Nick Lowe – Indoor Safari Review

A new Nick Lowe album is always a treat. His work on The Convincer remains one of the best first-time listens. He has continued from those pub rock-styled, country-rooted beauties and into this, Indoor Safari. With a gruff voice and a wry smile, Lowe swings back into the 1960s-styled instrumentals with ease. There is a naturalness heard through Indoor Safari which brings out the best of his earliest years. This is not revisionism from Lowe but a retread of his old stomping grounds. Went to a Party is the graceful opener which allows us to arrive at the rockabilly destination Lowe is dragging us to. So go with him, kicking and screaming into these pub rock beauties, most ripped and rerecorded from his earlier EPs, for they have the joys of his usual style about them.  

But this is a thin veneer and it does not settle quite as it should. Some tracks like Crying Inside has an obviousness to the occasion but are settled well by a dedicated Lowe performance. He pulls at those intimate encounters with loved ones and how, even those, are tricky to navigate. There is a suddenness, a “slip away” as he describes it. Indoor Safari has an expected maturity to its but comes to life when Lowe dares to tackle the toxic masculinity around him on Crying Inside with the expected instrumental warmth, an acoustic tone and jolly sensibility with deeper, meaningful lyrics. Find that quiet place, as Lowe asks of us on a track of the same name. His aged and wizened voice is a treat here.  

For those who did not listen to the EPs then Indoor Safari will not feel like a short change experience. Even then, Indoor Safari has a neat pace to it and fits together now all the parts are cobbled together, dropped into place with the afterthoughts of an album lingering. It works well. Lowe has come through once more with a delicate styling of a sound which has brought truth and joy to his lyrics for decades. Blue on Blue and Jet Pac Boomerang feel more like baroque pop than anything else, and their warmth and experience feel essential here. Another classy occasion for Lowe should be no surprise yet he consistently makes for shock moments, the joys of his delicate sound warming over the course of Indoor Safari. Its imagery, the honesty and everyday topics soon blend well with slight changes to the instrumental sections from their original EP conceptions.  

Indoor Safari serves as a continuation of upbeat expectations. We hope for the quality of legendary artists like Lowe to continue as long as they can, and he still has enough in these topics and tones to carve out another collection of well-worked tracks. Blues charmer Trombone uses the brass beauty to chart those days of limbo in love. Lowe has not lost his charming way of working around the everyday experiences. His unique outlook remains impressive and bold, Indoor Safari is a delicate series of examples. Shared embraces, moments of self-doubt when surrounded by loved ones, Indoor Safari paints a complex idea of simple premises. Do we love ourselves enough to enjoy the spoils of life? Indoor Safari hopes to find out, and Lowe is a safe, enjoyable guide through these songs of lust, doubt and life.