Two CD set containing BBC Sessions and concert recordings handpicked by the Scottish singer/songwriter himself. Cole and his Commotions' debut album, Rattlesnakes (1984), rightly won the singer/songwriter a coveted place in the NME's Top 100 albums of all time. It established him as one of the most articulate and acute songwriters of the Post-Punk era. The follow up, Easy Pieces spent nine weeks in the UK charts, peaking at #9. In 1990, the Commotions disbanded after their third album and Lloyd relocated to New York to release a series of critically acclaimed solo releases. This 25 track collection features exclusive versions of both his solo and Commotions material with Cole providing sleeve notes of his recollections for the recordings.

While not many on this side of the pond have noticed, Lloyd Cole, that smart, blackly humorous and self-deprecating songwriter has been assembling a nice catalog, chock-full of fine recordings. Luckily for us, his association with One Little Indian makes provisions for American releases for those who do understand that Cole is one of the most unique, tender, witty and biting songwriters out there, and he also writes a hell of a love song. Anti Depressant is the great double edge in Cole's catalog. In Cole's thinking, while it's true that an anti-depressant can make you feel better, the simple fact that you need one makes clear the appearance of depression. Many of these songs have that double edge in them.

Through both his work being the front man of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions and his solo career, Lloyd Cole established himself as one of the most articulate and acute songwriters of the post-punk era. Undergoing several artistic shifts, from minimalist to folk-rock-inspired to electronic, Cole’s work never compromised the high creative value that he has proven to provide over his distinguished career. Following on from his last album, 2019's critically acclaimed "Guesswork", the musical style of “On Pain” consists mainly of electronic sounds. All songs were written by Lloyd Cole – half of them in collaboration with Neil Clark and Blair Cowan, the original members of The Commotions.

One of the finest debuts of the '80s, and possibly the defining album of the whole U.K. indie jangle scene that also included Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera, and dozens of other bands, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' Rattlesnakes is a college rock masterpiece of smart, ironic lyrics and sympathetic folk-rock-based melodies. The Glasgow-based band (Lloyd Cole on guitar and vocals, Neil Clark on lead guitar, Blair Cowan on keyboards, Lawrence Donegan on bass, and Stephen Irvine on drums) has a level of interplay remarkable in a group that had been playing for less than two years, and for all the attention given to Cole's hyper-literate lyrics, the album's finest moments are things like the slinky interludes between the wry verses on the Renata Adler-inspired "Speedboat" and Clark's glorious extended solo at the end of the album's finest song, "Forest Fire."

Lloyd Cole's seventh official solo album, Music in a Foreign Language, is his most intimate and low-key yet. He retains Dave Derby from the Negatives and calls in former Commotion Neil Clark to play guitar, but mostly the album has the feel of a solo record. Drawing on the same musical palette that his "lost" album Etc. does (acoustic guitars, restrained drums, and subtle instrumentation), this record succeeds in a way that most of his over-produced previous albums fail to do. This is also the first record on which Cole seems resigned to be an adult balladeer; there are no rock tunes to be found. His voice is as deep and rich as ever, and the lack of huge rock drums and loud guitars allows him to forgo the oversinging trap he sometimes falls into.

While not many on this side of the pond have noticed, Lloyd Cole, that smart, blackly humorous and self-deprecating songwriter has been assembling a nice catalog, chock-full of fine recordings. Luckily for us, his association with One Little Indian makes provisions for American releases for those who do understand that Cole is one of the most unique, tender, witty and biting songwriters out there, and he also writes a hell of a love song. Anti Depressant is the great double edge in Cole's catalog. In Cole's thinking, while it's true that an anti-depressant can make you feel better, the simple fact that you need one makes clear the appearance of depression. Many of these songs have that double edge in them.

It stands to reason that a Lloyd Cole album called Love Story would not have a happy beginning or middle, much less ending. Actually, though, it does start out happy, "Trigger Happy," that is, and later on, Cole is "Happy for You," in which he sings, "If you love him, you should leave me." In between, things get no sunnier, as Cole and his characters drink and despair, but carry on. That determination is very much part of Cole's negative world-view: "Everybody knows this is nowhere," he says, to coin a phrase, "but you've gotta be there." (Except, one supposes, for Lucy, who jumps from the 39th floor in the rollicking "Let's Get Lost.") Typically, Cole couches these sentiments in melodic folk-rock, such that, with the volume low and just following the attractive lilt of his voice, a listener might find this a far more soothing piece of music than it turns out to be on closer examination.

Producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, as is their wont, created a shimmering pop surface for Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' second album, Easy Pieces, sweetening the tracks with string and brass countermelodies and emphasizing the chiming highs of the guitar and keyboards for an attractive sound that echoed the earnestness of British bands like the Hollies and Herman's Hermits circa 1966. It was, of course, like sugarcoating cyanide capsules, given Cole's pleasantly sung lyrics, which detailed philosophical disillusionment, romantic discord, and, yes, at least attempted suicide. In the U.K., Easy Pieces was a Top Ten hit. But although the album saw something of a proper release in the U.S., and the Commotions toured extensively, no American breakthrough materialized.