Having heard the glistening new single "Violins", I knew what sort of stylistic leap I was going to encounter on the new album from Lloyd Cole. Guesswork, out now, reveals an artist capable of embracing an entirely new style, even as his famed gift for a clever lyric is not neglected. The release is, frankly, beautiful in spots, and my enjoyment of the album was at a level that surprised me.
"The Over Under" glides in on the kind of textures one found on early Talk Talk albums, or O.M.D. singles, while "Remains" is elegiac and lovely, the cousin to what The Blue Nile mastered on their second album. Elsewhere, "Moments and Whatnot" channels the sort of electro-pop that New Order routinely offer up, while "The Loudness Wars" is deeply personal, and lush. Cole here on this one, wisely, ratchets down the keyboard textures to a level that's more understated, even as "Violins" and other numbers here dive directly into an a wholesale embrace of New Wave instrumentation. I guess the overall point here is that Lloyd Cole took some enormous risks on Guesswork and they all paid off, and paid off for listeners too.
Guesswork is out now via Ear Music.
More details on Lloyd Cole via the official website, or the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Kim Frank]