music in a Foreign Language'
Release Date 6/16/2003
Tracks 10
Label Sanctuary
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What The Critics Say
Lloyd Cole's seventh official solo album, Music in a Foreign Language, is his most intimate and low-key yet. He retains Dave Derby from the Negatives and calls in former Commotion Neil Clark to play guitar, but mostly the album has the feel of a solo record. Drawing on the same musical palette that his "lost" album Etc. does (acoustic guitars, restrained drums, and subtle instrumentation), this record succeeds in a way that most of his over-produced previous albums fail to do. This is also the first record on which Cole seems resigned to be an adult balladeer; there are no rock tunes to be found. His voice is as deep and rich as ever, and the lack of huge rock drums and loud guitars allows him to forgo the oversinging trap he sometimes falls into. Tracks like "Late Night, Early Town" and "Today I'm Not So Sure" are beautiful, autumnal tracks that soar with sadness. Cole manages to strip down his sound without falling into the trap that many artists do, that of stripping too much away and becoming boring. There are enough bits of sonic imagination to keep the listener awake and admiring Cole's gentle touch: the strings on "My Other Life," the rippling guitars of "Cutting Out," the gauzy pedal steel of "No More Love Songs," the sweet ba-ba background vocals and bossa nova beat of "Brazil." His cutting, literate lyrics also keep the listener from becoming complacent; melancholy and bitter, the album sounds like it was written postbreakup and prerecovery. The cover of Nick Cave's "People Just Ain't No Good" certainly points toward some lingering bitterness on Cole's part. Too bad for him, but it makes for good listening for everyone else. Cole is growing old gracefully, much like Roddy Frame or Stephen Duffy. 1980s nostalgia is fun, but some of the guys who were there ended up making some of the best records of their lives in the early 2000s, and Music in a Foreign Language is just that, one of Cole's best. ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide
'Loaded: Live in New York'
Release Date 11/14/2001
Tracks 16
Label Megaworld
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What The Critics Say
A self-proclaimed lost album, Lloyd Cole's Etc. is a gentle, charming, and mature collection of demos, covers, and original songs recorded between Love Story and The Negatives. It just might be Cole's most accessible album. Relying heavily on Cole's folksy, country acoustic guitar strumming, Neil Clark's plaintive lap steel guitar work, and Cole's perfectly subtle and introspective vocals, Etc. is remarkably cohesive for a release that just narrowly escaped never seeing the light of day. Much of the album takes on a similar haunted air to that of the Lilac Time's stellar Looking for a Day in the Night. Though the album comes across as sort of a melancholic, pastoral adult lullaby, Cole fills the cracks and crevices with his pensive delivery of lyrics that are far more optimistic than those on his earlier, more sarcastic albums. If he's slightly more upbeat, Cole still hasn't lost his singular abilities to turn a phrase or whip up memorable hooks at will. Any number of these 14 songs would seem perfectly at home on an updated greatest-hits collection. "Old Enough to Know Better" is most likely a bit of self-therapy; it's closing refrain of "there's no release in this life" is powerful and heartbreaking. The slow-burning "Memphis," a cover of Karen Black's self-penned song from Robert Altman's Nashville, reimagines Cole as a country-pop balladeer. The cover of Bob Dylan's "You're a Big Girl Now" is equally touching. "Alright People" suggests a less wacky Robyn Hitchcock jamming with jangle-meister Johnny Marr, while "Weakness" courts despair with equal amounts of British psychedelia and romantic charm. The demo of "Fool You Are" is nearly too pretty for words. Etc. is an excellent and thoroughly accomplished addition to Lloyd Cole's discography. It's an essential album for Cole's fans and for everyone who appreciates a bit of pop charm in their folk songs. ~ Tim DiGravina, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Plastic Wood is a huge departure from the jangle rock albums that Lloyd Cole usually creates. Purely instrumental and recorded alone in New York and London in 1999 and 2000, the album is a startlingly beautiful collection of 18 ambient electronic songs. Cole's gentle, pastoral melodies are everywhere, but they're remarkably subtle and delicate here. Indeed, this is no noisy, experimental Aphex Twin wannabe at work. This is Cole operating in the hushed tones of Brian Eno's acclaimed ambient albums. One could easily confuse Plastic Wood with the work of ISAN or another of the acclaimed artists on the Morr Music label. When Cole features acoustic guitar on the tracks, the songs easily stand alongside those of Manual's Until Tomorrow. And while hints of the IDM of Aphex Twin and Mike Paradinas do appear, there's never a moment where one worries that Cole is about to riff away on some drum'n'bass tangent. "Headlights" is probably the high point, with its sweet whiffs of sorrow and superb use of high-pitched tones. Elsewhere, echoes of nursery box lullabies linger in the air, an atmosphere of melancholy hovers over extended passages, sad synthetic strings weep, sci-fi sound effects create spooky textures, and tender bells mingle with haunting, symphonic refrains. If there's a rare occasional lapse into a bit of sappy Tangerine Dream territory here and there, Cole more than makes up for it with the album's thoroughly modern sensibilities and smart, pretty arrangements. If the excellent Plastic Wood is any indication, alternative rock icon Lloyd Cole can add "master electronic musician" to his resumé. ~ Tim DiGravina, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
