Customer Reviews

Labour of Love-Music of Nick Lowe

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the most solid tribute albums that I have heard. The first half is 5 star territory leading off with Dar Williams singing "All Men Are Liars" into an authentic New Orleans feel with Graham Parker doing "The Rose of England" with T-Bone Walk on mandolin and accordion. Next up is Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers doing a superb version of "Cracking Up" and then back to New Orleans with Sleepy LaBeef teaming up with C.J. Chenier on "Half a Boy and Half a Man".



Other strong cuts are a couple of songs by Marshall Crenshaw, especially his version of "Television", a very somber Charlie Musselwhite with some heartfelt vocals and harmonica on "Faithless Lover" that you just don't want to end, and Elvis Costello singing and playing every instrument very nicely on "Egypt". The rest of the album is pretty solid with not one bad song to be found among these tracks. There's also a very talented backing band led by G.E. Smith throughout much of this CD as well.

On the first couple of listens, I thought this was a fairly run-of-the-mill tribute album. A tribute album should generally show you new things in songs you already know and love, and should highlight a couple of songs you may never have heard. The covers here were mostly note-for-note, with only a couple of twists on old material. But with more and more listening, the wonder of Nick Lowe's songwriting shines through, and some of the covers became revelatory. Marshall Crenshaw's contributions are fantastic (and if you don't know it, Marshall Crenshaw is at the top of his form these days - check out his live album). Tom Petty was a natural for "Cracking Up." Rockabilly star and hardest working man in rock Sleepy LaBeef teams up with CJ Chenier to put the fun into "Half a Boy and Half a Man" (my five-year-old reasons "that makes him a teenager, right?"). Dar Williams is fine, but does anyone remember Ric Astley anymore? Elvis Costello is revelatory, but he's ALWAYS revelatory these days, the only true singer left on the planet. Listen, if you have even half a love for Nick Lowe, check this out.

Coming on the heels of Nicks new album this is a very timely release. I'm surprised to see no one else had reviewed this CD since it's a fine album of interesting artists covering a truly great songwriter. And thankfully, most of it works well. For originality I'd run with Costello's "Egypt," The combination of Sleepy labeef and CJ Chenier rocking country cajun version of Half a Boy, " and I like turning "Cruel to be Kind" into a song for two singers. After that there are real solid interpretations by Dar Williams, Graham Parker (his voice just gets better and better), Tom Petty, Marshall Crenshaw and Greg Brown . I was amazed by Charlie Musselwhites vocals on one of Nicks new masterpieces. And that's my only gripe; I wish there had been more songs from his last recordings. Still I guess a tribute record has to cover songs everyone knows. Still there's easily a volume two, especially Now that we've just got more classic songs from This Year's "Convincer." Bottom-line; buy Nicks if you don't own all these songs. If you do then you'll surely enjoy this Labour Of Love

This excellent tribute album demonstrates the strength of Nick's songwriting, although this is not something that has gone unnoticed by his fans. Nick Lowe's cutting wit and his unfailing gift for the hook are the reason that he has been around so very long. Amusingly, Lowe is probably best known for Elvis Costello's cover of `What's So Funny About peace love And Understanding', though that song is not included here. Even more amusing is the fact that a little noticed cover of that same track on the monster selling BODYGAURD soundtrack made Lowe a millionaire. It's all about the covers, and this little gem of an album is chuck full of excellent covers. Especially notable are Petty's `Cracking Up' (originally included on his bloated box set, which is also excellent, by the way), Parker's `The rose Of England', Greg Brown's `Where's my Everything' and Marshall Crenshaw's `Television'. I suppose that given the excellence of the contributing artists, it's no surprise that LABOR OF LOVE is a five star album. It's a must have for his fans and excellent introduction to the Jesus Of Cool for the uninitiated.