Lloyd Singer

After a decade spent issuing mostly acoustic singer/songwriter offerings, Lloyd Cole returns to rock & roll proper with Standards. This 11-song set was crowd-funded and recorded in Los Angeles, New York, and Massachusetts. Cole enlists the help of old friends in his rhythm section: bassist Matthew Sweet, drummer Fred Maher, and former Commotions' keyboardist Blair Cowan, and features appearances by Joan "As Police Woman" Wasserman and her guitarist son Will. Though he'd once sworn off electric rock, Cole changed his mind, and has re-embraced the rootsy, hooky pop/rock he made decades ago. His songwriting signature – wry humor – is firmly entrenched here, as are his dark love songs…

Two CD set containing BBC Sessions and concert recordings handpicked by the Scottish singer/songwriter himself. Cole and his Commotions' debut album, Rattlesnakes (1984), rightly won the singer/songwriter a coveted place in the NME's Top 100 albums of all time. It established him as one of the most articulate and acute songwriters of the Post-Punk era. The follow up, Easy Pieces spent nine weeks in the UK charts, peaking at #9. In 1990, the Commotions disbanded after their third album and Lloyd relocated to New York to release a series of critically acclaimed solo releases. This 25 track collection features exclusive versions of both his solo and Commotions material with Cole providing sleeve notes of his recollections for the recordings.

Surrender was released five years after the end of Sarah's marriage to Andrew Lloyd Webber, a testament to their continued mutual professional respect. The description below is taken from the album's liner notes, written by Lloyd Webber: “I first worked with Sarah Brightman in 1980 when she joined the original cast of CATS. I was always very impressed by the potential of her voice and began writing for her in 1983.