Nick Lowe Indoor Safari (CD)

( 'Yep Roc') 12 tracks - gatefold digisleeve

Nick Lowe returns with his new album “Indoor Safari” after more than a decade. The 12 mostly up-tempo songs are characterized by the immediacy and kinetic energy with which Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets rush from number to number.

Supported by his proven collaborators Los Straitjackets, Nick Lowe demonstrates his razor-sharp songwriting skills in a variety of sound worlds. With his unmistakable wit on groovy numbers like “Went to a Party” and “Don't Be Nice to Me” and heartfelt sentiments on “Blue on Blue” and “Jet Pac Boomerang,” and crowned by Nick breathing new life into hidden gems of the 60s like “Raincoat in the River” and “A Quiet Place” new life, Indoor Safari shows how Nick Lowe, even more than half a century after his start in the music industry, still makes his mark as an artist, songwriter and producer.

“Went to a Party” is a rave-up in the style of the Kinks, ‘Crying Inside’ is a classic happy-sad masquerade that grooves like a lost Ricky Nelson hit, ‘Blue on Blue’ and ‘Jet Pac Boomerang’ both skillfully deal with hearts in limbo. The Bacharach-esque “Different Kind of Blue” is a charged rose with the frank admission “I can't afford the luxury of having you come back to me,” while “Trombone” and “Don't Be Nice to Me” have the abandoned elegance and melodic lines that are Lowe's trademark. With his intimate baritone, he warbles them all as if they were already standards. So much so that he fits in seamlessly with two well-chosen covers, “A Quiet Place” and “Raincoat in the River”.