Got Lloyd Cole's Antidepressant today courtesy of CD-WOW, played once, instantly very impressed, played again, even more impressed. Yep, it's good. In the same vein as Music in a Foireign Language, low-key, often downbeat, generally lovely. Lloyd's entire career is strewn with moments of genius and a generally awesome degree of quality, and this is no exception. Often songs remind you of others of his (e.g. 'Woman In a Bar': 'Aha! It's another Music In a Foreign Language'!) and then it shifts and sounds nothing like it. Opening song The Young Idealists is an amusing tale of loss of ideological beliefs among the realities of neo-con and trading futures. This and other songs reflect some sense of location in his adopted US, but the general area of concern is relationships, thwarted, failing, melancholic, in general first person, full of novelistic detail. Fans of jangly Commotions era guitar pop might not go for it, but for anyone remotely into his solo work, this is another great collection, and definitely more coherent than MIFL, though possibly not with anything quite to match My Other Life. It's funny, though, with nearly all Lloyd's stuff I've generally felt a bit underwhelmed at first and then a few plays in it starts to click. I was immediately impressed and enjoying this, and knowing I'd want to play it loads (isn't that one of thye best feelings?), but I'm sure all songs will come out as very distinct. Not a weak one on it, either. Great sense of care about it, as reflected in his often hilarious recording blog. Lovely musicianship, and one big difference to and improvement on MIFL is the fact that often the Negatives are backing him, whilst still retaining a lot of low-key intimacy. Lots of nice detail in the playing and, of course, the lyrics. Great stuff, more than lives up to its name.
Right now I have on the other thing that arrived: Modern Times. So far I'm getting more into it than Love and Theft, but it isn't setting my world alight in the way that Lloyd did straight off. Is it a crude simplification to feel that whereas in his glory days Dylan took on genres and refashioned them to create something genuinely different and thrilling, whereas now he is happy to inhabit favoured genres, and much of the thrill has gone? That's how the first three strike me on a first hearing, but the ones most people have cited are all to come (when The Deal Goes Down is excellent). Great sound to the band, for sure. Voice nothing like as bad as it might be. Not too much of the Scooby Doo effect! Nice packaging on limited version + DVD.