Nick Lowe's Pinker And Prouder Than Previous is one of his best, and frequently overlooked, efforts.Recorded in several different studios during '86 and '87, the record none the less has a cohesive feel, and Lowe's songwriting is consistently strong. There's always a few just average songs on his records, but this one doesn't have many.
(You're My) Wildest Dream is a fine country-rocker. Crying In My Sleep is a particularly creepy lyric about dreaming of causing your lover pain that Lowe turns into a psychotic country weeper. It's great. I Got The Love is a classic Lowe love song with a sparse arrangement that features Paul Carrack's organ. The reggae-country ballad Cry It Out is fine writing and performance. Dave Edmunds stops by to produce the rockabilly twang of Lover's Jamboree, and comes up with the classic Rockpile sound that both Edmunds and Lowe used throughout the late seventies and early eighties.
Lowe also chooses some fine covers for this outing. John Hiatt's Love Gets Strange is a rocker with a particularly deft lyric. Black Lincoln Continental is a driving rocker from Graham Parker's pen. Big Big Love is rolling country pop-rock that Lowe makes his own, at least until k.d. lang got her hands on it.
Pull it back out of the stacks. It deserves more attention than it ever received. The CD is more expensive than the vinyl on the used market, so if you've got a 'table, spin away
It is a great record.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note I once got a full glass of whiskey thrown in my face at a Paul Carrack show (where Nick Lowe was on the bass) by a chick I was dating at the time. I utterly forget what offense I had committed at the time to warrant such coarse behavior on her part.