And then shortly after that, a son and heir appeared, which I never thought would be something that would happen to me. He was elderly and it was kind of expected, but it does knock you off your perch a bit. I lost my father, first of all, although that wasn’t exactly a tragedy. That whole process didn’t happen this time, because one or two things came up. It might take a year or more, I won’t go into the studio every day but I’ll working at it in some vague form or other. Then I’ll record them, so if those two or three turn out pretty good it sort of powers me on to write and record a whole album’s worth. Some of them simmer away and every so often a couple of good ones will pop out of the soup. I’ve got a huge back catalogue, but that’s only because I’ve been doing this for so long!Įven though I think about writing songs all day, all the time, in the main, it’s rubbish. That, to me, is a major body of work, because I’m not that prolific at all. What normally happens is that I get a feeling that I’m gonna do a new record, generally accompanied by the appearance of – hopefully – two or three good new songs. I’ve had a couple of mixed hands dealt to me over the last few years, and I’ve just been very distracted.
Your recording career stretches back four decades, but the gap between this album and the last has been your longest. To others, he’s the chap who penned the classic (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?, which brought him untold wealth after featuring on the multi-multi-platinum soundtrack to The Bodyguard.īut having been seemingly inactive since the turn of the century, long-time Lowe-watchers could be forgiven for wondering if their hero, now 58, had opted for retirement, content to focus his energies on fatherhood, a state of affairs he found himself experiencing for the first time little more than a year ago. To some, though, Lowe remains the consummate intelligent pop producer, courtesy of the six albums he made with Elvis Costello, or other triumphs with the likes of The Pretenders, Graham Parker and Dr Feelgood. Seventies solo hits I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass and Cruel To Be Kind made him a bona fide pop star, having already gained the distinction of releasing the first ever single on the much-loved Stiff Records label (1976’s So It Goes). At the heart of the proceedings, though, is the rich Lowe baritone, an astonishing knack with a hummable tune, and a knowing lyrical wit that has served him well since he first trod the boards with Brinsley Schwarz in the late 60s. A bit of old-style white boy southern soul here (Not Too Long Ago, There’s Hope For Us All), a soupçon of laconic country swing there (Long Limbed Girl, Feel Again). The new record sees the erstwhile pub rocker and new wave pioneer mining the same rich seam of sophisticated, mature country and soul with which he all but reinvented himself on 1995’s The Impossible Bird, and continued to perfect on two further albums, Dig My Mood (1998) and The Convincer (2001).Īt My Age dabbles in classic, elder-statesmanlike concerns. Jack’s unwitting contribution is the basis of A Better Man, the first track on At My Age, Lowe’s first album of new material for almost six years.
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This is typical behaviour for a man whose 1990 single title All Men Are Liars (And That’s The Truth) was lifted from an irate audience member in an episode of Oprah Winfrey’s soul-baring TV show.
I know exactly what I can do with that…’” “I immediately thought to myself, ‘Ooh, I could use that.
“It just popped out of nowhere, a real heartstopper,” he recalls. Watching the Hollywood legend on TV one night, in the 1997 comedy As Good As It Gets, Lowe was struck by the power and simplicity of one line the rascally thesp delivered to a visibly stunned Helen Hunt: “You make me want to be a better man.” Triple Oscar-winner Jack Nicholson may not be the most obvious inspiration for a songwriter, but Nick Lowe has always been humble enough and happy to draw on any outside influence that comes his way.
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