Lloyd Cole

If his latest album is anything to go by, he's not getting any happier with age. Released last week, Music In a Foreign Language has already yielded a single, No More Love Songs, which just about sums up Lloyd's downbeat approach.

"I think there is a bleakness to it," admits the 42-year-old star.

"I think a lot of my older songs, even if they had a bleak subject matter, there was a possible happy ending to be had. Some of the new songs clearly don't have happy endings."

It could be the male menopause or the state of the nation - he now lives in the USA - but Lloyd seems to have a rather negative approach.

"I think it reflects the kind of stuff that's been bothering me the last few years - the kind of stuff that's been making me want to write songs. I'm a middle-aged man and becoming a bitter old man is really a scary prospect.

"One of the things I've tended to do with my writing in the past is try to assault my demons before they arrive. This album represents the worst case scenario of what somebody like me might become."

Like many seasoned musicians Lloyd is cynical about the state of the music industry. After trouble with lawyers and record companies, he has cut out the middle men by recording straight on to computer.

"I can now make my own records and own them as opposed to entering into a deal with the record company where they would front the money for the record but would own the product.

"The other reason I decided to do it like that was because I had a sound in my head for the record that I thought I had to do on my own," he elaborates.

"I wanted to take the idea of the folk show and see if I could augment it with a small ensemble. That really required a lot of experimenting to try and find the canvass and I don't think you can do that in a studio with a bunch of musicians hanging around."

Lloyd's approach to his live shows is equally minimalist - just man and guitar in perfect harmony. The two-hour set includes music from across his 20-year career, but there's never a running order.

"I wing it every night. In that time I can play 25, sometimes 30 songs. I try to play a few songs from all periods that I've been making records."

Lloyd's come a long way since he dropped out of Glasgow University to become a rock star and signed a record company contract with his band The Commotions.

With a clutch of albums to his name and a Best of Lloyd Cole and The Commotions, he's still best known for his song Perfect Skin. (I'm reliably informed by a colleague - once a Saturday girl in a hairdressing salon where Lloyd was a customer - that Lloyd had a good head of hair too.)

Lloyd's music has undoubtedly grown with him and he is now happy to be writing for an older audience.

"I'm trying to write for people my age. I don't have anything to say to anyone who is a Limp Bizkit fan. It's not that I have a particular disdain for Limp Bizkit but I just don't think we have any common ground

"If some kid out there hears me and likes it, all well and good. I don't want to be one of those people who feels that they have to hold on to their youth to be involved in music. That's quite a pathetic thing to do."

Geographically as well as musically, Lloyd has travelled well.

"I live in New England now. I lived in New York for 11 years. I went to New York in 1988 for a sabbatical, liked it and ended up staying. I fell into it," he explains.

Lloyd moved to New England for financial and family reasons. He and his wife came to the conclusion that they weren't using New York to the extent that they had before having kids.

"We were living the suburban life in Manhattan which didn't make a lot of sense."

It's a move that hasn't completely worked out and another relocation may be on the cards.

Country life has not suited them and they miss the city, explains Lloyd. A return to the UK or a move to Los Angeles are being considered. With snow on the ground in New England for five months of the year, Lloyd claims that frankly he's sick of it - so maybe sunny California stands the better chance.

On that basis, Thursday may be the last chance to catch Lloyd for a while. His shows are reportedly well worth catching, even though he does say so himself.

"Without being immodest, I have not played a single show where I didn't get close to a standing ovation.

"People seem to really like it. I can't put my finger on what it is, but people do seem to really like it."

Lloyd Cole is at the Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton on 26 June. Performance: 8pm. Tickets: £15. Box office: 023 8059 5151