*In no particular order some of my favourite music moments. No38 Lost Weekend by Lloyd Cole And The Commotions.
Formed in Glasgow in 1982, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions were responsible many of the most literary and erudite country-tinged pop songs of the decade.
Led by the enigmatic Derbyshire-born Cole – a sort of nicer Morrissey – they made two brilliant albums, their debut Rattlesnakes and its follow up Easy Pieces, before splitting up in 1989, not long after the release of their third, ironically titled Mainstream.
After the break-up Cole went solo and moved to New York, where he underwent a kind of Lost Weekend of his own, embracing a tougher, hard-drinking persona and working with former Lou Reed collaborators Fred Maher and Robert Quine.
He would later reference this time of his life on Tried To Rock, in which he humorously confesses to failing to live up to his new image: “I guess I needed to/Try on something new/I tried to no avail/I guess I’m glad I failed.”
With songs littered with references to Norman Mailer, Simone de Beauvoir, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Greta Garbo, Truman Capote and Joan Didion, Cole is occasionally derided as pretentious.
However, to my mind he’s one of the most consistent and intelligent songwriters of his era and a much-underrated artist.
It was difficult to decide which of his songs to pick for this feature; strong cases could be made for Perfect Skin, Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?, Rattlesnakes, Jennifer She Said, My Bag and many others.
But Lost Weekend is very typical of their output in that shows Cole and The Commotions’ flair for wry, waspish lyrical observations, neatly wrapped up in a perfect pop package of elegant jangly melodies.
*Got a Great Musical Moment you’d like to share? Send me your suggestion via the contact form and if I like it, I’ll feature it and give you a mention. Looking forward to hearing from you.
