LLOYD COLE AND THE COMMOTIONS – COLLECTED RECORDINGS ’83-‘89
QUOTE SHEET
“Definitive boxset of the 80s aesthetes….one of the most idiosyncratic and sporadically brilliant bands of the 80s.
…Cole’s aesthetic was hewn from the milieu of New Journalism, Leonard Cohen songs and the French New Wave. There’s nothing indie about the band’s 1984 debut. This is pop classicism, a blend of sparkling guitars, sighing female singers and elegant strings…the LP’s greatness endures as it holds the line from top to bottom.
…the Commotionis excelled at making young man’s music: occasionally clumsy and anxious to show off…, but also brimming with words, ideas and the propulsive energy of precocious youth.” 8/10
UNCUT Aug ‘15
“Easy Pieces and Mainstream have their moments, but it is the audacious Rattlesnakes that still takes the breath away: a literate, snake-hipped indie-rock stunner, and one of the standout debuts of the 1980s.”
SUNDAY TIMES 5 July ‘15
“…Commotions songs performed a different kind of alchemy: the Monkees, Velvets, Stax and Love stuffed with Eng. Lit. and leavened with a twinkle of bathos…” 4*
MOJO Aug ‘15
“If it’s literate songwriting you want, there are few finer exponents than Lloyd Cole. For over 30 years he’s been ‘exuberant with language’, and a new six disc box set shows how fully realized Lloyd Cole And The Commotions were during the mid-eighties.”
CLASSIC POP June ‘15
“…tells the story of the decade’s pre-eminent witty, adroit songsmith….there is enough here to make most aspirant songwriters with an inclination to be louche and literary weep with envy.”
CLASSIC POP June ‘15
“…there was something impossibly cool about Lloyd Cole and The Commotions. Their songs were sensual, tuneful, otherworldly and there was innocent charm about the way Cole name-dropped Simone De Beauvoir or Eve Marie-Saint….Delightful.” 4*
THE SUN 26 June ‘15
“…a highly treasurable slab of erudite, age-defying pop.”
RECORD COLLECTOR July ‘15
And… The Guardian, All Music, and The Sun chose Collected Recordings in their Best of 2015 lists.