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On Pain
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On Pain
Current price: $17.99
Barnes and Noble
On Pain
Current price: $17.99
Size: CD
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Lloyd Cole
has made a career out of defying expectations in a sly, almost unprepossessing way while still maintaining his core values of deeply felt songcraft and melodic grace. This has held true whether he was making straight-ahead rock albums, dipping into country-rock, exploring electronic music, or as on 2019's
Guesswork
, combining his insightful songwriting and burnished vocals with the kind of majestic synth pop that was popular when he first started making records in the mid-'80s. 2023's
On Pain
is another giant step into the world of synth pop that works equally as well.
Cole
recorded most of the album himself, and much of it sounds like the work of an artist in winter as he unflinchingly examines his flaws and failures while the synths do their best to caress away the hurt. Stripping away the clatter of other players and real instruments puts
's vocals in the center of the mix, and he grabs the listener's attention instantly and rarely lets go.
The calmly percolating, gently melancholy title track opens the album like a statement of intent that's pitched somewhere between vintage
Prefab Sprout
and a sedated
Pet Shop Boys
, all synth rumble, drum machine tick, and a quiet battle between the despair of the lyrics and the pleasantness of the melody. The rest of the record flickers between songs like that that peel away all the extraneous clatter to get right to the heart of the matter and classic
-style guitar pop that's peppered with synth sounds. These -- like the booming "Warm by the Fire" and the intricate "More of What You Are" -- benefit from the electronics-heavy arrangements, but they feel a little out of place next to the spare moments of genius that surround them. One track that does a better job of balancing the synths and strings is the album's bid for a hit single, "The Idiot." This tale of
Iggy Pop
and
David Bowie
's sojourn to Berlin bubbles with champagne-sweet synths, charming lyrics, and just enough forward motion to really make it pop in the best sense of the word. It's a lovely tonic to all the songs like "Wolves" and "I Can Hear Everything" that surround it like blocks of ice made from frozen tears. On these songs,
chooses his settings well, mixing squiggly single-note melodies with sweeping, weeping pads and never lapsing into the kind of out-of-the-box sounds many rockers who make this kind of record end up using.
is far too savvy an operator for that, and for the most part, it never feels like his reach is outpacing his skills. Perhaps the only complaint about the album is that it might have been more enveloping and emotionally powerful without any real instruments or any scraps of his old sound. Still,
is overall both an exciting artistic achievement and a record that should fit the bill for anyone looking for a very cold and sad synth pop update. ~ Tim Sendra
has made a career out of defying expectations in a sly, almost unprepossessing way while still maintaining his core values of deeply felt songcraft and melodic grace. This has held true whether he was making straight-ahead rock albums, dipping into country-rock, exploring electronic music, or as on 2019's
Guesswork
, combining his insightful songwriting and burnished vocals with the kind of majestic synth pop that was popular when he first started making records in the mid-'80s. 2023's
On Pain
is another giant step into the world of synth pop that works equally as well.
Cole
recorded most of the album himself, and much of it sounds like the work of an artist in winter as he unflinchingly examines his flaws and failures while the synths do their best to caress away the hurt. Stripping away the clatter of other players and real instruments puts
's vocals in the center of the mix, and he grabs the listener's attention instantly and rarely lets go.
The calmly percolating, gently melancholy title track opens the album like a statement of intent that's pitched somewhere between vintage
Prefab Sprout
and a sedated
Pet Shop Boys
, all synth rumble, drum machine tick, and a quiet battle between the despair of the lyrics and the pleasantness of the melody. The rest of the record flickers between songs like that that peel away all the extraneous clatter to get right to the heart of the matter and classic
-style guitar pop that's peppered with synth sounds. These -- like the booming "Warm by the Fire" and the intricate "More of What You Are" -- benefit from the electronics-heavy arrangements, but they feel a little out of place next to the spare moments of genius that surround them. One track that does a better job of balancing the synths and strings is the album's bid for a hit single, "The Idiot." This tale of
Iggy Pop
and
David Bowie
's sojourn to Berlin bubbles with champagne-sweet synths, charming lyrics, and just enough forward motion to really make it pop in the best sense of the word. It's a lovely tonic to all the songs like "Wolves" and "I Can Hear Everything" that surround it like blocks of ice made from frozen tears. On these songs,
chooses his settings well, mixing squiggly single-note melodies with sweeping, weeping pads and never lapsing into the kind of out-of-the-box sounds many rockers who make this kind of record end up using.
is far too savvy an operator for that, and for the most part, it never feels like his reach is outpacing his skills. Perhaps the only complaint about the album is that it might have been more enveloping and emotionally powerful without any real instruments or any scraps of his old sound. Still,
is overall both an exciting artistic achievement and a record that should fit the bill for anyone looking for a very cold and sad synth pop update. ~ Tim Sendra
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