Album review: Lloyd Cole, Standards (Tapete)

Plugging in after a decade spent ploughing an acoustic furrow, Lloyd Cole has come up with what may be his best album.

Working with a small coterie of friends including Joan (As Police Woman) Wasser, he’s devised a sound replete with twisting, cyclical guitar lines and tints of keyboards. Cole’s New York influences shine through in the abrupt Marquee Moon riffing of “Opposites Day”, but there’s a confidence and flexibility to his disparate themes, from the relaxed come-on of “It’s Late” to the thornier briars of “Women’s Studies”.

Download: Women’s Studies; Period Piece; Silver Lake