Archives for August 2017

Certain Songs #959: Lloyd Cole – “Vin Ordinaire (alt. version)”

August 11, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Negatives
Year: 2000

In 1987, when there was a new Lloyd Cole album that who knows when it was going to be released here (but couldn’t buy as an import because Lloyd Cole was signed to an American record label), all I could do was hope that someone bought it for me in the U.K. and brought it over. But by the year 2000 — the future! — that record might show up on Napster or Usenet or somewhere.

And so it was with The Negatives: I had a copy off of the internet long before I was able to buy the U.S. version of the CD at Amoeba in Berkeley. And when I did, the first thing I noticed is that they’d re-recorded my favorite song, the sadly beautiful “Vin Ordinaire.”

Certain Songs #958: Lloyd Cole – “Past Imperfect”

August 10, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Negatives
Year: 2000

I’ve never been quite sure whether this record should be credited to just Lloyd Cole or Lloyd Cole & The Negatives, and all these years later, the internet is split on the subject, depending on where you look.

Either way, one thing is for sure: The Negatives is the best record that Lloyd Cole has made since Mainstream, and it probably wasn’t a coincidence that it was made in a band situation.

Certain Songs #957: Lloyd Cole – “Morning is Broken”

August 9, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bad Vibes
Year: 1993

Like virtually every other Lloyd Cole album, Bad Vibes was released in the U.K. months before it was released in the U.S., so in this case, a record released October 1993 doesn’t show up on these shores until early Summer 1994, which was actually a pretty good time for a new record by one of my old favorites.

That summer was a huge transition period for me — I was moving from Fresno to Oakland. I’d lived in Fresno my whole life, but I wanted … well, what you want when you move away from your home town, right? And so right when Bad Vibes came out, I was spending the weeknights crashing on Andrea & Suzi’s couch in their apartment near Lake Merritt after working at my new job tracking direct mail responses at the weird Libertarian advertising agency on the ritzy side of the Caldecott Tunnel, and the weekends closing out my life in Fresno.

Certain Songs #956: Lloyd Cole – “Tell Your Sister”

August 8, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Don’t Get Weird on Me Babe
Year: 1991

Ignoring the advice that was right there in the title, 1991’s Don’t Get Weird on Me Babe was the first misfire in Lloyd Cole’s career.

Conceptually, it was kind of cool: instead of mixing the orchestral songs he’d cooked up with the help of the legendary Paul Buckmaster in with his reliable jangly guitar songs, he stuck all of the rock songs on one side and the orchestral songs on the other side.

Certain Songs #955: Lloyd Cole – “Ice Cream Girl”

August 7, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Lloyd Cole
Year: 1990

My favorite song on Lloyd Cole’s solo debut, and quite possibly the prettiest song he’s ever written is also one where the crack band he assembled for that record — primarily Robert Quine and Matthew Sweet — are nowhere to be found.

But that’s OK, as “Ice Cream Girl” is almost folk-rock, featuring co-writer Blair Cowan doing the thin wild mercury organ vs. piano duet and only Fred Maher’s very early 1990’s drum beat contemporizing the song at all.

Certain Songs #954: Lloyd Cole – “Don’t Look Back”

August 6, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Lloyd Cole
Year: 1990

After Mainstream, Lloyd Cole broke up The Commotions, moved to New York City, grew his hair long and started recording his first solo album with a bunch of ringers.

Said ringers included known quantities like former Material drummer Fred Maher & ex-Voidoid Robert Quine, who first intersected on Lou Reed’s Legendary Hearts album, as well as Commotions keyboardist Blair Cowan. Oh, and on bass and backing vocals, Matthew Sweet, who was still a year away from taking essentially the same band and making the immortal Girlfriend.

Certain Songs #953: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – “Love Your Wife”

August 5, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Collected Recordings 1983 – 1989
Year: 1988

Originally a b-side to “From The Hip,” — the last thing I ever bought by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions while they were still a band — the languid, dreamy “Love Your Wife” is the equal to any song they ever released.

A lot of times when a song this good isn’t on an album, especially an album already as great as Mainstream, it really bugs me. But honestly, I can see how “Love Your Wife” didn’t quite fit on Mainstream in the same way “Andy’s Babies” didn’t fit on Rattlesnakes.

Certain Songs #952: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – “Hey Rusty”

August 4, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Mainstream
Year: 1987

One of the reasons I loved Mainstream so much in the summer of 1988 was that it was the perfect album to put on at 2:00 in the morning when you was alone and depressed and trying desperately not to call the person you still had feelings for because you were trying to be oh so strong and you can feel your resolve weakening and collapsing in the face of your impending insomnia.

Or so it seemed. In any event, “Hey Rusty” was the story of why that phone call probably shouldn’t be made.

Certain Songs #951: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – “Mr. Malcontent”

August 3, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Mainstream
Year: 1987

A waste of space and alcohol.

What an utterly cutting and amazing insult that is. And it’s just one of of the many many reasons that “Mr. Malcontent” is my favorite Lloyd Cole song.

The spring and summer of 1988 has always been officially one of the worst periods of my life, as I was dealing with a myriad of weirdness. I had a relationship and a band both end, for somewhat related reasons; I was struggling to deal with increased responsibility at my job; I was living completely alone for the first time ever.

Certain Songs #950: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – “My Bag”

August 2, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Mainstream
Year: 1987

My favorite Lloyd Cole and the Commotions album and one of my top 25 records of the entire 1980s, Mainstream ended up suffering from the same record company dickery that delayed their first couple of records, and in fact, almost didn’t come out on these shores at all, eventually surfacing nearly a year after the October 1987 U.K. release.

Luckily, Tim — who was living in the U.K. at that time that time — bought a copy for me and brought it when he came across for Christmas in late 1987. It turned out to be a perfect record for 1988, and so all of Lloyd’s draggy beats and druggy words about the consequence of bad young love resonated with the same frequency as my heart all damn year.