While I try to not to be stuck in the past about such things, I’m always pleased to rediscover one of the songs or artists that was a major part of my youthful college radio days. It’s especially nice if the process is triggered in a unique way. Not just stumbling on a forgotten disc while scanning they collection or hearing the song on the radio (although with most of the music that has slipped to the back of my memory, hearing it on a radio station these days would beyond unexpected to staggering), but instead a route that never could have been conceived before setting out on it.

This was the case when the Scottish band Camera Obscura released their third album, Let’s Get Out of This Country. The very first track was a glistening pop gem entitled “Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken.” The song is terrific on its own merits, but it has the added benefit, for me anyway, of being an answer song. I’m a sucker for that sort of thing. I love that Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On was answered five months later by Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On, and disliking the song makes me no less pleased that Lynyrd Skynyrd calls out Neil Young by name for his song “Southern Man” in “Sweet Home Alabama.” Camera Obscura is equally specific, directly addressing the songwriter they’re responding to as they answer Lloyd Cole’s old musical query “Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?”

Until the Camera Obscura record, I hadn’t thought of Lloyd Cole in years, but he was one of the significant cult figures of college radio during my tenure as an undergraduate. He didn’t have the kind of stranglehold on the college charts that R.E.M. or Sonic Youth had. Nor did he have the sort of meteoric, fleeting impact of performers like The Sugarcubes or The Sundays. He was simply one of the stalwarts, one of the artists that would release something new every couple of years, every album practically guaranteed to have at least one great single. In many quarters, Cole was considered one of the finest songwriters plying his trade on the left side of the dial. Even those with misgivings about how the final records came together often praised his songcraft. Thanks to Camera Obscura’s unwitting invitation, I was reminded of all that as I sought of the songs that once peppered many a 90FM playlist, including the one below which received an awful lot of DJ love during the later months of 1991.

Lloyd Cole, “She’s a Girl and I’m a Man”

(Disclaimer: A decent amount of the discography of Lloyd Cole seems to be out of print, especially if The Commotions aren’t credited alongside him. That includes the record that first housed this track, although it can be obtained in a format that beams directly into your computer or other similar device. This is presented here under the belief that there’s no way to walk into a fine, locally-owned, independent record store and purchase this song in a way that also provides remuneration to the artist. If anyone with due authority to request its removal from this outpost of the Interweb contacts me and makes such a request or demand, I will quickly and gladly comply.)