25. March 2025
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Media Review

Lloyd Cole – On Pain

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Lloyd Cole - On Pain

Lloyd Cole - On Pain
3.7

Rating

 3.7/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Nice electro-pop rock
  • Nice range of songs

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Some passages feel too lengthy

Lloyd Cole was a successful artist in the 1980’s and turned solo thereafter. On 23rd June 2023, he is releasing his twelfth solo studio album overall, On Pain. Let’s hope that my listening experience hasn’t been too painful.

 

Lloyd Cole – About the Artist

Lloyd Cole is a 62 year old English singer and songwriter. He was born on 31st January 1961 in Buxton. His first career steps was together with his band as Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, which was active from 1984 to 1989. During that time, the band released three studio album. Lloyd Cole turned solo and released his self-titled debut in 1990. Since then, the British artist regularly releases alternative pop–rock albums.

 

Lloyd Cole – On Pain – Track by Track

The eight song album lasts 38 minutes.

1. On Pain

Lloyd Cole is doing it the classic way – the title track is opening the album. On Pain is setting a clear direction for the whole listen: electronically arranged pop-rock tracks with a lot of cool atmospheric elements. Cole’s voice changes from energetic, almost angry parts to a very harmonic sound. You cannot judge on this song after a minute – you enjoy it more and more during the full four minute listen.

2. Warm By The Fire

Warm By The Fire took the role to raise the thrill of anticipation for Cole’s 2023. The instrumental sound feels a bit of rough here and there, but especially the chorus is feels like a bed of plushy cotton. Very gentle, very melodic. Good one.

3. I Can Hear Everything

The third song of the album, I Can Hear Everything, is even increasing the touch of synth and electronic elements. Here and there, it feels a bit too much for me, but the vast majority of the song is an entertaining listen, which is nicely taking you to other spheres of music.

4. The Idiot

We’ll move to Berlin
Stop being drug addicts
We’ll cycle and swim
Stop being drug addicts
We’ll rent an efficiency
You’ll take the serious guise
I’ll be the idiot

The Idiot starts very slowly, concentrating very much on the vocal side. In that part, the sound of Lloyd Cole reminds me of 1980’s synth pop songs. However, the song has a rather more modern sound during its later parts.

5. You Are Here Now

The first three moments of You Are Here Now are slow, rather quiet. However, all of a sudden, the atmosphere completely changes and the English artists turns this song into a guitar-driven rocker. Surprising, but cool – I like it.

6. This Can’t Be Happening

You can’t believe it
It can’t be possible
But it’s happening now

Typically, I give you excerpts of the lyrics here and there in my review. However, this is the entire set of words used for the sixth track. They are looped and reused again and again. I like the vibes of the song at the beginning, but the middle part is a bit too much from my side.

7. More Of What You Are

This 4:46 minute song does not comes with too many surprises. The song is a melodic, straight electronic pop-rock song. If you liked the album so far, you will enjoy this listen definitely as well.

8. Wolves

Two remixes of the closing track have already been released. With 7:34 minutes, Wolves is by far longer than the songs before. Lloyd Cole invests a lot of time to create a dramatic plot for this song. Here and there, this feels to be a bit of lengthy. In later parts of the song, there are also some rhythmic part, which makes the song feel rather pop-ish.

 

Lloyd Cole – On Pain – Spotify

Here is On Pain on Spotify:

 

Lloyd Cole – On Pain – My View

On Pain is a very interesting listen. The style of the album is good, even though I struggle here and there. Lloyd Cole will definitely make his fans smile with this one – I had a rather good time with it.

 

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