Dirty Looks Five Easy Pieces

Bohuslav Martinu was a violinist himself, yet the piano colour in many of his symphonic scores is his actual signature. The two instruments are assigned solo roles in the Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra (1953), commissioned by Benno and Sylvia Rabinof, who duly premiered it in May 1954.

Producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, as is their wont, created a shimmering pop surface for Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' second album, Easy Pieces, sweetening the tracks with string and brass countermelodies and emphasizing the chiming highs of the guitar and keyboards for an attractive sound that echoed the earnestness of British bands like the Hollies and Herman's Hermits circa 1966. It was, of course, like sugarcoating cyanide capsules, given Cole's pleasantly sung lyrics, which detailed philosophical disillusionment, romantic discord, and, yes, at least attempted suicide. In the U.K., Easy Pieces was a Top Ten hit. But although the album saw something of a proper release in the U.S., and the Commotions toured extensively, no American breakthrough materialized.