Cole’s Back
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With Love Story, his second Rykodisc album, Lloyd Cole completes his transition from fervid rocker to adult crooner. Looking back, you can see that this romantic Scot’s work with his original backing band, the Commotions, and his first solo album, were of a piece; his second solo outing, the aptly titled Don’t Get Weird on Me, Babe, paired a beginning suite of normal rock tracks with another of languid torch songs, complete with strings scored by Paul Buckmaster. After Bad Vibes, which I found uninteresting, he’s in better, if again adult, form with Love Story. Anyone who grooved to growling old Commotions numbers might be taken aback by the tasty flamenco flavoring on “Love Ruins Everything,” the Al Stewart-esque drawl in his voice on “Baby,” and the MOR shadings of “Happy for You.” But this is all quite an achievement for the players, the tough New York crowd–including guitarist Robert Quine and drummer-producer Fred Maher–who worked on his earlier solo albums and Matthew Sweet’s as well. Listen closely and you can hear them mar the sonic fabric, most tellingly on the lovely, scarred “Be There,” whose shimmery guitar and lilting vocals are set against a background of guitar noise. The touring band–Cole plays Sunday at the Park West–includes old Commotion hand Neil Clark, but not Quine.
The Stalkers–two local women who’ve dedicated their lives to dogging Urge Overkill–are leaving town. “We’re moving down to Austin,” says Beverly Babb, aka Miss B. “I’ve got to get out of here. I’m sick of it.” Babb, a bike messenger, says she can’t countenance another winter on wheels. Babb and Karol Cooper–Miss K–are saying good-bye with, of all things, a wedding Saturday night.
