After a decade spent issuing mostly acoustic singer/songwriter offerings,
Lloyd Cole
returns to rock & roll proper with
Standards
. This 11-song set was crowd-funded and recorded in Los Angeles, New York, and Massachusetts.
Cole
enlists the help of old friends in his rhythm section: bassist
Matthew Sweet
, drummer
Fred Maher
, and former
Commotions
' keyboardist
Blair Cowan
, and features appearances by
Joan "As Police Woman" Wasserman
and her guitarist son
Will
. Though he'd once sworn off electric rock,
changed his mind, and has re-embraced the rootsy, hooky pop/rock he made decades ago. His songwriting signature -- wry humor -- is firmly entrenched here, as are his dark love songs, but they've been refined -- not tempered -- by the ensuing years. Interestingly,
(itself an ironic title since there aren't any) opens with a cover of
John Hartford
's "California Earthquake," written for
Mama Cass Elliot
. Crunchy drums, pounding piano, and electric power chords intro his delivery. Compared to anything he's done in a decade, this is positively thunderous. It's followed by the highlight "Women's Studies," which owes small debts musically to
Bob Dylan
's "Absolutely Sweet Marie" and the
Rolling Stones
' "Dead Flowers." The lyrics, however, are pure
. He juxtaposes various images from his memory yet refuses to enshrine them: " ...If
Josef K
was from Edinburgh/And
Fast Product
from Prague/That could have been kind of funny/Or maybe not that funny at all." One can also hear
Dylan
in his delivery of the bubbling "Period Piece" and the elegiac rock of "Diminished Ex." Yet wrapped in that trademark sparkling guitar sound and punchy yet sparse drums (as well as occasional keyboards that range from a cagey synth to a stabbing organ), they are unmistakably his own. Few can write breakup tunes as well as
, evidenced here by "Blue Like Mars," which cuts loose with a stinging lead guitar break, and "Myrtle and Rose," which contains the line: "...the longer you were gone, the less the longing...." One can unmistakably hear a kind of tribute to
Television
's "Marquee Moon" in the doubled guitars riff and interplay on the killer "Opposite Day." "It's Late" is a lithe rocker that crosses his
Negatives
' sound with neo-psych sounds and the longing spirits of
Roy Orbison
and
the Everly Brothers
. His humor permeates the breezy "Kids Today" (and hits the same height of irony as some of
Mose Allison
's better tunes) yet demonstrates how well he understands the ironies involved in the aging process. The production here is crisp and clean, but sometimes moves afield, revealing layers under the melodies. That said, there is no noodling here.
finds
at a place of razor-sharp renewal. He uses the past unapologetically yet vitally, and delivers a record fans will find both irresistibly familiar and firmly of this moment in his career. ~ Thom Jurek