Nick Lowe
Indoor Safari
(Yep Roc)
★★★★

THE former Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile stalwart hasn’t been too active on the recording front since the release of his 2013 album of Christmas songs, Quality Street, but the great man’s musical mojo remains firmly intact on the eloquent evidence presented by Indoor Safari.

Working in close collaboration with his like-minded Yep Roc labelmates Los Straitjackets in a musical marriage made in heaven, Nick has crafted a hook laden melodic gem featuring remixed or rerecorded versions of nine tracks which originally saw the light of day in single or EP form during the past decade or so. 

Lowe’s abiding affection for the innocent delights of American pre-Beatles rock and pop informs many of his finest creations here, most notably Went To A Party, Jet Pac Boomerang and the exquisitely forlorn Different Kind of Blue. 

Taj Mahal
Giant Step / De Ole Folks At Home
(Floating World)
★★★

THIS larger-than-life New Yorker played a key role in the development of interest in world music during his creative heyday in the late 1960s, weaving elements of Caribbean, African and South Pacific culture into his distinctive brand of bluesy music-making in the process. 

This splendid CD reissue from Floating World focuses attention on one of the critically acclaimed collections that Taj Mahal captured for posterity on the CBS label during this period. 

Originally released as a vinyl double album, the contents were equally divded between electric and acoustic discs as Mahal joined forces with the criminally gifted session guitarist Jesse Ed Davis to breathe new life into much loved old favourites such as Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Six Days on the Road and country bluesman Reverend Gary Davis’s Candy Man. 

Paul Williams
The Best of Paul Williams
(UMG)
★★★

THIS easy-on-the-ear compilation explores the back catalogue of Nebraska-born singer-songwriter Paul Williams, who penned a string of hits for performers such as Three Dog Night, Helen Reddy and, most notably, The Carpenters during the late 1960s and early ’70s. 

Williams operated in the same sort of tuneful, romantically inclined musical territory as the great Harry Nilsson and, although his own solo creations didn’t make too much of an impact on the record buying public when they first saw the light of day half a century or more ago, the contents of this anthology still repay closer investigation today. 

The pick of the excellent albums that Paul recorded for A&M Records when he was operating at the peak of his creative powers includes his distinctive versions of self-penned pop classics such as Rainy Days and Mondays and We’ve Only Just Begun, to name but a few.