Mainstream

Mainstream was the third and final album that British alt-pop craftsman Lloyd Cole made with his first band, The Commotions. Ironically, considering its title, it was also the least commercially successful, probably because it was Cole's least jangle-poppy release at the time. In some ways, it was also his most fully evolved work with The Commotions; the production is subtly textured and relatively stripped-down, and Cole's paints with a broader, more expressive lyrical palette than before. The opening track, "My Bag," is probably the funkiest thing in Cole's catalog, with a fat groove propelling the wordsmith's free-flowing, Beat-tinged verse. The album's melancholic title cut takes the opposite tack, mating Cole's existential musings with a poignantly sparse, balladic arrangement. And on several cuts ("Mr. Malcontent," "Hey Rusty") Cole's character studies are at their sharpest.