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Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, 1984-1989

Lloyd Cole

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Album Review

The lush, facile simplicity of Lloyd Cole's music is brimmed with cushioned harmonies and soft-spoken choruses, and more often than not deals with the complexity of love. Accompanied by the bright jangle of guitar that's hitched to palatable pop tempos, his work with backup band the Commotions produced a number of melody-ridden songs that are best accessed on 1984-1989, a collection of their finest material. Not unlike Orange Juice or the Blue Nile, Cole's music used polished instrumentation behind elements of subdued '80s Europop, best exemplified in songs like "Perfect Skin" and "You Will Never Be No Good." As an enduring and enjoyable compilation, 1984-1989 really does gather the cream of their music, and each song relinquishes a clean, robust sound. Some of the more beautiful tracks include the friendly candor of "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?" or the irregularity between the lines of "Jennifer She Said." "Brand New Friend" glimmers with Cole's vocal resilience, as does the pristine bounce of "Lost Weekend." All three of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' albums contribute songs to this best-of, with the stronger pieces coming from 1984's Rattlesnakes. Cole's music strays from sounding contrived or overlapped and sports comparisons to the Beautiful South in that they share the same lyrical wit and appeal. Relatively unknown in North America, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions contributed to some of the finest music to ever hover with pop ease, and this compilation lines up his best work all in one place.

Customer Reviews

The Unique Qualities of Lloyd Coleman

Some of these tracks are purely inspirational; my personal favs are Perfect Skin, You Will Never Be No Good and Lost Weekend. The higher tempo songs suit Lloyd Coleman's voice the best. Lloyd adds a kind of unique sound to his songs that no other artist I can think of has. My only criticism of this collection is some of the slower tempo songs can drag a bit.

Arch splendour (they don't make 'em like this anymore)

The great thing about this album is of course all the great songs, and a couple of hits too, are here. The bad thing is that it may introduce a new audience to some of the best British songwriting of a generation when they really ought to listen to each album in full. It's only fair. Listening to them out of context will only put you off the rest, it will be all pudding & forget your vegetables. Listening to Forest Fire and Perfect Skin, two perfect songs in anyones book is all very well but to not listen to 2CV, Down on Mission Street is just unforgivable. Even Lloyd Cole relegated himself to being Smiths fans second favourite, or at least he did in some of the interviews I read at the time, and if its an untruth please forgive me- it was never something I understood. I listened throughout the 80s to Lloyd Cole & the Commotions and always found something ingenious about the guitars, the lyrics and great drumming, the Smiths were a different proposition altogether and never interested me quite as much. The one thing that I think may have worked against the work of Lloyd Cole is the intellectual content of all their material. The lyrical journey through Americana and French philosophers probably will always only attract the audience that have kept a weather eye on such things anyway, however if you're prepared to approach music as if it could teach you something then you might get a pleasant surprise from listening to all 3 albums in full. Listen to this as a starter for ten.

1984-1989& beyond these years

this group really shouldn't been allowed to split up as their music is timeless, buy and cherish the music

Biography

Born: 31 January 1961 in Buxton, England

Genre: Rock

Years Active: '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s

Through both his lauded work fronting the Commotions and his more eclectic solo efforts, Lloyd Cole established himself as one of the most articulate and acute songwriters of the post-punk era. Born January 31, 1961, in Buxton, England, Cole formed the Commotions in 1982 while studying philosophy at the University of Glasgow. Originally a large soul band, the group eventually trimmed itself down...
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