Missed Hits #4

Lloyd Cole--"Tell Your Sister" (mp3)

Back in the early '90's, after the demise of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Cole put out a couple of stunning solo CD's that were largely overshadowed by Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend CD. Why does it matter? Because the two were/are friends, played on each others' CD's, and shared the same highly-regarded session musicians, especially the late great Robert Quine on guitar. Girlfriend was a critic's darling that garnered a lot of press and probably is a CD that many of you own. But to my ears, the Lloyd Cole CD's sounded better then, and sound even better now. While Cole's eponymous first solo CD is probably the better of the two, "Tell Your Sister," which opens the second CD, Don't Get Weird On Me, Babe, sounds the most like a hit single to me. An update of one of Elvis' first hits, "Little Sister," this rocker has an insistent beat and an urgent vocal that sometimes has so much to say that Cole has a hard time getting back to the refrain 'Why don't you come down to Rue Morgue Avenue?' I dig the Poe reference, yeah, but I will give props to Matthew Sweet for the fetching photograph of Tuesday Weld he chose for his cover. Lloyd Cole seems to always show himself brooding on the cover of his CD's. Maybe that's what made the difference.