A Rich Cole Mine

It doesn't feel like 15 years since Lloyd Cole first appeared on our radios and telly screens with his catchily wistful odes to girls with *cheekbones like geometry and eyes like sin* ('Perfect Skin'). Both wordy and worthy, Cole fused catchy choruses and intelligent lyrics into something that endeared him immediately to legions of confused teenagers for whom Morrisey was just too bitter. Cole's clever and often sensitive witticisms proved the perfect vehicle for pallid paramours and bashful beaus to while away the hours in student bedsits.

The Collection chronologically catalogues Cole's career from his Commotions days to his more mature solo work, which has gone largely ignored by an increasingly fickle public, and finally unveils in two new songs. A rather fine compendium it is too. My only criticism is that it does not dwell long enough on his older tunes, which still sound great a decade and a half later, and contains maybe too many of his lesser known works.

That said, with 20 tracks in all, The Collection represents great value for money and there are more than enough minor gems to keep even the casual listener content. 'Rattlesnakes' itself is strings-laden pop par excellence, and could be viewed as a natural antecedent to The Divine Comedy, while 'Have You Ever Been Heartbroken?', 'Jennifer She Said' and 'Lost Weekend' still retain the magic of that long-ago first listen.

With the demise of The Commotions, Lloyd enacted a low-key transition from earnest young pop tart to mature artist and songs like the beautiful 'No Blue Skies' and 'Undressed' can mix it with his best work. Similarly, 'She's A Girl And I'm A Man' is Lloyd at his most user-friendly, even if the hook does suffer from a touch of the Bryan Adamses, and 1995's 'Like Lovers Do' is one of his most under-rated singles ever.

Of late, Cole has begun to sound not unlike a post-Beatles John Lennon, with 'So You'd Like To Save The World' and 'Baby' in particular containing shades of the great one. Of the two new songs, 'Fool You Are' is a chirpy, upbeat geographical journey, while the closing 'That Boy' sweeps you into its bittersweet charms, proving that he is still a master of melancholy.

This compilation is well worth an investment then, and not just for any nostalgia value, or as a coffee table curio, but rather as a rather fine body of work from a man who still regards songwriting as a craft, and can still swing his pen and twist his tonsils with a flourish.

Some of today's aspiring geniuses would do well to emulate.