LLOYD Cole, an arch lyricist with film stars and writers, creates a moment of magic tonight with somebody elses words.
When Lloyd does M Wards Chinese Translation What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart? And how can a man like me remain in the light? he nearly pickpockets the killer moment from his own shows black slacks.
Except the second this magic moment stops dead with the lines about how an old man plays for me this song, he steals it back. Cue Brand New Friend.
This delicate ditty about walking in the pouring rain with Jesus and Jane in her turtleneck is, in many ways, the essence of Lloyd.
It oozes youthful exuberance, the need to be loved and, above all, how were all trying to cling on to both.
He was much happier then.
Here is a fiftysomething man who admits that the first song he wrote in the first person that addressed the corduroy grasp of middle age came in 1987 aged 26.
Alone with his guitar, he concedes that having been coming to Tyneside for 27 years, each time it occurs it might be his last.
Its mock maudlin but hes got no regrets, living in a big house in New England and, fortunately, hasnt disappeared so deeply into golf- swinging American clubhouses that hes forgotten how to write a tune.
And with If I Were A Song (from his last album, Broken Record), it seems his writing is still growing, maturing. Its a wonderful dare I say poetic conceit. Dont give up on us, Lloyd, when youre writing things like this.
His banters still good too. No, the tache isnt for Movember, its to hide his gut. His haircut or lack of it is due to his family being traumatised in the recent US storms while he was golfing miles away. When he got back he couldnt find his barber.
And yes, hes a doing a Dorian Grey in reverse, his face ageing, his voice as good as 25 years ago. Hes right too.
This he had this coming contemporary cross between Orson Welles and Bob Carolgees (theres no way thisll go up on his website now), has still got a velvet-lined tint to his tonsils.
Rattlesnakes, Charlotte Street and 2CV are all wonderful examples of his old 80s pomp. Stripped back, they shine in the dark.
Music In a Foreign Language and Young Idealists (soon to be on an Occupy Wall Street benefit LP, he reveals), stand out from the new ones on offer.
He forgets his lyrics, as usual, and finishes with Lost Weekend and Forest Fire. I couldnt have asked for much more.
by David Whetstone, The Journal
Link to original article online
Publication: Journal Live
Publication date: 09/11/11