No More Love Songs

I listened to it again yesterday, it's a song from 20 years ago, 2003 exactly, during the "slows quarter" those 4 a.m. nightly sessions, when I often enjoyed any kind of music in a foreign language (the album name), and it strangely reminds me of how I was at the time : I was 18, my fiancé and I broke up a few months before, I was hanging around/chatting on the Net with twentysomething musician men, well, I did not follow them on tour, though my ex-fiancé was both "beautiful and eloquent", and where (I) went, (he) went. Drinking sodas (not whisky since some of us did not) was a way to start a friendship, then. Among them, looking for some company, to have a drink but not for love, was Théo, a mysterious tourist, singer and guitarist, velvet-voiced cartomancer who had fallen off a wagon, who also moderated chats on Sundays, was he smiling at them or was he smiling at me?

I don't like Cole too much but he has talent, a distinguished and tortured baritone with irresistible and elegant tones, and such a perfect diction too so I understand the words right. Though both have jaded their voice from smoking and alcohol, I must admit I like Adam Cohen more than Lloyd Cole, personally, so let's stop the comparison here. Though we lived each other apart, my nightly companion himself later recognized he would spend a few weekly nights reading books, fueled with cigarette smoke/nicotine gum and 2 or 3 cocktails, since he was on "loverdrive" (stressed and under pressure) when this song came out. No doubt we both associate smoking ciggies to being on overdrive and alone, not to "peace" at the start of a friendship, and surprisingly we both quit 10 years later, when we reconnected evenly after a few years apart. I felt "broken and discarded" since I lost interest in going to school, so our friendship would lead us to "drink to harmony, peace and disarmement". And the title kinda suited us at the time, since it was the beginning of two night owls' friendship. My memory may be jaded from drinking fruity soda but I have not forgotten this song, and judging by his looks, musical taste and attitude, my 'brother' Théo must be more a Cole fan than I am, so I'd give a C as in Cole, to this pretty good song.