Singer songwriter Lloyd Cole has a new album, Guesswork, and he proudly declares that it’s shorter than any of his previous 11 solo albums.

He also says it ‘mirrors the uncertainty of the world as you enter your third act’. Either way,  those who remember Lloyd for the literary pop of his early days like 1984’s Rattlesnakes, made with the Commotions will want to hear it.

That debut album earned him an unlikely place alongside Wham! and Duran Duran in the following year’s Smash Hits/Panini sticker book. But he’s had the last laugh by outlasting them all.

Hear Lloyd Cole play songs from across his career in From Rattlesnakes to Guesswork at G Live, Guildford, on Saturday (19 Oct).