The Negatives

Lloyd Cole | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 3, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: March/What Are Records
• ASIN: B00005ABP1
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #206,609 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One heck of a bar band..., April 5, 2001

By 

James David Reyome (Lyles, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Negatives (Audio CD)

Lloyd Cole, in a recent interview in a local (Nashville, TN) music publication, described The Negatives as his "bar band." If that's so, I'd like to visit the bar from which they emerged. This is great stuff, folks; Cole has always had a way with an ironic twist of phrase, and in "What's Wrong With This Picture?" he lampoons himself wonderfully. An oddly uplifting song for such an artist. "Impossible Girl" and "Man On The Verge" are also nicely upbeat, and "Past Imperfect" is an instant single which name checks Cole's earlier work, with a Jill Sobule guitar solo which is sparkling and sweetly melancholy. For a change of pace, there's "No More Love Songs", with a steel guitar sound (provided by former Commotion Neil Clark) that could almost work as a country song.

Lloyd Cole remains one of my favorite songwriters, not only because his works are so consistently intelligent and passionate, but because I can actually sing what he writes! His baritone is still very good and well suited to his tunes. And The Negatives anchor him well; along with Sobule we find David Derby, whose bass is understated yet insistent; Michael Kotch's guitar work (especially on "What's Wrong With This Picture") is top notch; and Rafa Maciejak's drumming cannot be faulted. Too, there are the guests: Neil Clark we've mentioned; frequent Cole-laborator and former Voidoid Robert Quine is back; Anne Dudley (Art Of Noise, etc.) arranges the strings; "Easy Pieces" producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley work the levers on one track; while Smiths/Blur engineer and producer Stephen Street reprises his role from Cole's 1995 "Love Story", sharing most of the remaining production work with Lloyd.

It's awfully hard to fault anything in this work, which is as good as anything Cole has issued since the unfortunate dissolution of the Commotions back in 1989. If I have anything to complain about it's simply that it took so long for it to arrive...six years is a long time between albums. But it appears to have been worthwhile. Cole and The Negatives are currently touring, playing small venues to support the new album's release. If you are anything of a Lloyd Cole fan you are highly advised to take this rare opportunity to see the man perform live. As added incentive, Jill Sobule plays a superbly witty and poignant opening set that is itself worth the price of admission.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He Kissed A Girl...A Lot of Girls...Too Many Girls?, February 11, 2002

By 

James Carragher (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Negatives (Audio CD)

Here are the only three negative things I will ever say about Lloyd Cole: 1) aside from the entire player roster of the National Hockey League, he's the man most perennially in need of a shave since Richard Nixon, 2) how can you take a guy seriously when he's pushing forty and still calling himself a boy?, 3) he's never risen again to the peak of his best with the Commotions (e.g. Brand New Friend, Perfect Skin, Rattlesnakes). Well, annoyances 1 and 2 may still apply but these Negatives bring Lloyd back close to his Eighties glory, and it's a fine return indeed. We start off with Past Imperfect, where he apparently looks back on those years with something like incredulity, sung to a sound straight out of that past. Impossible Girl is Chapter Infinite of Lloyd's women problems with a nice universality -- she calls collect, you change all your plans, and, naturally, she doesn't show. In What's Wrong With This Picture we have the near impossible, an almost happy Lloyd discovering that there really is nothing wrong with that picture. "Smile, she said,...I'll look the other way until you regain your melancholy disposition..." Negative Attitude is another high point, a mid-tempo rocker, underpinned by a steady drum line and some nifty lead guitar, and once again a feint into near happiness. But this is Lloyd Cole after all. One doesn't buy him for happy and Vin Ordinaire brings us back to brood, I love her, she loves him. On Tried to Rock he has "four girl friends, no visible means of support,(and)lived on credit card rye bread." I don't believe it for a minute but it's a great pose. I'm Gone closes the CD in perfect form and image, bathrobe on the floor, open door, too short -- the romance and the song --, and departing "with a suitcase of memorabilia," he's done all too soon with this CD. Bottom line: when you're feeling sorry for yourself in love, no one's better company than Lloyd Cole and it's grand to have that persona back.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I can say nothing but positives about The Negatives., September 27, 2001

By 

[e-mail] (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Negatives (Audio CD)

Since leaving The Commotions in the late 80s, Lloyd Cole has wandered a meandering course through musical styles from his muscular, self-titled debut to the oh-so-delicate "Love Songs". You could never be sure what to expect next. On "The Negatives", Cole has marshalled his strengths to produce his finest album to date. This is luscious, delictable pop music, led by Cole's extraordinary crooner's voice and backed by a band with a quiet intensity that produces a powerful tapestry without taking center stage away from Cole and his literary, personal lyrics. Bass and drums drive the sound, with jangly guitars layered on top and a few perfectly place synth lines. It is upbeat, introspective, and simply wonderful. I can say nothing but positives about The Negatives.