Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
Showing posts with label Lloyd Cole. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lloyd Cole. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 4, 2026
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
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/
Monday, July 29, 2019
Lloyd Cole – Guesswork – Album Review
Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2019/07/29/lloyd-cole-guesswork-album-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
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Monday, September 15, 2014
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Friday, April 13, 2012
Album Review: Lloyd Cole – Cleaning Out The Ashtrays
Ostensibly a
collection of B-sides, it is in fact a treasure trove for fans of Lloyd Cole,
who never got around to buying the pricy CD singles. It’s a 4 CD box set with an entertaining
booklet, describing the background to all the songs.
Packages like
this are essentially for nerds. Who
already have all the albums. In the case
of Lloyd Cole, this is especially so, speaking proudly as one of the nerds. This set is neatly divided into different
phases of Cole’s solo career; One More Wine Glass (1989-91), Re-make/Re-model
(1992-93), Dangerous Music (1994-95) and Difficult Pieces (1996-2006). In truth, these descriptions overstate the
material somewhat, most of it fits comfortably into Lloyd Cole’s trademark sound,
wry observations over cleverly played guitars.
What is
evident here, is that the hitherto overlooked material here is mainly of very
high quality, indeed, exceeding many of his solo albums. The strongest material is mainly on the first
(One More Wine Glass) and third (Dangerous Music) discs, with the second disc
(Re-make/Re-model) containing some of the weakest, mirroring this period of his
solo career.
Tracks like
the almost-rocking pair of Blame Mary Jane and Weird On Me would have been
among the stronger tracks on any of his solo albums, and the same could be said
of the more introspective Missing and Rain On My Parade, the latter of which
sees him reach for his inner Blue Nile.
Less
successful are the cover versions, Lloyd Cole is one artist who really
shouldn’t attempt them, he tends to neuter the songs and add little to them
(Leonard Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel No 2, Bob Dylan’s Most of the Time and
especially Lou Reed’s Vicious, Lloyd’s treatment is anything but). He also dabbled in remixes, mainly on the
second disc, and these are best avoided.
At 59 tracks
there is much to enjoy here for fans of Lloyd Cole. The playing throughout is largely exquisite,
Cole has always surrounded himself with quality collaborators. But above all the songwriting is almost
uniformly consistent (with a few exceptions) throughout this collection).
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Album Review: Lloyd Cole – Antidepressant
Lloyd Cole’s 2006 album Antidepressant follows previous album Music in a Foreign Language’s muted template. The songs here take their time to reveal themselves and standout.Lyrically, it finds Lloyd in wry form here, right from the start with the acoustic strum of The Young Idealists – “I know I said I favoured peaceful resolution but that was when we were the young idealists… young idealists raging through the coffee shops and bars”. The idea of Lloyd and his ilk raging is amusing and somewhat unlikely, particularly on this bed of soothing keyboards, guitars and programmed beats.
The production is quiet and dampened down which means many tracks (Woman In A Bar, and the appropriately named I Didn’t See It Coming) drift by barely noticed. New York City Sunshine makes a greater impression with a pleasing string arrangement and an acoustic solo midway through. The title track sees him rock out in his Negatives mode, singing “with my medication I will be fine” and later some wonderful lyrics: “first she’s gonna tire of my fixations, then she’s gonna tire of my face".
How Wrong Can You Be? has an unhurried tune, a perfect song to brood to over a cup of coffee. A pair of country shufflers feature here, Everysong and Travelling Light, the latter of which has hints of Johnny Cash’s I Walk The Line.
In a similar way to his previous album, this one finishes with a downbeat, moody track, in this case Rolodex Incident. It’s an album worth paying attention to and persevering with, which is required for the better tracks here to shine.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Album Review: Lloyd Cole – Music in a Foreign Language
2003’s Music in a Foreign Language saw Lloyd Cole’s first self-recorded effort. It’s a fairly muted affair without percussion or electric guitars. Lloyd pitches in on guitar, bass, piano and of course vocals, with contributions from Neil Clark on guitar and Dave Derby on lap steel.
The title track introduces proceedings, setting the tone for the album with gently picked guitar and soft keyboards. Behind the soft, almost easy-listening instrumentation lies a dark, brooding heart, which reveals itself in the lyrics of many of the songs, chief amongst them My Other Life (“clearly you can see my clothes are torn, clearly this demands an explanation”).
Proceedings here are, for want of a better word, “mature”. This is never clearer than in a new version of No More Love Songs, Lloyd driving the point home by re-recording the song. It’s a fuller, more-realised version with keening steel guitar which for my money, works a little better than the more stripped-down original recording.
