The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Lloyd Cole
Gardyne Theatre, Dundee, October 10
Erudite troubadour Lloyd Cole’s ever-interesting back catalogue is set to be trawled in depth.
The Scottish leg of the ex-commotions frontman’s latest UK tour – entitled From Rattlesnakes To Guesswork – takes in Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, Dundee, Hamilton and Edinburgh next week.
It’s a chance to hear the Derbyshire-born songsmith perform tracks from the three albums he recorded from 1984-87 with his first band, plus numerous solo highlights from 1990 up to this year’s Guesswork LP, and perhaps even a rarely-heard gem from his short-lived millennial side project Negatives.
Regarded as one of the most singular talents to emerge in Scotland in the 80s, Cole and bassist Blair Cowan formed the Commotions while students at Glasgow University, with the band’s 1984 debut single Perfect Skin an inspired slice of janglepop perfection that channelled Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues.
The urbane singer’s Lou Reed-like rasp and sardonic lyrics ensured the song instant classic status, paving the way for that year’s Rattlesnakes album amid a brief bromance between the singer and Smiths leader Morrissey.
Follow-up LP Easy Pieces reached No5 in 1985 on the back of hits Brand New Friend and the blackly humorous Lost Weekend, with over-budget third album Mainstream returning the Commotions to the top 10 in 1987.
Post-split, Lloyd moved to New York to resume writing with Cowan and he’s been Usa-based ever since, with Massachusetts the keen golfer’s longterm home. On his last Scottish tour in April 2017 – which also included a Gardyne date – he played a selection of songs recorded pre-1996, but having fired out nine more albums post-2000 Thursday’s set is far harder to predict.
That said, it’s certain that material from the aptly-titled Guesswork will figure. Talking about its making in a recent interview, he revealed he habitually finds himself in a situation after each of his albums where he’s not sure if he’s just completed his final work.
“It got to a point where I’d taken so long that – if I was ever going to make another record – it’d have to be now, otherwise I was going to have to get a day job.”
Electro dabblings since his 2013 opus Standards feed into his latest LP, which contains nods to the likes of Pet Shop Boys and Kraftwerk, creating a mild dilemma for Cole, 58.
Nowadays as he tours around with ex-commotion Neil Clark, he’s wary of performing his newer works.
“The nature of these songs means we’re going to have to be a pretty avant-garde acoustic duo,” he quipped. “Maybe if the tour is a massive success we’ll do full band shows.”