Highs and Lows: Nick Lowe’s The Convincer

Credit- wcbe.org

In The Convincer Nick Lowe effortlessly blends blue eyed soul, rock, folk, and 1960s country music into an album that shows just how good a singer-songwriter he can be. With his heartfelt and sometime witty songwriting, the album opens with the soulful, and sometimes uncomfortable feeling, Homewrecker, in which Lowe tells us that ‘All I know is, once I was a king/ and I turned around and I’d lost everything,’ 

He then takes us into a cover of Only a Fool Breaks His Own Heart, showing the listener that Lowe possesses a unique talent to make songs his own. His version is a guitar and electric organ lead soulful ballad, that only helps to add to the lonesome feel of the album. Only a Fool, like a lot of the album, shows how rich and textured music is to back them up, lyrics can do so much more than be words written on a page. 

The third song, and one of the best on the album is a near perfect example of the genius of Nick Lowe. Lately I’ve Let Things Slide takes Lowe’s witty and wise songwriting and accompanies it with a classic sound. The opening of the self-reflective hang-over ballard is lead by a horn section and what might be one of the best selection of opening words to any of Lowe’s songs: 

‘With a growing sense of dread 

And a hammer in my head

Fully clothed on the bed

I wake up to the world that lately,

 I’ve been living in’

He then takes us through a description of the world that materialises in front of his tired eyes. From the ‘cut upon my brow’ to the how ‘the front door’s open wide.’ In conclusion all Lowe can tell the listener is that ‘Lately I’ve let things slide.’ The timeless feel of the song, and the album as a whole really, is somewhat similar to Yola’s last album Walk Through Fire, and leads us to question when exactly the 2001 offering from Lowe was recorded. A little deeper within the lyrics we can get a sense of how helpless and vulnerable Lowe feels to the world around him, telling us how: 

‘Smoking; I once quit

Now I got one lit

I just fell back into it.

Alone with my pride

Lately I’ve let things slide’

Credit- Julian Broad, Rolling Stone

The rest of the album takes us through a musical tour de force of the wonderful world of Nick Lowe. A step away from his punk and new-wave beginnings, The Convincer shows how musicians can age and mature in a way that means they don’t become stale or lost in the past. Songs like She’s got Soul, with it’s folk-rock feel, show how Lowe can take classic musical cliques like meeting a new lover and re-invented them in his own way. 

The brass band opening bars of Indian Queens exemplify Nick Lowe’s ability to bring a uniquely English feel to his music. The past-focused ballad about a man trying to find something he left behind is a wonderful example of how he is able to bring a different perspective to a song that could have easily ended up feeling like just another 1960s style country/folk song. 

Lowe’s wonderfully matured vocals are also a brilliant addition to the album. His voice is strong and self-assured when it needs to be but can be lace-thin and vulnerable when the music requires it. He is clearly still the same man that was a young new-wave rocker that sang Cruel to be Kind, who suffered a nervous breakdown in the early 70s because of his heavy acid use, and who was there in the early years of Stiff Records with acts such as Elvis Costello and then later the Pogues and Madness. The intervening years, exploring country music and rock ‘n’ roll in albums like Impossible Bird, have clearly had an effect, not to mention the years of drinking and fall from public fame. The Convincer feels like an album of a man who is comfortable where he is, but fully aware of the journey he’s been on to get to that position. 

The record ends with the slick love song Let’s Stay in and Make Love, that comes packed with all the soulfulness that is present in rest of the album. Lowe paints an intimate picture of mature and heartfelt love and longing, opening with the lines ‘I don’t really care about tonight’s affair.’ Let’s Stay in and Make Love really does feel like the perfect way of ending a sincere and mature album that weaves soul, folk, rock, and country music together into something else and personal. It is a feat that few artists could do so effortlessly but Nick Lowe is without a doubt successful.

Credit- uncut.co.uk

Nick Lowe has, in the twenty years since The Convincer’s release has gone from strength to strength, still touring- COVID allowing-, and releasing new music. In lockdown he took part in the Rolling Stone “In My Room” series. Seen with his son Roy, he shows how with just with a guitar he is able to tell wonderful stories and how he is still- at 71 -effortlessly cool.