“Indoor Safari” is a new album from veteran UK pub rocker Nick Lowe in collaboration with Nashville, TN rock & roll combo Los Straitjackets released on September 13, 2024.
Lowe began touring and recording with Los Straitjackets in the late 2010s. They put out three singles between 2018 and 2022, which were re-recorded for this year’s release, according to AllMusic, Lowe’s first album in years.
As a whole, “Indoor Safari” is about half remakes and half new songs, all played in an old-fashioned rock & roll style. A few of the songs update Lowe’s crooner persona of recent albums. But the band strips off some of the layers of sophistication and gloss, while adding some surf rock guitar work.
Overall, the album would seem to offer fans of classic rock and pop, including British-influenced styles, a signature blend of nostalgia, humor and relatable themes. All combined under Lowe’s distinctive musical approach.
Lyrics about domesticity, everyday life and the passage of time might resonate with listeners who appreciate a touch of sentimentality combined with wry wit and an observational lyrical bent.
Meanwhile, the incorporation of musical elements from a mixture of genres including country and the blues, along with rock and pop could appeal to broader audiences and keep listeners engaged. And explorations of universal themes like relationships, loss and the human experience, delivered through Lowe’s heartfelt and honest songwriting, might feel relevant to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
A pioneer of pub rock, Lowe was a pivotal figure in the early days of punk, had subsequent hits as a power popper and then had a dignified third act as an elegant crooner.
He started his career in Brinsley Schwarz, a collection of hippies that helped create the back-to-basics pub rock circuit of the early 1970s. And the scene that eventually mutated into punk rock.
After the split-up of Brinsley Schwarz, Lowe aligned with punk and new wave, serving as house producer for Stiff Records and helming seminal LPs for the Damned and Elvis Costello. It was in this period that he earned the nickname “Basher” for his fast and rough production style, and also helped establish punk’s D.I.Y. aesthetics.
During new wave’s heyday, Lowe co-led the band Rockpile with Dave Edmunds and the pair regularly appeared on each other’s solo albums into the early 80s. Lowe’s high-water mark during this time was the 1979 power pop album “Labor of Lust,” which featured the hit single “Cruel to Be Kind.”
After Rockpile disbanded, Lowe moved steadily toward country-rock. He experienced a renaissance with the 1994 album “The Impossible Bird” featuring the song “The Beast in Me.” This led him toward his latter-day sophisticated crooner incarnation. A style he maintained even after hiring Los Straitjackets to lend a little rock & roll instrumental support for a series of EPs.
Charlie Curnow 