Ultra Lowe
Geoff Brown picks Basher’s best from six solo album reissues.
Nick Lowe
Solo Albums 1982-1990
YEP ROC. CD/DL/LP
NICK LOWE’S self-deprecating ’70s nickname Basher nodded to his no-nonsense, one-take “bash it out” production style. He could function that way because of his deep understanding of how songs worked, as revealed during his time as the driving force behind pub rock’s early tenants, Brinsley Schwarz, and Dave Edmunds’ Rockpile as singer/ bassist/guitarist/songwriter/enthusiast, at which time he was also producing Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, The Damned, Dr. Feelgood, The Pretenders, Carlene Carter, John Hiatt and more. After the Brinsleys, Lowe had recorded The Jesus Of Cool (1978) and ’79’s Labour Of Lust, enjoying Top 12 singles with I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass and Cruel To Be Kind, the latter also hitting 12 in the US. The next three years were gobbled up, mostly, by Rockpile. But when that quartet had run its lively course, Lowe found he had rocks of his own to break and began this run of six albums, now released in pairs. The best, 1982’s Nick The Knife and ’83’s The Abominable Showman are out now on all formats and represent his many fortes: racing rock’n’rollabilly (opener Burning); light reggae (Heart); ’50s/early ’60s pop-rock (Queen Of Sheba); doo wop (Ba Doom); sweet, swelling ballads (Couldn’t Love You Any More Than I Do); clear nods to Buddy Holly (Raining Raining); light soul (Too Many Teardrops, written with then-wife Carlene Carter). All these are on Knife, where his distinctly English poprock sound, despite the mid-Atlantic twang, soaks into the musics of America (reggae aside). Showman visits the same influences, and showcases his winking wordplay – Time Wounds All Heels – while his road band, Noise To Go, make a tight studio unit and keysman Paul Carrack’s soulful co-lead lifts Wish You Were Here. By 1984, Noise To Go had indeed gone, renamed for Nick Lowe And His Cowboy Outfit a good-time, optimistic set in which The Springfields’ Break Away appears as a jaunty
countrybilly romp. There’s a Duane Eddy-style instrumental (Awesome), Philly harmonies (L.A.F.S.) and Rockpile-redux (Stand Up And Say That). He returns to those themes on ’85’s The Rose Of England adding Tex-Mex (Darlin’ Angel Eyes), and the ’77 hit he’d written for Dave Edmunds, I Knew The Bride, recorded here with Huey Lewis’s News. Out digitally now and on CD/LP in October, ’88’s Pinker And Prouder Than Previous (HHH), sparer of sound and length (34 minutes), is his least successful LP. 1990’s Party Of One (HHHH), produced by Dave Edmunds, is more energised and satisfying, Lowe sounding wholly engaged by his material again (no cover versions here). No wonder the basic band – Lowe, John Hiatt, Jim Keltner, Ry Cooder – decided to form Little Village. Nick Lowe’s charm and curse is that he
makes what he does sound so easy you think he’s not trying. But it’s a real and rare talent.