Customer Reviews

Rose of England

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

 

 

If you're in a country kinda mood, you can do worse than turn to the Godfather of Punk, Popmeister Extraordinaire, Nick Lowe. I'm biased - I love this guy. This was the first NL recording I bought, and I've never looked back. It contains old classics (I Knew the Bride), new classics (John Hiatt's She Don't Love Nobody), the weird (Bobo Skediddle Daddle) and the wonderful (Long Walk Back). Still in his Cowboy Outfit mode, this is a more mature offering, more balanced, more thoughtful. All of which is offset by the everybody-skate loopiness of Darlin' Angel Eyes. You work it out.

So the "Rose of England" isn't Rockpile? So what? This is a really terrific album. It features mostly songs by Nick but also John Hiatt's "She Don't Love Nobody" as well. I like the song he does with Huey Lewis and the News "I Love The Bride (When She Used To Rock and Roll". But beware if you're an HLN fan, because the rest of the album doesn't sound like that song. My favorite track is the title cut "The Rose of England". The Cowboy Oufit is a great group, with and without Huey Lewis and the News. I can't imagine why it's not out on CD anymore.

Amazing that his best work is perhaps the hardest to find. Preferable, to me (a major fan), to any of the greatest hits compilations (except of course the box set). We have here a microcosm of all that is good about rock music: one of the best rock songs ever (Rose of England), a bass-driven instrumental (Long Walk Back), a flat out stomper (I Knew the Bride), a tender ballad (I Can Be The One You Love), and so on. You'll still be smiling from the enjoyment of one just completed track when this CD takes you off in still another pleasant direction. Seek it out. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention; following the unwritten rule of great albums, you have the requisite one clunker (Bo Bo Skediddle). Sorry about that. But you won't mind too bad.

I love the entire album. Darlin' Angel Eyes, She Don't Love Nobody, Rose of England, I Knew the Bride..., Indoor Fireworks, Hope to God I'm Right, I Can Be the One You Love are all particularly strong--and that's most of the album! Good to great songs, a topflight band, and Nick--what more could you want?

I heard "I knew the bride when she use to rock and roll" probably mtv or vh1 and It was maybe OK. Then a friend of mine turned me onto the cassette and I heard "indoor fireworks" and "I could be the one you love"" and scored it immediately!! God bless my buddies stoned out music lovin' head sharing it with me that night. ITs kinda like hearing Jimmy Buffets "Come MOnday" and after thinking maybe it was a hush puppy commercial being a little tooted and reefered and listening to "Havana Daydreaming" feeling confounded and fortunate realizing what I almost missed, then. NICK LOWE DESERVES 5 STARS FOR ROSE OF ENGLAND.

Anyway, I also have been trying to get in on cd release reasonable priced for years. "By the way 1 other of my 5 faves John Hammond Jr. earliest albums "Source Point" and another of his great firsts on the same cd just released. "I am waiting for Rita Coolidges The ladys not for sale cd to released someday.

Anyway some early jesse winchester,nick lowe,Poco With or w/out timothy b.Scmidt before and including Legend and Rose of Cimarron is good mix.
Patman

Rose of England is perhaps Nick Lowe's weakest album, despite the fairly good reviews it has received. From about 1980-1990, Lowe's records became increasingly directionless; although the material was up to his high standards, the production and arrangements were either overly forced or merely haphazard--Lowe living up to his "Basher" image. With Rose of England, however, he sounds as if he has regained his purpose. The songs are bright and tuneful, and the Cowboy Outfit are nearly as energetic and poised as Rockpile. The problem is that the songs are just not worth the effort. This is an album almost entirely made up of filler, and much of it not very interesting filler. Only the introspective "Rose of England" (itself one of Lowe's finest, and perhaps his best-observed, songs), Hiatt's "She Don't Love Nobody," and Costello's "Indoor Fireworks" are worth attention. The rest of the album is entertaining, but immediately forgettable, fluff. (Ironically, his next album, Pinker and Prouder than Previous, received unanimously savage reviews, but contains far more consistent material.) Maybe it all has to do with who your pals are. In the Seventies, Lowe had the company of Brinsley Schwarz, Dave Edmunds and the rest of Rockpile, Elvis Costello, Graham Parker.... In the mid-late Eighties, he was reduced to the likes of Paul Carrack, Huey Lewis, and John Hiatt, and his music reflected the sad fact. Regardless, Rose of England is an album Lowe fans have already, and newcomers are invited to pass over.