Steve Wide catches up with Lloyd Cole about his ‘full circle’ return to Melbourne, cycling through songs to include on the set-list that fans may have missed seeing performed last time.

Steve quizzes Lloyd on his use of electronic synth sounds over guitar for his current album Guesswork, with attendant melancholy. Lloyd recounts some of his musical aims from past albums, and talks about his great appreciation of fellow songwriter Blair Cowan, with whom he’s collaborated since 1982.

Typical of a far-ranging exploration, Steve and Lloyd’s musical conversation converges on what it means to share Christmas with Helen Razer. Not even joking.

Lloyd plays Hamer Hall Wednesday 11 December.