Album Reviews

The prospect of reviewing a new album by Nick Lowe is both exciting and daunting. How do you fairly encapsulate a new release from a man whose reputation is etched into the music history books via his many classic LPs and production work that arguably helped shape the sound of the late-’70s and early ’80s new-wave movement? Well, when you produce an album that sounds as good as Lowe’s new Indoor Safari LP does, it’s less daunting to review a record that can stand proudly alongside his legacy creations. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why Indoor Safari — which also happens to be “powered by” Lowe’s current tourmates, Los Straitjackets — belongs on your turntable today. . .

There is two kinds of music, the good and the bad�

Very few singers can get this close to a dry microphone, be balanced way forward of the backup band and sound as good as Peggy Lee does on this series of standards backed by a pair of small ensembles, recorded in 1953 and 1956. Neither the original nor the reissue notes explain the album’s temporal context so perhaps there’s no story there.

Whenever a record shows up I like to look at the lead out groove area to see who did the lacquer cutting. Sometimes there’s nothing to be found and that’s annoying, but with this double set I thought I was hallucinating because in plain view was “TML-M” a stamp not seen on a slab of new vinyl in decades. TML is the acronym for “The Mastering Lab” and the “M” means the main lathe at Doug Sax’s place.

I turned 50 when the car manufacturer Saab turned 50, so I celebrated my half century, by treating myself to a day at the Skip Barber racing school held in conjunction with Saab's 50th anniversary celebration/annual Saab club convention, which took place that summer (1997) at the beautiful Waterville Valley Ski Resort-no dogs allowed.