Lloyd takes on the challenge of Nick Cave’s People Ain’t No Good, and falls marginally short, though it’s still a relatively pleasant version. The inclusion of this song is perhaps Lloyd’s way of making a point? He saves the best for last with Shelf Life, a deeply moody lament about how he is “consumed by delusions of grandeur” over a softly picked guitar and a bright keyboard part, making this an almost stately kind of ballad, a perfect accompaniment to shortening evenings as “the night’s drawing in”.
It’s fairly different to any of Lloyd’s previous work. Very tasteful without any blandness, this is the type of thing the likes of Leonard Cohen should be doing now.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Album Review: Lloyd Cole – Plastic Wood
Brian Eno has a lot to answer for. Having created what is now known as ambient music in the 1970s, Lloyd Cole was inspired to try his hand at the genre in 2001 with Plastic Wood.
It’s far away from Rattlesnakes - there’s no place for Lloyd’s voice, wry observations or jangly guitars here, the music is all electronically-based instrumentals. It has a kind of late night, almost soporific feel to it. Tracks like 4 Train and Headlights have soaring melodies but are mainly static in terms of propulsion. The latter of these tracks reminds somewhat of The Blue Nile. All the tracks are very brief (bar final track Machinist), so are over before they really go anywhere.
Some of it (On Ice) sounds like the first few seconds of Mr Malcontent from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, stretched out over a whole album. Park West has a fuller, almost orchestral sound.
As an exercise, there’s nothing wrong with this but it’s hard not to think Lloyd Cole’s talents are better used in the guitar-oriented material he made his name with. Best listened to alone in the so-called small hours.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Album Review: Lloyd Cole – Etc (lost songs, tunes 1996-2000)
This album, released in 2001, is billed as a collection of odds and ends, but in reality it hangs together like a ‘proper’ Lloyd Cole album. It opens and closes with the instrumental Backwoods, a wistful, acoustic piece of music which sets the tone nicely. What follows is prime Lloyd Cole. Old Enough To Know Better is a classic sounding Lloyd Cole song with Neil Clark’s steel guitar giving it a country feel. Another Lover and 39 Down are jangly, more uptempo country rock songs, albeit loaded with regret.
Cover versions are the last refuge of the scoundrel, and Lloyd Cole has never been terribly comfortable in this territory. After the pretty instrumental Sunburst, Etc serves up not one, but two cover versions. Karen Black’s Memphis features backing vocals from The The’s Matt Johnson with a wonderful performance from the band. Even Lloyd Cole’s countrified attempt at Bob Dylan’s You’re A Big Girl Now fares well with great twangy guitars.
The country influence continues throughout the album, perhaps at its strongest on Alright People, another strong song on an album full of them. After another brief instrumental, Santa Cruz, the quality doesn’t let up with the stomping Love Like This Can’t Last, and the highly likeable Went To Woodstock, Fool You Are and the harmonica-led Weakness.
Special mention to Lloyd’s voice on this album, he’s not affected or strained, but utterly natural, which works really well here. What’s great about all these songs is that they all sound so effortless, almost carefree, when by all accounts at the time, their creator was clearly not. An essential album for Lloyd Cole fans.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Album Review: Lloyd Cole – The Negatives
What a breath of fresh air this Lloyd Cole album is. After the muted Love Story, this album, released in the year 2000, was his first to see the light of day in 5 years. Here Lloyd re-emerged with a new band, the Negatives.
Opener Past Imperfect is a bright, anthemic driving tune with special mention to self-referential lyrics (“what on my mind in Amsterdam in 1984, what did I want from the pouring rain… why was my head in the unmade bed”) and a wonderful guitar solo. It’s followed up by the acoustic Oasis-style strum of Impossible Girl, and then the moody No More Love Songs, all muted keyboards and guitars and the merest (and welcome) hint of steel guitar.
But the uptempo tracks are the real winners here: What’s Wrong With This Picture is another bright anthem in the vein of Past Imperfect, with jangly guitars and a great big catchy chorus. Negative Attitude is a tough, Lou Reed style rocker, recaptured later on the driving rock of Too Much E.
Vin Ordinaire will delight devotees of The Smiths with its chiming guitar arpeggios and soaring, yearning melody in the vein of No Blue Skies, while Tried To Rock sees Lloyd mine late-period Beatles territory with a putdown aimed squarely at himself.
A great collection of songs and a resounding return to form for Lloyd Cole.
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