[4] The Commotions' debut studio album, Rattlesnakes (1984), contained literary and pop culture references to such figures as Arthur Lee, Norman Mailer, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Simone de Beauvoir, Truman Capote and Joan Didion.

Cole subsequently relocated to New York City and recorded with various musicians, including Fred Maher, Robert Quine and Matthew Sweet.

[6] This solo setting produced two studio albums, Lloyd Cole in 1990 – preceded by the single "No Blue Skies" – and Don't Get Weird on Me Babe in 1991.

[citation needed] Cole recorded Bad Vibes in 1993,[1] a collaboration with producer and remixer Adam Peters, using a harder sound.

[8] The group consisted of Jill Sobule, Dave Derby of the Dambuilders, Mike Kotch and Rafa Maciejak, who recorded an eponymous CD, released mainly in Western Europe and North America.

[citation needed] In 2004, to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of Rattlesnakes, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions reformed to perform a one-off tour of the UK and Ireland.

[citation needed] In 2009, Cole released Cleaning Out the Ashtrays – a collection of outtakes, B-sides, rarities and alternative versions of his solo work.

Notable cover versions include Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel #2", T. Rex's "The Children of the Revolution" and Kris Kristofferson's "For the Good Times", which he recorded with Jill Sobule.

[11] Broken Record, released in September 2010 preceded by the single "Writer's Retreat", marked a departure from his solo recordings, as it was performed by a band of longstanding friends and working partners, including Fred Maher, Joan As Police Woman, Rainy Orteca, Dave Derby and Blair Cowan – as well as two musicians, Matt Cullen (guitar; banjo) and Mark Schwaber (guitar; mandolin), with whom Cole tours, billed as 'Lloyd Cole Small Ensemble'.

[citation needed] A further album co-funded by fans, Standards, was released in June 2013, and includes contributions from Fred Maher and Matthew Sweet,[12] Blair Cowan (The Commotions) and Joan Wasser (a.k.a.

Other notable songs on the album were Cole's re-make of John Hartford's "California Earthquake", "Women's Studies" and favourite "Myrtle and Rose".

In early 2017 the single "Man on the Verge" was released as a taster for the Lloyd Cole in New York – Collected Recordings 1988–1996 box set.

[17] Second single "The Idiot" - released on August 25 - is a homage to David Bowie's and Iggy Pop's friendship during their Berlin era in the late '70's.

[18] According to CLASH Music the video for "The Idiot" is a touching vision of love and friendship, shot not in Berlin but in Toronto's legendary Horseshoe Bar.

In 2010, Cole formed a small ensemble consisting of American musicians Mark Schwaber and Matt Cullen and, in October and November of that year, completed a tour of Europe.

In autumn 2016, Cole undertook a short tour of the UK and Europe, titled 'The Retrospective', playing acoustic versions of songs written between 1983 and 1996.

"Rattlesnakes" has been covered by Tori Amos on her concept album Strange Little Girls (2001),[27][28] while Sandie Shaw released a version of "(Are You) Ready to Be Heartbroken?"

[31] "Margo's Waltz" from Cole's second solo album Don't Get Weird On Me Babe was featured in the 1998 hit movie There's Something About Mary, starring Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller.