Unlimited Streaming
Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps
Start my trial period and start listening to this albumEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
SubscribeEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
Digital Download
Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
One of the finest debuts of the '80s, and possibly the defining album of the whole U.K. indie jangle scene that also included Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera, and dozens of other bands, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' Rattlesnakes is a college rock masterpiece of smart, ironic lyrics and sympathetic folk-rock-based melodies. The Glasgow-based band (Lloyd Cole on guitar and vocals, Neil Clark on lead guitar, Blair Cowan on keyboards, Lawrence Donegan on bass, and Stephen Irvine on drums) has a level of interplay remarkable in a group that had been playing for less than two years, and for all the attention given to Cole's hyper-literate lyrics, the album's finest moments are things like the slinky interludes between the wry verses on the Renata Adler-inspired "Speedboat" and Clark's glorious extended solo at the end of the album's finest song, "Forest Fire." Originally released in the U.S. by Geffen but reissued on CD as part of Capitol's acquisition of the Commotions in 1988 (with the original cover, which had been changed for the Geffen release), Rattlesnakes consists of ten perfect, or close to it, pop songs in just a hair under 36 minutes. Kicking off with the group's first U.K. single, the impossibly wordy, stream-of-consciousness "Perfect Skin," the album is basically a series of verbal snapshots of love gone wrong among the overeducated and underemployed. Cole's low-pitched and surprisingly soulful -- for a philosophy student from the University of Glasgow, anyway -- voice flits between earnestness, compassion, and arch derision ("Must you tell me all your secrets when it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing?"), while his lyrics sketch incisive character studies filled with smart and funny one-liners, near-obsessive name-dropping, and references to enough novels and movies for a semester-long pop culture class. The title track, for example, is based on a key image from Joan Didion's stark Hollywood novel Play It as It Lays, and its chorus compares the song's heroine to Eva Marie Saint's character in the film On the Waterfront. In less skilled hands, this would all be unbearably pretentious, but Cole's sly sense of humor and self-mocking wit keep things on the right side of ambitious. The German CD of Rattlesnakes (Polydor 823 683) will be of interest to North American Commotions fans. The disc not only contains the original versions of three songs Geffen had Ric Ocasek remix for the U.S. release (which are also on the Capitol reissue); it also features a unique version of "Forest Fire" with the guitar solo coda extended by nearly 40 seconds and four B-sides from British singles of the period: "Sweetness," the wry Warhol superstars portrait "Andy's Babies," "The Sea and the Sand," and the phenomenal "You Will Never Be No Good." In any incarnation, Rattlesnakes is a classic.
© Stewart Mason /TiVo
You are currently listening to samples.
Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.
Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.
From £10.83/month
Lloyd Cole, Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, MainArtist - Paul Hardiman, Producer
℗ 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Lloyd Cole, ComposerLyricist - Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, MainArtist - Paul Hardiman, Producer
℗ 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Lloyd Cole, Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Neil Robert Clark, ComposerLyricist - Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, MainArtist - Paul Hardiman, Producer
℗ 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Lloyd Cole, ComposerLyricist - Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, MainArtist - Paul Hardiman, Producer
℗ 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Lloyd Cole, Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, MainArtist - Paul Hardiman, Producer
℗ 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Lloyd Cole, ComposerLyricist - Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, MainArtist - Paul Hardiman, Producer
℗ 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Lloyd Cole, ComposerLyricist - Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, MainArtist - Paul Hardiman, Producer
℗ 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Lloyd Cole, ComposerLyricist - Lawrence Donegan, ComposerLyricist - Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, MainArtist - Paul Hardiman, Producer
℗ 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Lloyd Cole, ComposerLyricist - Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, MainArtist - Paul Hardiman, Producer
℗ 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Lloyd Cole, Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Neil Robert Clark, ComposerLyricist - Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, MainArtist - Paul Hardiman, Producer
℗ 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Album review
One of the finest debuts of the '80s, and possibly the defining album of the whole U.K. indie jangle scene that also included Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera, and dozens of other bands, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' Rattlesnakes is a college rock masterpiece of smart, ironic lyrics and sympathetic folk-rock-based melodies. The Glasgow-based band (Lloyd Cole on guitar and vocals, Neil Clark on lead guitar, Blair Cowan on keyboards, Lawrence Donegan on bass, and Stephen Irvine on drums) has a level of interplay remarkable in a group that had been playing for less than two years, and for all the attention given to Cole's hyper-literate lyrics, the album's finest moments are things like the slinky interludes between the wry verses on the Renata Adler-inspired "Speedboat" and Clark's glorious extended solo at the end of the album's finest song, "Forest Fire." Originally released in the U.S. by Geffen but reissued on CD as part of Capitol's acquisition of the Commotions in 1988 (with the original cover, which had been changed for the Geffen release), Rattlesnakes consists of ten perfect, or close to it, pop songs in just a hair under 36 minutes. Kicking off with the group's first U.K. single, the impossibly wordy, stream-of-consciousness "Perfect Skin," the album is basically a series of verbal snapshots of love gone wrong among the overeducated and underemployed. Cole's low-pitched and surprisingly soulful -- for a philosophy student from the University of Glasgow, anyway -- voice flits between earnestness, compassion, and arch derision ("Must you tell me all your secrets when it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing?"), while his lyrics sketch incisive character studies filled with smart and funny one-liners, near-obsessive name-dropping, and references to enough novels and movies for a semester-long pop culture class. The title track, for example, is based on a key image from Joan Didion's stark Hollywood novel Play It as It Lays, and its chorus compares the song's heroine to Eva Marie Saint's character in the film On the Waterfront. In less skilled hands, this would all be unbearably pretentious, but Cole's sly sense of humor and self-mocking wit keep things on the right side of ambitious. The German CD of Rattlesnakes (Polydor 823 683) will be of interest to North American Commotions fans. The disc not only contains the original versions of three songs Geffen had Ric Ocasek remix for the U.S. release (which are also on the Capitol reissue); it also features a unique version of "Forest Fire" with the guitar solo coda extended by nearly 40 seconds and four B-sides from British singles of the period: "Sweetness," the wry Warhol superstars portrait "Andy's Babies," "The Sea and the Sand," and the phenomenal "You Will Never Be No Good." In any incarnation, Rattlesnakes is a classic.
© Stewart Mason /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 10 track(s)
- Total length: 00:35:44
- Main artists: Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: UMC (Universal Music Catalogue)
- Genre: Pop/Rock Pop
© 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK) ℗ 2015 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
Improve album informationWhy buy on Qobuz...
-
Stream or download your music
Buy an album or an individual track. Or listen to our entire catalogue with our high-quality unlimited streaming subscriptions.
-
Zero DRM
The downloaded files belong to you, without any usage limit. You can download them as many times as you like.
-
Choose the format best suited for you
Download your purchases in a wide variety of formats (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF...) depending on your needs.
-
Listen to your purchases on our apps
Download the Qobuz apps for smartphones, tablets and computers, and listen to your purchases wherever you go.