Labour Of Lust

Not quite as awesome as its immediate predecessor Jesus of Cool, Labour of Lust remains Nick Lowe's highest-charting and best-known album thanks to its simply perfect opening track "Cruel To Be Kind," his sole American chart hit. Recorded during the same sessions as Dave Edmunds' Repeat When Necessary--during this era, Lowe and Edmunds' group Rockpile (also featuring guitarist Billy Bremner and drummer Terry Williams) functioned as each singer-songwriter's backing band--Labour of Lust has a considerably more organic, live-band feel than Jesus of Cool, which had been assembled from multiple sources over a long period. The album also downplays Lowe's earlier fondness for overt stylistic parody in favor of an energetic modern take on vintage British Invasion, rockabilly and country sounds, although his tongue-in-cheek lyrical quirks remain unabated in oddball tunes like the jittery "Big Kick, Plain Scrap" and "American Squirm," which features friend and production client Elvis Costello on backing vocals. Side two moves into the rootsy Americana that Lowe would explore in greater depth for the rest of his career, with the winsome "Without Love" (later covered by Lowe's then-father-in-law, Johnny Cash) and the slyly smutty "Dose of You" the particular standouts. Though Lowe would spend much of the '80s in a creative funk, Labour of Love caps off his most productive era in high style. Yep Roc's 2011 reissue--resurrecting the album after nearly two decades out of print--adds the genuinely creepy solo murder ballad "Basing Street," the flip of the "Switchboard Susan" single.