On his first record in six years, this proto-punk icon keeps it terrifically mellow without getting mushy in the head. Lowe sticks mostly to roughly crooned ballads and vaguely Sixties-sounding rock, the best of which reveal a fighting spirit under their catchy exterior: Witness "I Trained Her to Love Me," a funny, nasty jab at an ex in which Lowe plays an aging ass man in the tradition of Frank...

Ever since his classic solo debut, 1978's Pure Pop for Now People – and a follow-up, Labour of Lust, almost as good – lovable Nick Lowe has stuck to the same menu of good-humored, but no longer compelling, rock & roll, rockabilly and pure pop. After a stint as the trend-setting Jesus of Cool, the former pub rocker seems to have returned to the cheerful meaninglessness of his musical...