Geekscape Music Reviews Nick Lowe’s “Labour Of Lust”
One of my highlights of the high school-aged romantic comedies of the late nineties, a.k.a. when I was in high school and relating, was 10 Things I Hate About You. I clearly remember Save Ferris, one of my absolute favorite bands of that era, performing at The Big Dance Of The Movie, followed by a performance by Letters To Cleo. Julia Stiles’ character freaked out to Heath Ledger’s when Letters To Cleo started playing Nick Lowe’s “Cruel To Be Kind.” Ledger told Stiles that he had “called in a favor” and she kissed him, right there on the dance floor, in grand High School Hollywood style.
This was my first glimpse into the world of Nick Lowe. In hindsight, it’s both pathetic and hilarious. If only understanding were as simple as calling in a favor to impress a girl.
Nick Lowe’s epic second solo album, “Labour Of Lust” is to be re-issued Tuesday on Yep Roc records. Previously out of print for nearly twenty years, you’ll be able to purchase on vinyl, CD and (twenty-first century drumroll, please) digitally. No one is messing around here; there are bonus tracks, a booklet with Barney Bubbles artwork and new essays. This release follows Yep Roc’s 2008 re-issue of Lowe’s solo debut, “Jesus Of Cool.”
This album…has a lot of sex on it. I hear it as a bubbling XY chromosome-filled pile of rock. (Pun on purpose! If you aren’t chuckling, it’s cool, move on.)
One of my favorites is “Love So Fine.” It’s a simple rock and roll song. Can’t things just be simple every once in awhile? (I mean “simple” in the nicest sense of the word) I think they should be. There’s even a fade out. Lyrics: “Wait until I see her again/tonight I’m gonna tell her that I don’t wanna be just friends/She’s got a pair of tits that just won’t quit/Everything that she’s got, I like it a lot/She’s so fine, a love so fine”
The song that clocks in at less than two minutes, in the middle of the track listing, that epitomizes the need for calm emotional honesty on an album of forthright male (albeit mildly sensitive male) rock songs, is “You Make Me.” Devastatingly beautiful: “I strive to be strong/But I’m weak/You say what useless excuse is this/You make me/I try with my might/To have and to hold/But there’s something to it/That I can’t control/See I haven’t loosed my love/I’m just confused by love/You make me”
In my college years following my memory of 10 Things I Hate About You, I heard the original version of “Cruel To Be Kind,” the first song on “Labour of Lust, “and its subsequent chart-topping single. I also remember hearing the iconic gem penned by Lowe, recorded by Elvis Costello, “(What’s So Funny Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” and its subsequent B-side, “American Squirm.” I noted, but didn’t digest. I wouldn’t digest, as I would later learn, for a few more years and a friendship with someone I hadn’t met yet. Then again, do we ever totally digest the artists that mean the most to us?
Post-college, through my obsessive scouring of each and every liner note of CDs or vinyl in my collection, as well as everyone else’s collection that I’d come in contact with, my eyes widened with the realization that Nick Lowe was the cat who produced “My Aim Is True,” “This Year’s Model”, “Armed Forces”, “Get Happy!!”, and “Trust.” These are otherwise known as the first five Elvis Costello albums. Oh. My. God. Who IS this man?!
I went to see him, last autumn, with a very good friend who not only is a huge fan, but also a talented individual on the path of emulation. In the lobby on the way in was a leather jacket-clad one Huey Lewis, rolling solo. I still ask myself why I didn’t buy the man a beer and strike up a conversation? Sadly, we cannot go back in time. (Or…back to the future?)
Nick Lowe and his band blew me away. Simple. Real. Deliberate. Go if you’ve the chance. When something really hits, a film, show of some sort, book ending, I tend not to be able to talk for a good five to ten minutes afterwards, because I’m coming down from the experience. It took me awhile to get out of there with any semblance of English language sentences. Good sign.
“Labour of Lust” like “My Aim Is True” for Elvis, is a nice place to start if there’s a spark of interest. “Lust” has gems that bear repeated listens and lives up to its uncanny and pointed title.
