Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
Showing posts with label Commotions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Commotions. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Lloyd Cole – Vicar Street – 30/10/19 – Live Review
Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2019/10/31/lloyd-cole-vicar-street-30-10-19-live-review/
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
How I learned to Love Lloyd
Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/27/how-i-learned-to-love-lloyd/
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Monday, September 15, 2014
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Friday, January 14, 2011
Album Review: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Mainstream
Lloyd Cole made his name with the Commotions on 1984’s classic debut Rattlesnakes, a perfect synergy of jangly guitars and pretentious literary references. After a more commercial follow-up Easy Pieces, they returned with 1987’s ‘difficult third album’, the presumably ironically titled Mainstream. It turned out to be his last with the Commotions.
The late 1980s was a bad time for music production, and the first track on this album My Bag (my bad) reinforces this. The song isn’t particularly poor but musically it’s all choppy guitars, drum machines and staccato vocals. Lloyd does a nice line in stream of consciousness lyrics though. This is followed up with 3 slower, gentle tracks which survive Lloyd Cole’s somewhat forced vocal delivery. These are helped by less reliance on forced literary references than previous material. From the Hip is a kind of gentle musing, but 29 is more substantial, with the subject being that of impending thirtiedom. The music builds to a nice mope-along plod of a song (in a good way).
The last of these 3, the title track is a little more scathing (“all you have to do is crawl”) and the guitar work is quite Lou Reed-ish. Following track Jennifer She Said is a great American style rock song, all twangy guitars and Elvis style vocals, and it works well.
Unfortunately from there the album takes a turn for the worse. Mister Malcontent is their attempt to do U2 with a big rock song and a kind of predictable chord progression, while Sean Penn Blues is better, another stream of consciousness type track. The rest veers from faux-jazz (Big Snake) to another ‘big’ U2-ish anthem (Hey Rusty) before petering out with These Days, a kind of electronic ballad.
It was time for reinvention and Lloyd’s solo career would do just that…
Monday, October 25, 2010
Album Review: Lloyd Cole – Broken Record
For those who remember Lloyd Cole and the Commotions in the 80s, the 2010 model is a rather different beast. His posture and attitude from his heyday has been replaced with a relaxed gentle self-deprecation. And he’s discovered folky country rock.
It suits him reasonably well, opening track Like A Broken Record is a gentle charmer, all steel guitar and self-deprecation (“I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, not that I had that much dignity left anyway”). The uptempo tracks aren’t bad either. Writers Retreat bops along nicely on a bed of harmonicas, slightly reminiscent of Whiskeytown, then the pace is taken down a notch or two on The Flipside, which sounds like any of the slower tracks from Lloyd’s 90s solo albums.
Why In The World could be something off Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love with its regretful tone (“maybe I’m not built for these times”) over a soaring keyboard-led melody. Westchester County Jail repeats the trick of Writers Retreat with added steel guitar. A bit of pace in the songs suits him quite well, That’s Alright has a nice REM-style midtempo groove to it while Oh Genevieve (classic Lloyd Cole title) is another song to add to his long list of odes to various girls.
Later, Rhinestones is a sprightly, banjo-led stomp, before closing track Double Happiness keeps up the pace, stretching out a little musically on the guitar before the end. All in all, Lloyd’s “edge” is almost completely absent here, but it’s a pleasant enough collection of tunes, very enjoyable for fans of Lloyd Cole.
It suits him reasonably well, opening track Like A Broken Record is a gentle charmer, all steel guitar and self-deprecation (“I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, not that I had that much dignity left anyway”). The uptempo tracks aren’t bad either. Writers Retreat bops along nicely on a bed of harmonicas, slightly reminiscent of Whiskeytown, then the pace is taken down a notch or two on The Flipside, which sounds like any of the slower tracks from Lloyd’s 90s solo albums.
Why In The World could be something off Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love with its regretful tone (“maybe I’m not built for these times”) over a soaring keyboard-led melody. Westchester County Jail repeats the trick of Writers Retreat with added steel guitar. A bit of pace in the songs suits him quite well, That’s Alright has a nice REM-style midtempo groove to it while Oh Genevieve (classic Lloyd Cole title) is another song to add to his long list of odes to various girls.
Later, Rhinestones is a sprightly, banjo-led stomp, before closing track Double Happiness keeps up the pace, stretching out a little musically on the guitar before the end. All in all, Lloyd’s “edge” is almost completely absent here, but it’s a pleasant enough collection of tunes, very enjoyable for fans of Lloyd Cole.
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