Sometimes you just have to put on the brakes and change the course of your life. And then do it again.

Lloyd Cole was born in Buxton, Derbyshire, England and grew up with the intention of becoming a barrister. To that end, he enrolled at University College London to study law. All was going according to plan. But after completing his first year, Cole decided a lawyer’s life wasn’t the life for him, so he decided on a new plan.

Dropping out of school, he packed his bags and enrolled at the University of Glasgow in Scotland (where his parents had moved to run a golf course) with the intention of studying English literature. But instead of finding Chaucer and Thackeray, he found a band.

Lloyd Cole and The Commotions began as a soul-pop outfit in the vein of The Style Council, complete with female backing vocalists. During an interview, a journalist familiar with their music suggested Cole should listen to Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. He’d grown up loving T. Rex and Bowie, and possessed only a passing acquaintance with Dylan through his parents’ record collection, but decided to heed the advice and gain a more permanent acquaintance with Bob. This led Cole to write the lyrics to “Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?,” a song which pointed out a new direction for both him and the group.

The soul-pop version of the band fell by the wayside and Cole changed career paths again, this time leaving school for good.

Newly baptized in Bob, Cole holed up in his room at the golf course, making demos on a 4-track recorder. Upon learning that Dylan used to seduce women by writing songs for them, he decided to try and write something that might impress a little more than your run of the mill pop lyric. The result was “Perfect Skin,” a stylish and breezy song which stood apart from the synth-pop still dominating the charts.

Released as the band’s debut single in the spring of 1984, “Perfect Skin” reached the Top 30 in the UK and garnered the group an appearance on Top Of The Pops. They would spend the rest of the 80s scoring hits in a similar vein before Cole embarked on a solo career.

So come to a conclusion other than that which is absolutely necessary… with Lloyd Cole and The Commotions.

While “Perfect Skin” served as an introduction to the charts, “Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?” arguably remains Cole’s most enduring song, still connecting with modern day listeners, notably Camera Obscura, a Scottish band who released a song titled “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” in 2006. Here’s Lloyd & Co. trying to break your heart: