Thursday, May 06, 2004  

"I am cold / Distant / Increasingly resistant to your smile."

Lloyd Cole, "Music in a Foreign Language"
Lloyd Cole, "Brazil"
both from Music in a Foreign Language (One Little Indian, 2004)

I spent the summer of '89 with Lloyd Cole. He wasn't traveling with me by rail across Europe, but it felt like he was cooling in coach because his Mainstream cassette rarely left my Walkman. (It was especially nice to have his company when I missed an overnight train in Germany and was left in the station with nothing more than "My Bag" and a big bottle of pilsner.)

I kept trying to chill with Cole in the '90s, but due to record-company problems the funny, erudite singer-songwriter with the deep croon didn't get to hang as much as CP von Superfan would have liked. Still, I had the three great albums he made with the Commotions in the '80s, and he did release a few decent solo records during the go-go '90s.

Now he has a fresh record label, One Little Indian (check out the tune by Polly Paulusma that automatically plays when you go to the site; very nice), and a backlog of King Cole is hitting at once: the lost folk-pop album Etc, the Eno-esque ambient record Plastic Wood and the new Music in a Foreign Language, which ranks among his best. We'll meet again tonight at the Birchmere. I'm bringing my skinny friend, Trash Can. I hope he doesn't embarrass me with beverage-fueled antics and ribald jokes at the expense of the performer. Or maybe, just maybe, I do.

Posted by CP | Link |

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