Don't Get POLL'd On Me Babe: Lloyd Cole Solo Albums

album with two votes wins 'overwhelmingly'...

I like the first one and Bad Vibes the best, but I'm not sure I've even heard any of the ones released in the 00s.

Curious to see the results here since I never picked up any of these and been meaning to give his solo stuff a try. Bad Vibes and Foreign Language are considered highlights, no?

only ones ive heard are bad vibes and the negatives, but im listening to broken record on grooveshart and it seems good so far.

"She's a Girl and I'm a Man" is a perfect single, maybe Cole's best ever; it's made every CD-R I've ever burned. The apotheosis of Quine as sessioneer too.

Cole is someone i really need to get into i think. I've barely heard anything by him, somehow. Where to begin?

To begin, get the first three albums with The Commotions. Then Bad Vibes.

cool, thx. a friend of mine just put "patience" and "four flights up" on a mix and i just thought, i'd probably really like this guy.

He's basically Matthew Sweet with literary pretensions. The New York Junta played on both artists' records.

I've not heard any of these even though Rattlesnakes is one of my favourite albums ever. I have the other two albums he did with the Commotions, they are good but no way near as classic as Rattlesnakes.

^me too also exactly

ha not exactly, but wrt other commotions stuff vs rattlesnakes

I've only heard Commotions ones and never these. He's touring the US now too I see. I just read a review loving Broken Record more than the others from the 90s and & 00s.

the only solo thing i've heard by him that i like is that song tell your sister. but maybe i just haven't listened to enough . i barely know his catalog with the commotions, either. huh...

Voted S/T and to be honest I would take that record over any of the Commotions albums, no question. Like most of these solo records it has a looser, less self-consciously literate feel to it and is all the better for it. As a lyricist he is just so acute on this record, he nails the essence of relationships over and over again.

I find it strange when people say they love the Commotions but have never heard any LC solo records, who did they think wrote all those songs?

Waiting for Gerald McBoing-Boing to show up here, think he's the only other big LC fan on ILM apart from me.

Bad Vibes and Foreign Language are considered highlights, no?

Bad Vibes certainly, it was his "hanging out in NYC shooting pool" record but is a lot better than that might imply. Foreign Language is a bit drab actually (home recorded and sounds it). I would pick up S/T, Bad Vibes and Love Story in that order. Love Story is a total gem.

The eponymous one has "No Blue Skies," right?

I find it strange when people say they love the Commotions but have never heard any LC solo records, who did they think wrote all those songs?

ban this sick stunt (anagram)

As I said I do like the other two Commotions albums but Rattlesnakes is so much better than them, it's a solid 10 and they're both 7s. I've just always been under the impression he peaked with that album.

I will be following this thread to see which albums people rate as I would be up for checking his solo work out. It was only a couple of years ago I thought there wasn't any point listening to anything other than the first Modern Lovers album but after I checked out some of his later records I now rate Jonathan Richaman as one of my favourite artists. I'd kind of like to know which is Lloyd Cole's Jonathan Sings?

Waiting for Gerald McBoing-Boing to show up here, think he's the only other big LC fan on ILM apart from me.

You rang? Yeah, it's a crime he's so unappreciated, I find his lyrics brilliant and his hooks generally big and memorable.

First of all, regarding the Commotions albums, while I agree that "Rattlesnakes" is an amazing record, "Mainstream" (note the tongue-in-cheek title) is just a step down in terms of sheer enjoyment. It's that second album that is a bit lost in my memory.

Secondly, the quick and dirty on the solo albums:
Lloyd Cole (1990) - fantastic rock record out of the gate
Don't Get Weird On Me Babe (1991) - adds strings, with mixed results
Bad Vibes (1993) - a complete failure that somehow works as he tries to be someone he's not (he wrote about this later in "I Tried To Rock")
Love Story (1995) - great, laid-back album
The Negatives (2000) - my favorite of these, just barely - worked with Jill Sobule and Dave Derby
Music in a Foreign Language (2003) - very weak
Antidepressant (2006) - very weak
Broken Record (2010) - great return to form, and I'm not just saying that as a long-time fan

There's a great singles compilation from around 98 or 99 which covers the highlights of the 90s material. The two weak records in the 00's is IMHO because he did them all by himself, and he so clearly needs to work with collaborators to be able to bring the best out of him and recognize it. Aside from the new one, I go back to "The Negatives", "Love Story" and "Lloyd Cole" most often.

