I wasn’t sure whether or not to include Lloyd Cole in this series. He was born and raised for much of his life south of the border, but his most formative years, musically at least, were spent in and around Glasgow and certainly you’d be hard pushed to find anyone who wouldn’t describe Lloyd Cole & The Commotions as a Scottish band.
When that band surprisingly broke up at the end of the 80s, it was no real shock that Polydor decided to keep on the frontman as a solo artist. I’m not sure however, if they would have been all that happy with the change in direction that he undertook with his debut solo material – there was a very clear move away from indie/pop leanings into stuff that alienated many of his fans. This in turn led to poorer sales, albeit many critics welcomed him as a great addition to the canon of serious (or po-faced if you want to be cruel) singer/songwriters. I think Lloyd himself was hoping to be embraced by America….but it just never really happened
He’s still going strong and remains a tremendous live act, more often than not just him, his guitar and his tales of life as a musician. A number of his more recent LPs have had a lot to offer in quality now that he’s moved away from that raaaaawwwwk phase of the early solo stuff. Being honest, if it wasn’t that I was such a fan of his voice, I wouldn’t have all that much to offer positively about the debut solo single from 1990:-
mp3 : Lloyd Cole – No Blue Skies
mp3 : Lloyd Cole – Shelly I Do
What I do highly recommend from the early era is this 12″ creepy and atmospheric remix of a single lifted from his 1992 LP Don’t Get Weird On Me Babe…it’s one that I have a second-hand promo copy of picked up very cheaply:-
mp3 : Lloyd Cole – Butterfly (The Planet Ann Charlotte Mix)
Enjoy.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 