12th October - Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' Rattlesnakes

Artist – Album: Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Rattlesnakes

Released: 12^th October 1984

Sounds Like: Are you ready to be heartbroken?

Getting in the lift after work last night, I was amazed to see that I was sharing it with Aiden Byrne, the youngest ever recipient of a Michelin star. After he hurriedly ran out when it got to his floor, towards his kitchen and away from my star-struck stare, I realised that – following a similar episode where I drunkenly gawped at Heston Blumenthal after an epic beer crawl and the time that my mate swore that it was Sat Bains in front of us in the queue at Greggs at 2 in the morning – I may well be the North’s no. 1 botherer of bald-headed celebrity chefs. Of course, collecting Michelin awarded masterchefs ain’t bad, but if you prefer your name dropping a little more high brow, you might want to listen to Rattlesnakes. Simone de Beauvoir, Norman Mailer, Truman Capote: these guys are a fair few grades better than mine.

It might all sound a bit pretentious, and, honestly, it is. But still, Cole does pull it off; he is very bookish, a young English graduate eager to impress, but, like James McAvoy’s character in Starter for Ten, he’s also charmingly goofy. Coming off as a less street-wise Morrissey, Cole delivers peaches of lyrics like “She's got cheekbones like geometry and eyes like sin, And she's sexually enlightened by Cosmopolitan”.

The Commotions support Cole with jangly indie rock of the highest order, through up-tempo anthems such as ‘Perfect Skin’ and ‘Four Flights Down’ to cool hymns like ‘Speedboats’ and ‘Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?’.

According to Lloyd “Some say that they o.d.'d on Leonard Cohen”. If you fancy death by literate indie pop, indulge yourself in Rattlesnakes.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Perfect Skin – 3:16

2.       Speedboat – 4:37

3.       Rattlesnakes – 3:28

4.       Down on Mission Street – 3:49

5.       Forest Fire – 4:39

6.       Charlotte Street – 3:55

7.       2cv – 2:52

8.       Four Flights Up – 2:37

9.       Patience – 3:40

10.   Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? – 3:06

Listen to ‘Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvptsWYx6A4

Also released on 12^th October:

2004: Willy Mason – Where the Humans Eat

Also released on 12^th October:

1973: Genesis – Selling England by the Pound