Dear Scotland

Lloyd Cole & The Commotion’s 1984 debut album, Rattlesnakes, practically defines the sound of mid-‘80s college rock with its cold, jangly guitar lines, its modest-for-the-era production and its soulful yet detached vocals from leader Lloyd Cole. While today tunes such as “Perfect Skin” (a top-30 hit in the U.K.), “Rattlesnakes” and “Forest Fire” sound like completely normal, literate pop songs (with references to Eva Marie Saint and Joan Didion), back upon first release, they were treated like alien missives by the mainstream who promptly ignored them. However, the group is practically a classic-rock band cloaked in indie-rock production. “Speedboat” shifts its mood from its Tom Verlaine-like vocals and moments of quiet contemplation to bursts of Midwestern U.S. organ texures that take the band a long way from their University of Glasgow, Scotland roots. “Down On Mission Street” aches with the ghosts of Robyn Hitchcock and the Soft Boys’ version of pop music.