Love Starvation / Trombone

Two years ago, Nick Lowe had almost convinced himself that his days of making records were over. As detailed in a lengthy retrospective feature in Rolling Stone this past December, Lowe had ridden into 2018 astride a storied forty-plus year career as an artist, producer and one of the most-revered songwriters of his generation. But suddenly, the affable rocker-next-door felt he had to step back to take stock of his situation. “And then along came the Straitjackets.” That’s Los Straitjackets, America’s beloved masked men of surf-and-spy guitar instrumentals. Propelled by last year’s well-received Tokyo Bay / Crying Inside EP (Conan O’Brien personally chose them to perform “Tokyo Bay” on the show’s final week of music bookings, before changing to its new 30-minute format), Lowe returns this spring with three crackling new originals “Love Starvation,” “Blue on Blue” and “Trombone,” plus a cover of an obscure Phil Spector-produced gem, “Raincoat in the River.”