Nick Lowe - Dig My Mood Mojo Album Review by Will Birch

Failed Christian

Nick Lowe - Dig My Mood - Demon Records

Nick Lowe Rocks But Gently? Possibly, except Lowe hardly ‘rocks’ at all here. This is not a complaint, but anyone anticipating a little shake and pop will require shock treatment as laser locates groove. Faithless Lover, the daring Jacques Brel-like opener, is a sparse mood piece, revealing a new eerie resonance in Lowe’s voice. The tone veers deeper into easy territory with You Inspire Me, a lush ballad that could have been written with k d lang in mind. Time I Took A Holiday, complete with ‘Groovin’ intro, finds its author seeking ‘somewhere quiet and not overlooked’ so he and his baby can ‘go get cooked’. Many of these songs sound eminently coverable, especially The Kind Of Man That I’ve Become - another ready-to-wear item for Johnny Cash.

Elsewhere, the mood we’re asked to dig is deep and foreboding. Not for the first time Lowe reiterates ‘love’s a hurting thing’ (What Lack Of Love Has Done) and doubts if he will ever find what he’s looking for (High On A Hilltop), whilst the hilariously-titled Failed Christian, written by Henry McCullough, inspires a sudden outbreak of Dylanesque warbling. Throughout the record, the vocal is set high in the mix, proudly occupying perhaps 70% of the picture, allowing the volume to be cranked up without any nasty drums annoying the neighbours. It’s a mature sound from one of England’s greatest singer-songwriters and although it’s one step back from The Impossible Bird, it’s several jumps ahead of the competition.

Will Birch grills Nick Lowe

Where do you see Dig My Mood in commercial terms?

It’s out of step with what’s going on, but I hope people like it. I take a lot of trouble to make my records sound like I’ve taken no trouble at all. They’re really glorified demos for my songs and they’ve been recorded in such a way that people might say ‘good song, but I can do it much better than that guy’.

Would you rather be a successful songwriter than a successful performer?

Definitely, yes. I love performing but the cliché is you don’t get paid for going on stage. You get paid for the other twenty-two-and-a-half hours of the day that you’ve got to hold yourself together, travelling to some strange town, eating awful food and being cold and lonely. Also, you can’t just run to the bar like you could do when you were younger. You’ve got to stay sober, because the gig is the high point of the day, instead of the irritating interruption that it once was for me.

How do you approach making records these days?

I do lots of pre-production. I go to a church hall and sing out loud into the rafters, over and over again, with some real classy musicians who understand the process. It’s only a two minute song, but we’ll know every single way the thing could go. When we enter the studio and count it in, I’ll be in a trance, hopefully, and nothing musical will phase us. Nothing that will stop the vocalist, the bloke, being totally in charge. If it comes out right, it will sound like someone else’s record.

Have you said goodbye to your rocking days?

This record rocks, in a very internal way, but I think my days of singing to that big walloping Nazi beat are over. It’s not sexy enough. In Rockpile, it felt natural, but we were all hopped-up on whatever, which put us in the mood to get up and show off. I don’t feel like that anymore. The only reason to re-form Rockpile would be for the money, but I’d feel like an old buffoon.

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