Another Lloyd Cole (terrible website I didn't get). How is it possible? I didn't know that I liked him so much. But the main reason Lloyd Cole dominates the mid-eighties in my little world is that they are a musical wasteland in my collection. Those male androgynous voices which bother me now: Michael Stipe, Sting, Morrissey. Concerning The Smiths: one great song (That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore) does not make a great album. Sade's slick lounge muzak, the Dire Straits feel-good ballads on national guitar to which I listened night and day in 1985/86. The noise pop one-trick pony ridden by the Reid brothers. The first exciting experimental guitar noise records of Sonic Youth which have always been too hard for me to love wholeheartedly. Suzanne Vega's fine first intimate album which lacks the thrill. Jeffrey Lee Pierce's solo Wildweed where he sings for his soul in vain. I can't take him anymore. Maybe because I have passed that age.

And then there was Lloyd Cole. A guy with a voice in between Tom Verlaine's coolness and some glamorous mannerism (Matt Johnson maybe). Someone who could write catchy guitar tunes. Easy Pieces, his second album with The Commotions after the totally classic Rattlesnakes was their biggest commercial success in the UK (they cracked the top ten) and is even poppier and more immediate than the debut.

Rich is a great glorious start. The sparkling sunbeams pierce through the grey Scottish sky when the brass section plays that fat fanfare. Why I Love Country Music is the first summit of this immaculate album. And it goes on with string sections and accordion play fitting perfectly into the shining glistening sound. With the balladesk James (wasn't there a band with that name which never really made it?) it gets dreamy and a little wistful. Minor Character has got that lovely jangly guitar I absolutely adore. The lyrics mention Saint Christopher, did the excellent forgotten Sarah band take their name from there? Perfect Blue is as gorgeous as a song can get. Pure melodic beauty. That line Whatever I touch turns blue will stick in my mind forever. The last song Nevers End is romantic and sad.

Sorry, I can't offer any mp3 as I have only a tape copy of the album which I offered to a girl I was pretty much in love with some time ago. She never told me if she liked it, that's how it goes.

The lyrics.

Here is the overview of the series 40 years, 40 albums of which part XXI was this post.

... link