Also great are two live albums he sells via his site, "Folksinger" volumes one and two. One's with a band, one's solo I believe. He knows what his best material is and presents it really well on those.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

11 votes. Confined to the dustbin of ILM...

"Tell Your Sister" is sassy!

I was thinking the other day that "Half of Everything" is the epitome of what I considered "music for adults" when I was a teenager.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUFfQ1jpJAc

the guitar/string arrangement is fab

New album due this spring! He fan-funded it again, I'm hoping for similarly impressive results as last time.

Where was 'Etc'? That would have got my vote.

Didn't include it b/c it was an odds'n'sods compilation.

The new album "Standards" is pretty good! Made with the crew that did his first self-titled album, it's not as immediate as "Broken Record" but it's grown on me. This video is cute, starring his son as a young version of himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCBJ8BVy49w

never heard it til now, but i want to check out the arrangement on half of everything again, on a good system-- it sounds _amazing_ on shitty itty bitty spkrs.

Will be ordering Standards off his website. Need to catchup completist-wise with that, the Hans-Joachim Roedelius collab, and the father/son release. Would have spent the $100 for the fan-fund version (incl. bonus cd), but didn't read about it until it'd sold out.

Listening to DGWOMB now, which got my vote on this poll. Have both the single cd version and the version that splits the album into two halves. The high watermarks of LC, DGWOMB, and Love Story made the 1995 - 2000 absence difficult. Haven't connected to the subsequent releases in the same way, though Broken Record brought back some of that vibe.

His newest synthpoppy, Blue Nile-esquey Guesswork has its good moments

Surprised to be writing this in 2020 but there's a track - "The Loudness Wars" - on his latest album that I utterly adore.

(The album as a whole seems good - haven't really digested).

It is really good, it's classic Lloyd recast as krautrock!

I love those two Poppy Bush Interzone albums -- sharper and less dumb than the Matthew Sweet albums.

No one really talks about this guy anymore, do they? But he's often very good, isn't he?

He was really annoying on Twitter and I had to stop reading his tweets bc it was making me like his music less. I do like his music but can happily live without knowing his preferences in sports or recipes.

I will add that I have really enjoyed his music since I was a teenager. He was my copilot on a lot of driving. I don’t remember if I’ve shared the anecdote about when I bought one of his tapes from the mall Camelot.

I haven’t met a lot of fans irl tho that’s true. Any??

In the last two years I've grown to love Easy Pieces.

He's made some great records. Did a bit of business with him back in the day and he (and his wife) were both lovely to deal with. Quite funny too in a self-effacing way.

Always felt like some of the bite went out of his work / he got prematurely "old" round MiaFL. Like he decided "shit. I'm 40. better break out that acoustic guitar, slow the tempo down, and simplify things". The sass that I really enjoyed in his earlier work largely sidelined. Not that there weren't still some good tunes, but...

That said, everything I hear about the last couple records makes me think I'd enjoy them more than the few before them. Should I investigate?

I was listening to a bunch of his stuff on shuffle, and track after track after track, everything was pretty solid. I assume some songs were newer.

Great run of strong entire albums, all the Commotions through Love Story. Lots of highlights after that, “What’s Wrong With This Picture?”, “Oh Genevieve”, “My Other Life”, “Sold”, etc. The DID choice varies constantly: Don’t Get Weird on Me Babe’s strings one week, Mainstream’s wit and name drops the next. Fan for life, admittedly.

His last couple of albums are a reinvention of his sound and bring back some of the bite in his lyrics, albeit in a subtle way. Definitely check them out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNq7-SWrcHU

I'm kind of fascinated by certain artists that ride a crest of critical acclaim and then, for no reason at all, the critical tap just kinda shuts closed. Like, they stay good, but no one talks about them.

Perhaps it's about the type of "good" they stay?
Is that type of good exciting? Does it chime with what's happening right now? Do they still look cool? Did a younger/hotter artist say something good about them? Etc. There are plenty of ways to be good, but not commensurately relevant, sadly.

I've been listening to *Standards* a lot again recently. Thought I'd have a dig around in a catalogue I barely know.

It doesn't get much love in the thread but *Music in a Foreign Language* is sounding really lovely this evening. It got called drab and poorly recorded upthread but I disagree - the intimacy and lowkey melancholy are its strengths.