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. ~ Erik Hage, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
It stands to reason that a Lloyd Cole album called Love Story would not have a happy beginning or middle, much less ending. Actually, though, it does start out happy, "Trigger Happy," that is, and later on, Cole is "Happy for You," in which he sings, "If you love him, you should leave me." In between, things get no sunnier, as Cole and his characters drink and despair, but carry on. That determination is very much part of Cole's negative world-view: "Everybody knows this is nowhere," he says, to coin a phrase, "but you've gotta be there." (Except, one supposes, for Lucy, who jumps from the 39th floor in the rollicking "Let's Get Lost.") Typically, Cole couches these sentiments in melodic folk-rock, such that, with the volume low and just following the attractive lilt of his voice, a listener might find this a far more soothing piece of music than it turns out to be on closer examination. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Bad Vibes, Lloyd Cole's sixth new studio album, marks a big change in terms of sound. Producer Adam Peters and mixer Bob Clearmountain have tried to re-create the experimental days of the mid-'60s, employing a wide variety of studio gimmicks. But if Bad Vibes is Lloyd Cole's most produced record, it also is his earthiest. The singer's voice is recorded (sometimes with echo or double-tracking) especially high in the mix, and his singing is as stylized as it was on his first two albums, though in a different way. Here, he affects a sardonic, disengaged tone. All of this makes Bad Vibes Cole's most varied and most ambitious album, but far from his best. The odd sound stage and attitude are anything but accessible, and Cole himself has rarely been as vitriolic. [The U.S. Rykodisc version contains two bonus tracks, "For the Pleasure of Your Company" and "4 M.B.," not contained on the Fantana version.] ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Don't Get Weird on Me Babe'
Release Date 2/1/1991
Tracks 12
Label Alliance
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What The Critics Say
Lloyd Cole's second solo album, 1991's Don't Get Weird on Me, Babe, was about a half-decade ahead of its time. If it had come out in 1996, after Richard Davies' Cardinal project, the High Llamas' Gideon Gaye, and the new belief in indie circles that Pet Sounds and Burt Bacharach were musical icons worthy of veneration, this would have slotted right in. In the year bracketed by My Bloody Valentine's Loveless and Nirvana's Nevermind, Don't Get Weird on Me, Babe (title courtesy of Raymond Carver) was considered a self-indulgent oddity. In retrospect, however, it's clearly one of Lloyd Cole's finest works. The album is divided into two distinct parts. One (the first half in the U.S., the second half everywhere else) is more of Cole's trademark literate, jangly guitar pop, featuring the sterling "Tell Your Sister" and the uncharacteristically rocking "She's a Girl and I'm a Man," the closest Cole ever came to an American hit single. This side features a core band of Fred Maher (who co-produced) on drums, Matthew Sweet on bass, and Robert Quine on guitar. That trio also appears on the other half of the album, but that set of six songs is dominated by a full orchestra arranged and conducted by Paul Buckmaster. Buckmaster's dramatic orchestrations add an entirely new dimension to the darker-edged songs without drowning them in Mantovani-style glop. In fact, the arrangements are rather low-key, especially on the haunting, hushed "Margo's Waltz," a gorgeous song with a jazzy bass part by Leland Sklar, subtle vibes, breathy female backing vocals, and almost subliminal brushed drums. Strongly reminiscent of Bacharach's most restrained '60s work -- especially during ex-Commotion Blair Cowan's lovely Hammond B3 solos -- "Margo's Waltz" is among the three or four best songs Cole has ever written. However, it's only one of many highlights on this exceptional, underrated album. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
In the two and a half years following the release of Mainstream, Lloyd Cole signed to Capitol Records in the U.S., split from the Commotions, and moved to New York. For his first solo album, he assembled a team consisting of two New York band veterans -- drummer/co-producer Fred Maher and guitarist Robert Quine, both of whom had played in Richard Hell's Voidoids and Lou Reed's backup group -- plus bassist Matthew Sweet and Commotions keyboard player Blair Cowan. As a result, Lloyd Cole boasts a tougher, harder sound than the Commotions' records. Cole's vocals, meanwhile, have become more direct and less stylized. Cole's lyrics are also less adorned, and he has lightened up somewhat. Much of Lloyd Cole is musically astringent in a way Cole hasn't managed previously, even if the album is far less ambitious than his first two records. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
