Album Reviews

The prospect of reviewing a new album by Nick Lowe is both exciting and daunting. How do you fairly encapsulate a new release from a man whose reputation is etched into the music history books via his many classic LPs, iconic earworm-rich hits, anthems, and productions without diminishing his current work? He is one of the arguable key architects who helped shape the sound of the late-’70s and early ’80s new-wave movement via his work with artists like Elvis Costello, The Damned, The Pretenders, Wreckless Eric, and Rockpile, as well as his own storied solo recordings.

Well, in the case of Indoor Safari — Lowe’s latest solo LP that was released by Yep Roc on September 13, 2024 — the back story behind the album pretty much defines the music’s intent, ensuring his new music will stand proudly alongside his legacy creations.

Since uniting with Los Straitjackets — described on the Yep Roc site as “America’s beloved masked men of surf-and-spy guitar instrumentals” — Lowe and his bandmates have been touring and recording on the road, resulting in a flurry of singles and EP releases. Along the way, the bandmembers have gelled together into a bonafide group entity. Furthermore, a banner that runs across the top of the new album’s cover deems that Indoors Safari is “powered by Los Straitjackets.”

From the Yep Roc site, we gain some key insights into Lowe’s current mindset toward his songwriting craft: “I’d been dodging the thought of making more records for a few reasons,” Lowe says. “First, I’ve never been particularly prolific. I write songs all the time, but the thing about getting older is that I’m extremely self-critical. I can spend quite a long time fiddling around with some little two-and-a-half minute tune, then finally go, ‘Oh, I’ve heard this before so many times,’ and just drop it. So, I wasn’t exactly laden with new material. Plus, to make the kind of records I know how to make is incredibly expensive. Never mind that nobody really buys records anymore. Also, the live thing is so easy to do now. You can travel in quite a degree of comfort and be nicely thanked for your efforts. So you think, ‘Why would I put myself through making another record?’”

Fortunately for all of us, Lowe connected with Los Straitjackets, and a genuine band/artist relationship was born. From the Yep Roc site, we again get more understanding of the genesis behind this LP’s collection of songs: “Sessions these days are sort of on the hoof,” Lowe says. “They get tacked onto our tours, when we have a day off. We’ll go into a studio wherever we are and knock out a song or two. And very good fun it is too, to work like that. The songs are road-tested and ready to go.”

That confident vibe comes across loud and clear across the whole of Indoor Safari. Given the sort of rootsy, laid-back vintage-style rock & roll sounds Lowe and Los Straitjackets lay down here, they clearly paid attention to the ultimate sound that would be conveyed on vinyl.

Exploring the underlying DNA of Indoor Safari, it is probably fair to assume these recordings — which were ultimately made at multiple studios — were captured in the digital domain. Even so, the resulting music sounds warm without the harsh edges belying many a modern digital production.

Indoor Safari was (mostly) recorded and mixed by Alex Hall and Nick Lowe at Reliable Recorders in Chicago. (Note: several other studios were involved, as detailed in the sleeve notes). Mastering was handled by J.J. Golden (Black Pumas, Sharon Jones, Chris Robinson Brotherhood) at Golden Mastering in Ventura, California. We don’t know exactly where the album was pressed, but I can report confidently that my standard-weight dark black vinyl pressing is well-centered and very quiet, so there are no problems on that front. However, there was a slight off-center movement as it played, but that didn’t seem to impact the music negatively.

The Indoor Safari LP comes housed in a classy, glossy die-cut inner sleeve with great live and studio photography of the artists on stage and in the studio. While it would have been nice if the sleeve had been lined in audiophile-grade plastic, the fact is, it is made from slick quality stock which seemed to go easy on the vinyl. That said, I’ll probably put the LP in one of my own plastic inner sleeves, and just slide the die-cut sleeve back inside the LP slot for safekeeping.

You can get Indoor Safari in either a limited run “bamboo” color vinyl edition (2,000 copies) for an SRP of $29.99, and/or in standard black vinyl for $27.99 via the Music Direct link here, and/or the MD link graphic at the end of this review. If MD happens to be sold out of either/both when you click the link, you can also order a copy directly from the Yep Roc site here, or go get one at your local indie record store. As we’ve seen through our research, prices tend to vary for this LP, depending on where you look/shop. Me, I bought my copy at Amoeba Music in San Francisco for $28.99, while AP editor Mike Mettler tells me he bought his copy — one of the bamboo variants — in Western New York for $31.98.

Sporting a fun cover design recalling the look and feel of early ’60s UK pop and rock albums, the mock-retro copy on the back cover of Indoor Safari gives a wink-and-a-nod to audiophile purity: “This record must be played at 33⅓ r.p.m. on equipment especially designed for stereophonic records incorporating a stereophonic pick-up and twin-channel amplifier feeding into two loudspeakers.”

After doing a little more online research, I found that Indoor Safari seems to be a bit more than just a compilation of previously released singles. According to Lowe’s Bandcamp page, “Fans and keen-eared listeners will surely notice that there are reworkings of previously released songs here, including “Love Starvation” and “Trombone.” While there was nothing wrong with the initial recordings, many captured on days off while touring in whatever city they found themselves, Lowe viewed them more as documents — artist sketches before a final canvas. It’s an approach that goes back to Lowe’s earliest studio albums, with “Cruel to Be Kind” [on his June 1979 LP Labour of Love] and “Heart of the City” [on his March 1978 LP Jesus of Cool] undergoing similar creative makeovers.”

