new introductory bit here.

This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input.

Listeners looking for a comparison point to Lloyd Cole don't have many references. Matthew Sweet (with whom Cole worked in 1991) and Robyn Hitchcock are two; these performers have solid fan bases and, when they do manage media attention it's usually positive, but they've rarely been big sellers or drawn huge crowds.

Lloyd Cole & the Commotions formed in 1983 and had a respectable five year ride, with a pair of top 20 hits. Like too many artists, Cole led with his best ideas, depicted on the smashing Rattlesnakes. With a retro sound reminiscent of Orange Juice, subtle hooks, excellent guitar riffs and smart, intelligent lyrics, Cole found an audience among British students which sent the somewhat inferior follow-up Easy Pieces into the top five.

By 1987, the critics had turned, and Mainstream, despite its many charms, was savaged. Cole had taken too much time off, and the lead single "My Bag," possibly the best song ever written about cocaine, missed the UK top 40. A year later, after "Jennifer She Said" broke him into the US underground, the band split. "Jennifer" was a fantastic moment of pop, a delightfully double-edged tragedy that might either be about a wedding or an unfortunate tattoo.

Cole and his longtime keyboardist and friend Blair Cowan focussed their attention on America, produced by veteran sessioner (and Lou Reed drummer) Fred Maher. The solo debut, Lloyd Cole, just missed the UK top 10. "Downtown," used in the film Bad Influence, was another middling success on college radio and 120 Minutes, but it didn't add up to US sales. Don't Get Weird on Me Babe, which added Matthew Sweet's considerable talents to the equation, and its lead single "She's a Girl and I'm a Man," again sold briskly in college enclaves but couldn't find a home elsewhere.

What momentum there was vanished as Cole changed labels in 1992 during an 18-month layoff. Bad Vibes was his poorest-selling set to date, despite the wonderful and strong "Morning is Broken" single. It pointed the way towards a more dense and introspective style, and 1995's often lazy and melancholy Love Story proved too layered to win many new fans either.

Cole has since returned his focus to England, and, perhaps accepting his chart peaks are behind him, records infrequently, but regularly plays to small but adoring crowds. He returned in 2001 with the negatives, which was the name of both the album and his new band, including Michael Kotch and Jill Sobule. Far and away Cole's best work since the eighties, it's a chiming set of moody pop anthems, including "Impossible Girl" and "What's Wrong With This Picture?," which would have felt right at home on Rattlesnakes. A US tour hinted that his popularity peak wasn't necessarily behind him. (10/02)

LLOYD COLE AND THE COMMOTIONS: 1984-1989 (1989, UK #14, ****)
Polydor quickly reacted the Commotions' splitting up after three albums with this very good compilation. It contains all nine of their singles and five album tracks. A quibbler like myself would complain that one of those album tracks should have been "Big Snake" and not "Mr. Malcontent." The packaging features photos, lyrics and credits.