Track Listing

1. Perfect Skin
2. Are You Ready To
3. Be Heartbroken
4. Forest Fire
5. You Will Never Be No Good
6. Rattlesnakes
7. Perfect Blue
8. Brand New Friend
9. Cut Me Down
10. Lost Weekend
11. Her Last Fling
12. Mr Malcontent
13. My Bag
14. Jennifer She Said
15. From The Hip

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41606 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

Buy,Buy, Buy !!
The top & bottom is that this is a collection of some classic Lloyd Cole & The Commotions tracks & that every single one of them is a top quality song.If you really only want a sample of Lloyd's work from this time then this would be the one. All of the best known songs are here & it's a real pleasure to listen to. I can't recommend this record enough, it's got the lot - if you're of a certain age this will be a real trip down memory lane
I love all of LC's work but this often gets a spin when I have friends who aren't ususally that keen or familiar with his stuff, over for a barbecue or really any get together where the wine & lager's flowing & they all love it - treat yourself, I'm sure you will too.

Classic bed sit album
This album contains the biggest hits that Lloyd Cole enjoyed in his brief stint with the Commotions. Listening to songs such as "Perfect Skin", "Lost Weekend" and "Brand New Friend" you wonder how mass acclaim and chart success managed to elude this band. Their lyrics manage to be mordant but also strangely uplifting, and I can't think of another artist who could advise anyone to "read Norman Mailer/or get a new tailor..." The influences of Leonard Cohen and the Byrds can be clearly heard, but Lloyd and the band still had a style all of their own. Superb!

Simply Brilliant
In the summer of 1985 i had just broken up a long term relationship. It was a year of change, a season for tearing things down and renewing your lust for life. The two seminal albums for me that summer were David Sylvian's Brilliant Trees and Lloyd Coles Rattlesnakes. They were both radical, moody and brilliantly original in their own way but Rattlesnakes was the album you played at parties because it jangled, buzzed and was eminently hip. Cole's lyrics were at the same time smart ass and beat cool. The melodies literally sang ! His lyrical observations were cutting with references to writers, films and famous people, at the same time mythologysing or destroying the friends, lovers, acquaintances and heroes that inhabited his vignettes with the best use of irony in the business. Back that up with a tight ass band that rocked with a sophisticated country feel and you had a band and an album to define the 80's. Pay particular attention to songs like Perfect Skin and Forest Fire - there aren't better 3 minute pop songs in anyone's repetoire and it made for an impressive debut. He pushed the envelope further with the subsequent albums. The songs becoming more complex and dark - Cut me Down, Brand New Friend, Mr Malcontent but each album in turn containing melodic gems like Jennifer She Said and From the Hip. He should have been great, in fact he was and he is, its just that the lowest common denominator that operates with popularity and good taste saw a whole generation miss out on hearing one very talented songwriter and a great band. He was a bit too talented for them all especially the headless chickens that run commercial radio. Buy and enjoy - there isnt better pure pop poetry than this around anywhere.