His Bloody Valentine

posted in: Artist Features

Andrew Cole is a self-confessed worrier and over-analyzer, a restless rover who grew up in cities with vast cultural divides”Liverpool, Las Vegas, Toronto. You can probably trace these influences in his music. It’s as rustic as it is finely wrought”with elements of Britpop, folk, and acoustic rock blending together in lush, visceral melodies. Cole is lucky to have a voice that can match his many moods: it’s alternately reedy and weathered, wistful and pure. On Out of Time it’s the former, leading listeners on a mournful march through the drizzle of guitars. Part anthem, part elegy, the track embodies what Cole does best: brood, dream and pine. My Lovely is a sweeping epic poem disguised as a campfire song. You’ll get whiffs of David Gray here, until shotgun guitars blast off on the song’s climax. Cole is great at writing swooning love songs out of messy, frayed and raw emotional matter. If this is what true romance feels like, it’s lovely.