Nick Lowe: Busy 2024 With Tour, New Studio Album

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Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets (Photo: Bobby Fisher; used with permission)

Nick Lowe has released his first full-length album in eleven years, Indoor Safari, representing a return to early rock ‘n’ roll, with 12 songs, including originals, a couple of deep-cut covers, and refitted versions of tracks previously released in nascent form as singles. The album represents a culmination of his decade-long working relationship with the mysterious masked men and Yep Roc Records labelmates, Los Straitjackets (Eddie Angel/guitar; Pete Curry/bass; Chris Sprague/drums; Greg Townson/guitar). It arrived on September 13, 2024 and is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. Listen to many of the tracks below.

In the album’s liner notes, Emmy-winning writer Eli Attie (The West Wing, Billions, The Diplomat) calls Indoor Safari “nothing less than a free-roaming journey through the wilds of recorded sound.”

Watch the clip for the album’s lead track, “Went To A Party,” a certified fete-plate of sock hop soul and Lowe’s first official co-write with the Straitjackets

The July 16 release of a second song from the album comes amidst a busy calendar for Lowe. He completed a series of dates in June and has now scheduled a U.S. tour with Los Straitjackets along with many shows in the U.K.

Originally written and scratch-recorded during sessions for Lowe’s 2001 album The Convincer, “Different Kind of Blue” did not surface in the U.S. until Yep Roc included it in an expanded 20th anniversary reissue of that album in 2021. Now, the song is newly recorded with a lyrical refresh and the gentle swinging support of Los Straitjackets.

Since releasing his last album, 2013’s Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection For All the Family, Lowe has toured three continents with Los Straitjackets, recording a series of rapid fire singles and EPs along the way. In time-honored fashion, he kept fine-tuning those songs and coming up with new ones. With help from Alex Hall “they all sound of a piece” now says Lowe, adding that with the old Straitjacket magic “hey, presto, you’ve got the sauce on it all.”

“We wanted to do some original songs, and no one’s going to come see an act where four of the five people onstage are wearing wrestling masks and expect to hear deep, meaningful verses of existential angst,” Lowe tells Rolling Stone. “People who come to see our shows want to hear these punchy, short tunes.”

Of “Jet Pac Boomerang,” Lowe notes: “I wrote this one while in Osaka, Japan in my hotel room while waiting for a taxi. It sounds like the pre-Beatles era of pop music that I grew up with. Ironically, when our engineer Alex Hall delivered the final mix to me, I was back in Osaka in the same hotel room as when I wrote the song years prior. I suppose everything comes back around much like the song title implies.”

Lowe made a surprise appearance at Newport Folk during Conan O’Brien’s festival-closing set, where he performed “Cruel to Be Kind” and “So It Goes” with Dawes.

Lowe has made his mark as a pioneer of pub rock, power pop, and punk rock and as a producer of Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, the Damned and the Pretenders. He has been a pop star with his bands Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile, a stepson-in-law to Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and is the writer behind hits including “Cruel To Be Kind” and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.”

[Lowe’s recording catalog is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.]

Nick Lowe Indoor Safari Tracklist
Went To A Party (Lowe, Angel, Curry, Sprague, Townson)
Love Starvation (Lowe)
Crying Inside (Lowe)
A Quiet Place (Bell, Meade)
Blue On Blue (Lowe)
Jet Pac Boomerang (Lowe)
Tokyo Bay (Lowe)
Trombone (Lowe)
Different Kind of Blue (Lowe)
Raincoat In The River (Schroeder, Kaye)
Lay It On Me Baby (Lowe)
Don’t Be Nice To Me (Lowe)

Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets 2024 Tour (Tickets for many of the shows are available here); alternatively, you can check here)
Sep 24 – London, UK – London Palladium
Sep 26 – Sunderland, UK – The Fire Station
Sep 28 – Dublin, Ireland – National Concert Hall
Sep 29 – Manchester, UK – O2 Ritz Manchester
Sep 30 – Birmingham, UK – O2 Academy Birmingham
Oct 10 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Oct 11 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Oct 12 – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live
Oct 13 – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live
Oct 16 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
Oct 17 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
Oct 18 – Northampton, MA – Academy of Music Theatre
Oct 20 – Washington, DC – The Atlantis
Oct 21 – Washington, DC – The Atlantis
Oct 22 – Pittsburgh, PA – Thunderbird Cafe & Music Hall
Oct 24 – Toronto, ON – TD Music Hall
Oct 25 – Toronto, ON – TD Music Hall
Oct 26 – Ferndale, MI – The Magic Bag
Oct 29 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
Oct 30 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
Nov 01 – Milwaukee, WI – Vivarium
Nov 02 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line
Nov 03 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line