Lloyd Cole And The Commotions: Classic Or Dud

Currently finding myself obsessed with Easy Pieces. It's the only one of the Commotions-era albums I never owned (though I heard several of its songs on the best of).

"Minor Character" is often my fave Lloyd Cole song.

While "Easy Pieces" is the weakest of the Commotions album, it's still really solid. Better live, I think, without some of the odd production choices.

Meanwhile, Lloyd's got a new album with a real-live band coming out in September. Fan-financed (including me) this time. I'm very glad to see he's got other folks with him as his last two solo albums were very weak, in part I think because he's all alone with himself.

Johnny Fever OTM; serious disagreement with Gerald McBoing-Boing. LOVE Easy Pieces all the way through, no discernable weaknesses to be found

Does it have to be a SERIOUS disagreement? I mean, I rank the Commotions albums thusly:

Rattlesnakes - 10/10, fucking perfect, timeless album.

Mainstream - 9/10, love this to death as well, great tunes, clever lyrics ("Mr. Madonna" indeed), slightly less timeless. Admittedly this was the first Lloyd album I heard so there might be some nostalgia fogging my vision.

Easy Pieces - 8.5/10, when I say this is the 'weakest', I mean it's simply their 3rd best of 3. And "Brand New Friend", "Grace", "Perfect Blue" and "James" are better on the BBC comp while "Cut Me Down", "While I Love Country Music" and "Lost Weekend" kill on the recent Folksinger solo albums.

For me it goes Mainstream>>Rattlesnakes>>>Easy Pieces. I think the third album just edges out the first by virtue of its darker edge and the sense of melancholy that haunts much of it. Rattlesnakes is great but it just sounds a little bit too clever in places, although the 20th anniversary reunion show I saw in 2004 was a blissful affair. As for Easy Pieces it's a classic example of the difficult second album to me, a few of the conceits are rather strained and the production sounds kind of cluttered. I remember reading an interview with Cole somewhere in which he said that "Minor Character" was one of the few songs he was ashamed of, just too easy and tossed off.

The self-titled solo album pretty much takes up where Mainstream left off and is also excellent, it was downhill from then on.

I'll disagree (but not seriously) with that sentiment - Lloyd's solo work in the 90s is damn solid, though I'll admit that "Bad Vibes" is just a strange album, an example of an artist working outside his comfort zone and failing - but in a fascinating way, I think. "The Negatives" was as good as anything else he's done.

Some artists have voices I'll follow anywhere they go, Lloyd is one of them.

CA is where
Everybody falls
Down, off the wagon
And under the wheels

Great, great song.

Actually I'd forgotten about Love Story, which is just a fantastic album.

G McB-B, I now understand where you are coming from and I'll retract "serious". Maybe substitute even "minor."

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/16/low_bowies_crowning_moment/singleton/

Lloyd-penned ode to "Low"

I am the 5 other ILM fans of Lloyd thank you for that link!

http://www.bureau-b.com/coleroedelius.php

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wa%2BGoqrcL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

there's some stuff on soundcloud too iirc?

it sounds good imo! cool cover, will look good on v1ny1.

that's a pretty improbable pairing. lloyd cole meets electronic krautrock pioneer.

it's v pleasant from what i can tell -- http://soundcloud.com/lloydcole/sets/cole-roedelius-pre-release/

where is lloyd cole? doesn't he sing? the electronics are a little on the boring side, i'd say.

i dunno, those are the only tracks i've heard
not sure if he sings or plays guitar o que
i like boring electronic music so it's a-ok with me

yeah, i liked the portion i heard.

xxp he made an instrumental electronic album over a decade ago ... which led to this collaboration.

Sweet

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/08/lloyd-cole-and-the-commotions-how-we-made-rattlesnakes

thanks for that. rattlesnakes to this day remains one of the most amazing guitar albums of all-time without any filler. forest fire still kills especially his solo at the end. here is what i wrote about that album some time ago.

Out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago I got this line and melody stuck in my head: "He looks like Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront." My (older every day) brain could not pin it down, so I just kind of walked around for a couple of days while it popped to the fore of my memory every once in a while. Finally it clicked and I realized it was Lloyd Cole and I had the lyrics wrong (but I was on the right track!).

Great news! This Tory government can soon be replaced by another Tory Government, with an, arguably, misleading name.

— Lloyd Cole (@Lloyd_Cole) January 19, 2022

his solo?

his twitter persona makes me wish i had never followed him. i do not care what he is cooking or anything about his exercise schedule.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbY0BJfhB5k

Ages and names

This reminds me of Prefab Sprout:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oua2EArBQy0

I'm pretty sure it's not the version on the album on which it was originally released, which might also be of interest. There are probably no major differences.

(Maybe the need for there to be an extended version is itself a bad sign, but I still love Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, and I am pretty sure the Prefab Sprout comparison was meant favorably?)

Dug *Standards* out tonight. Found the album during the first lockdown and, accordingly, love it unconditionally. 'Myrtle and Rose' is such a great track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-hCpAoCZak

She telephoned to say that she'd cut her wrists
Instead she beat the walls with her fists
Til they bled
Running red
Running back
Again

His last few albums have been great. "Broken Record" and "Standards" are exactly what you want and expect from Lloyd, but his last one, "Guesswork", is Lloyd adding a synthy/krauty kind of album and it's fantastic. A great example of an artist stretching their style.

Those lyrics are great. xp

Agree with all the above.

Him talking about Limmy absolutely ruined him for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bltQ07N6HxQ

Lived in Glasgow for four years, taught himself Flash, he could almost have been Limmy, only he would have written a better book.

https://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limmy
#yinthreid!

Sorry, reading Scots just makes me laugh.

I'll no let that worry me.

How do we even know it is real Scots and not just the work of a Septic bairn?

It may as well be, it's like trying to resurrect Shakespearean English in the 21st century. Plus there's the horrible bigoted element of arseholes in Northern Ireland saying the Fenians have got Gaelic so we want Ulster Scots to he treated as a separate language too.

"Him talking about Limmy absolutely ruined him for me."

that is the 2nd time I've listened to that R4 book show clip, and he sounds like an even bigger wanker this time.

OTM