Search - :: Rattlesnakes

Lloyd Cole's Forgotten Classic

Robert H. Nunnally Jr. | Allen, TX United States | 01/28/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rattlesnakes is a nearly perfect pop album. In the late 1980s, the time for singer/songwriters seemed past. But Rattlesnakes showed that lyrically creative material set to jaunty pop tunes still resonated. Whether it is a woman sharing with us the profound pick-up line "do you want to go to heaven, or would you rather not be saved?" or the ironic refrain of being "four flights up" and still feeling like "I'm underground", the lyrics transport us to places we often search out, and rarely hear memorialized in song. The Commotions provide a folk pop backing which is gentle and yet derived from the "rock" tradition much more than the soul or slick pop that would characterize some later Cole work. Cole's voice is expressive--alternatively exuberant, gentle or tinged with despair. With a dozen years' hindsight, we wish that Lloyd Cole's muse and the corporations for which he recorded had continued him down this path, and deflected him from some of the more "hip" and commercial paths he later tried to tread. Still, this is a great work of understated beauty. This album anticipates Duncan Sheik quite a bit, and yet is in some ways more boisterous and witty than Mr. Sheik's excellent first album (which it may well have influenced). If you do not have this one, I strongly urge you to buy it."

The Quintessential 80's Album that Still Sounds Fresh

J. P. Marcum | NYC, NY USA | 10/10/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While current popular music is stylistically very far removed from the tree Lloyd was barking up with Rattlesnakes, it is by no means any further ahead. Having listened to Rattlesnakes about 8 billion times in the decade following its release and having formed a very large part of my expectations of adulthood around its lyrics, I was shocked to find during a recent week of listening that it has held up remarkably well. The album's timeless yet at the same time so firmly grounded in an era. Like almost every one of The Beatles' (yes, I'm aware of what I'm saying here) albums post-Help, Rattlesnakes could have only been recorded when it was and yet there is nothing dated about it. If I knew what it was that allows this to happen I would probably be able to describe it better but I can't. So I'll leave you with this: Rattlesnakes, from track to track, is probably one of the most coherent Albums I've ever heard. Each song is lyrically grounded and blends into the others to form a well crafted whole. Lloyd has written a valentine to the past while looking romantically out to the future. Buy the album, it ain't bad."

Unlike anything else

D. T. Sanchez | St Petersburg, Florida United States | 02/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When "Rattlesnakes" was first released in 1984, just about every music critic around called Lloyd Cole "The Next Bob Dylan." Sadly, Lloyd Cole couldn't match Dylan's longevity. Still, he flirts with perfection on "Rattlesnakes." The images are amazing: "She has cheekbones like geometry and eyes like sin," or the perfect simile: "She looks like Eva Marie-Saint in `On the Waterfront.'" Anyone who's seen that film knows how angelic a vision that was. Some of the songs show Cole's dark sense of fun, sort of like his friend/competitor, Morissey. Still, when the final strains of "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken" fade slowly away, you can't help but remember every ex- you've ever had, and wonder why you were ever surprised that relationships end badly. Lloyd Cole showed some flashes of brilliance on his next two albums with the Commotions--especially on "Mainstream"--but he could never top "Rattlesnakes." Hey, who could?"