Lloyd Cole

Singer/songwriter Lloyd Cole's cuttingly literate lyrics, unabashedly romantic stance, and knack for melodies both simple and ornate form a solid base for his frequent genre shifts. After fronting the Commotions and delivering some of the '80s most iconic jangle pop songs like "Perfect Skin" and the quintessential Rattlesnakes album, Cole soon undertook an idiosyncratic solo career. He went from straightforward rock on 1990's self-titled album to lushly orchestrated pop on 1991's Don't Get Weird on Me Babe, he swerved into jangle pop on 1995's Love Story, then settled down to make country-rock-inspired music before delving into electronics for a record of duets with Hans-Joachim Roedelius on 2013's Selected Studies, Vol. 1. Albums made in the wake of this newfound interest, like 2023's On Pain, merged the warm songcraft of earlier work with the colder textures of electronic pop.