Lloyd Cole has an eye for specific detail, and that g1v_es his lyrics a ring of firsthand experienie;

they are compelling.

Working" and a countrified ,,Did I Tell

You."

The real attraction lies in its simplicity and honesty. There's no gimmick behind these songs, just an affection that recreates the diverse streams of our pop soundtrack into a truly kinder, gentler image. Michael Wright

Itoya Colelt-loyO Cole Capitol C1 1H-92751, Lp.

Sound:

B+

Lroyd Uole

er's eye for specific details, and that

understated arrangements, and accentless, unadorned vocals that lend an otherwordly feel, those lyrics begives his lyrics a ring of f irsthand experience. Coupled with imaginative but

not the case here. Cole has an observ-

"Thoughtful" can easily mean selfindulgent and pretentious, but that's

himself to New York, and his solo debut melds these two worlds' sensibilities in a rare but welcome way: Jaunty musrc, thoughtful lyrics

or three ago, Cole has transplanted

Commotions, is gone but the commotion remains. Deservedly. After a hit maker stint in his nattve Britain a year

%rfor.,""cej+
backup group,
The

establishing shot, right before we meet the hero or, better put, the protagonist,

rich without being lush or syrupy-a feat of terrific preciseness. lt sets the stage like a movie soundtrack on an
in

"A Long Way Down," for example, opens with a relatively long but uninsis_ tent string instrumental that's somehow

come all the more compelling.

because heros aren't too plentiful

you're depressed," Cole sings. lt's the

sponsibilities, but too much time for thought: "You look so good when

Cole's vision of the city and the world. Most of the songs are like that, focusing on one or two people at a moment when time stands still-moments of private epiphanies. ln "Undressed," it's a cozy lover's morning without re-

kind of thing one says when you're

wants "to tear the stars out of the sky." Cole and his musiclans are delicate yet forceful, in an acoustic-dominated mode. Synthesizers pop up but unobstrusively except for the brooding "To the Church"-a minor distraction in an album that successfully walks the hairline between melancholy and the

laying warm and happy and comfortable enough to say something honest and stupid. "No Blue Skies" takes a standard romantic pop song melody, slows it a touch to give a sinister undertow and a sad tension, and then presents us a supposedly resigned lover at the end of a love affair, outwardly calm but so torn up inside he

AUDIO/DECEN/BER 1990