Proper (label)
28 February 2011 (released)
03 March 2011
Originally released in 1979 and sounding as fresh as a daisy today, ‘Labour Of Lust’ was actually a Rockpile album but had to be released as a Nick Lowe solo effort because of the contractual silliness of the times.
No matter who or what it was recorded by, this is 12 tracks of pop brilliance and most of the tracks could be handed to Westblue or any of the other boy bands without any worries at all.
From the opener ‘Cruel To Be Kind’ you have all the elements of a great pop song and the harmonies and the playing behind Nick Lowe’s vocal is almost perfect. Dave Edmund’s guitar work is simple, effective and perfect for the song.
‘Cracking Up’ has an Americana twang to it – before the name was even invented – but it also has a ver British note in the vocals and the harmonies.
‘Big Kick, Plain Scrap’ has a bhangra riff and beat in there for gawds sake alongside some Roy Orbisonisms on guitar
And the music just keeps on coming at you. ‘American Squirm’ could be a Tom Petty number – pisstake? – and features Elvis Costello on background vocals and Billy Bremner’s best guitar solo and ‘Born Fighter’, with Huey Lewis on harmonica and some seriously cheeky lyrics, or ‘Skin Deep’ with a big country style guitar line. 'Endless Grey Ribbon' is a great road song and 'Without Love' is simple a gorgeous piece of country with a Brit accent.
The 'bonus' track is 'Basing Street' - originally a B-Side and just Lowe and a guitar, very quiet and atmospheric and one of the most emotive songs you could imagine.
There probably isn’t a single duff track on the album and the playing is an example of British pop at its best, no overproduced Simon Cowell-isms here.
Nick Lowe has been at the helm of some of the best albums to come out of the post-punk period (and during – he produced early Elvis Costello and Ian Dury material) but he was also a brilliant performer and this shows him at one of his best and most productive periods.
