Unquestionably one of the brightest talents to appear in the early Eighties, Lloyd Cole cut through the vacuity of New Wave with a combination of lyrical agility and smooth vocals reminiscent of Howard Devoto and early Matt Johnson. Among his later albums, only Mainstream truly lives up to the artistic promise of this debut effort, but don't count Cole out, he may yet return to the sublime form of "Perfect Skin" and "Charlotte Street."

Harold Check