Additionally, from Lowe’s Bandcamp page, we find the artist commenting, “None of us really thought they were that inspiring,” he says. “They were lacking somehow in the sound quality, performance, or atmosphere. And I felt maybe we’d sort of thrown away a few cool tunes. When it was suggested that we should do an actual full-length album, the songs had evolved, and had some air blown into them. After playing them in front of an audience a dozen times, the players know what they’re doing and they start listening to everybody else, and adjusting their thing accordingly. And suddenly, hey, presto, you’ve got the sauce on it all!”

So while the original versions of these tracks may have hailed from prior Yep Roc-released EPs such as 2020’s Lay It on Me, 2019’s Love Starvation, and 2018’s Tokyo Bay, it seems that a good portion of the music presented on Indoor Safari is in fact newly recorded, and/or perhaps remixed. Ultimately, it is what it is — and, at the end of the day, Indoor Safari is a rollicking good spin.

Fact is, Los Straitjackets are a great band, and they rock the house all across Indoor Safari. However, the focus is always kept on Lowe and his voice — which is sounding terrific here, by the way. These recordings feel organic, relaxed, and natural.

Some of my favorites thus far include “Trombone” (Side B, Track 2), which I could imagine Roy Orbison singing in an alternate universe. The wonderful “Raincoat in the River” (Side B, Track 4) is an obscure cover of a song produced for Big Top Records artist Sammy Turner by Phil Spector in 1961. (I can totally imagine Bruce Springsteen covering this one too!) And I would love to hear The Mavericks record Lowe’s “Crying Inside” (Side A, Track 3), a tune that feels instantly familiar and classic.

Given the context of Indoor Safari, I have to take a bit of detour for a moment and reflect on Lowe’s remarkable career. He’s been actively producing music since the mid-1960s. Seriously, his first singles with Kippington Lodge were issued on Parlophone (the same label The Beatles were originally on) in 1967. That band eventually morphed into the now legendary English pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz, who recorded albums for Capitol/EMI and United Artists and eventually toured America, rubbing elbows along the way with the likes of Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Band, Hawkwind, and Man (among many others).

A unique intermingling of talents, in retrospect, it is very clear that Brinsley Schwarz were an important crossroads group that impacted the direction of the music scene in many ways. Beyond simply influencing new musicians — Elvis Costello was an early fan — after Brinsley Schwarz split up, some of their members formed The Rumour, who supported Graham Parker. And then we had new-wave supergroup Rockpile, which featured Lowe on bass and vocals along with guitarist/vocalist Dave Edmunds, guitarist Billy Bremner, and drummer Terry Williams (formerly of Man, later of Dire Straits).

Lowe himself had quite a number of influential albums he put out in the late ’70s, including his brilliant, aforementioned March 1978 debut LP on Radar, Jesus of Cool — which was alternately titled in the U.S. and other territories as Pure Pop for Now People, as released on Columbia — and June 1979’s Labour of Lust (again, on Radar in the UK and Columbia in the U.S., respectively), both LPs of which have been reissued by Yep Roc during the past decade or so.

Lowe’s Top 40 U.S. hit from Labour, “Cruel to Be Kind” (it reached No. 12), would have easily sealed this gifted songwriter’s reputation for the ages. But his production work supporting Elvis Costello’s initial classic run of albums — from July 1977’s My Aim Is True on Stiff/Columbia through January 1981’s Trust on F-Beat/Columbia, along with September 1986’s Blood & Chocolate on Demon, established him as powerhouse music industry force.

Perhaps most notably, Lowe produced Elvis Costello and The Attractions’ global breakout smash, January 1979’s Armed Forces, an album on Columbia that includes a cover of Lowe’s now-classic anthem “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.” Lowe’s original version appeared on Brinsley Schwarz’s 1974 album on United Artists, The New Favourites of. . . Brinsley Schwarz, an album that was produced by. . . Dave Edmunds. (Remember what I said about a remarkable intermingling of talents?)

And all this is really just the tip of the iceberg connecting Britain’s pub-rock scene to the late ’70s punk/new-wave movement, and beyond. It’s a fun deep-dive study, if you have the interest and time — and perhaps, inevitably, some extras dollars to spare, as you’ll likely want to buy many of these influential recordings on vinyl (if you don’t have them already).

Of course, the big question some of you may be wondering at this moment is simply whether you need to own Indoor Safari. My answer to you is a resounding, Why not!? The songs are great, the production is just right, and the pressing is solid. We can easily give this fun LP release a 9 for Music, and an appealing 8 for the quality of its simple but rewarding Sound. Now, I should note that my copy of the black LP gets a slight ding due to its modestly off-center vinyl, but AP editor Mettler tells me his bamboo copy was perfectly centered and wholly quiet.

Given that Indoor Safari is technically an indie-label release, you’ll probably want to get a copy of it sooner than later — especially if you want that bamboo variant. Plus, you’ll feel good knowing you are supporting Nick Lowe, a great artist who deserves all our love in return for making such fine music across his entire career.

Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.

NICK LOWE
INDOOR SAFARI
1LP (Yep Roc)

Side A
1. Went To A Party
2. Love Starvation
3. Crying Inside
4. A Quiet Place
5. Blue On Blue
6. Jet Pac Boomerang

Side B
1. Tokyo Bay
2. Trombone
3. Different Kind Of Blue
4. Raincoat In The River
5. Lay It On Me Baby
6. Don’t Be Nice To Me