Lloyd Cole - Antidepressant (2006) CD-Rip

While not many on this side of the pond have noticed, Lloyd Cole, that smart, blackly humorous and self-deprecating songwriter has been assembling a nice catalog, chock-full of fine recordings. Luckily for us, his association with One Little Indian makes provisions for American releases for those who do understand that Cole is one of the most unique, tender, witty and biting songwriters out there, and he also writes a hell of a love song. Anti Depressant is the great double edge in Cole's catalog. In Cole's thinking, while it's true that an anti-depressant can make you feel better, the simple fact that you need one makes clear the appearance of depression. Many of these songs have that double edge in them. Cole produced this set and plays almost everything here with help from a few guests, most notably Jill Sobule, former Commotions bandmate Neil Clark on slide guitar, with string arrangements by David Trenholm from King Radio. Anti Depressant is an interesting mirror image to 2003's dark and moody Music in a Foreign Language. These songs are about mid-life, its traps, compromises, disappointments, and the hidden delights found in aging. Desire is not absent in these songs, it's merely channeled differently, and new ones pop up in the gaps where others have either been realized or forgotten. Beginning with the jaunty pop of "The Young Idealists," Cole examines his youth thinking the world was his and his friends. That idealism may not have been wrong, but it was certainly naive. Then he reports quite honestly about trading in futures as part of the neo-con economic dream and its saturation in rampant materialism.