Jingle Bell Jawn #2: Quality Street -- Nick Lowe

Hey there, thanks so much if you checked out yesterday’s first entry in my Jingle Bell Jawn series! That one was on A Partridge Family Christmas Card, a staple of my family’s Christmas music experience since its 1971 release. Today’s entry is on a much more recent album, Nick Lowe’s excellent Quality Street, released in 2013. While I intentionally chose the Partridge Family jawn, this Lowe album was selected via my Mystical Dice of Random Holiday Music Destiny.

Before we dive into Quality Street, I wanted to emphasize that when I said that my rule is to play Christmas music only after Black Friday, I meant it. That is my rule. However, in order to get these entries up and running, I am obviously listening to Christmas music. But I want to note here and now that I am enjoying this Christmas music just slightly less right now than I will be enjoying it after Black Friday.

Also, I think these entries will often be circling back to the idea that nostalgia is what fuels most people’s love of the specific Christmas music they listen to, which begs the question: why should anybody record new Christmas music? Did anybody really need a Nick Lowe Christmas album in 2013, when we all still had our Elvis/Chipmunks/BoyzIIMen/Mariah/whatever Christmas songs to enjoy and invoke that magical nostalgia. Even Lowe apparently thought about this, but his record company convinced him to go for it, and the world of Christmas music is that much merrier and brighter because he did.

Jingle Bell Jawn #2: Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All The Family — Nick Lowe (2013, Yep Roc Records)

How Did I Acquire This Album? I think I ordered it via the Yep Rock website, maybe even before it was released. In addition to the vinyl, I received a CD copy for free!

Does This Album Include a Version of “Jingle Bells”? No.

What’s The Story on This Album? Nick Lowe had initially made a name for himself as a singer/songwriter/producer during the late ‘70s pub rock/new wave/punk rock explosion in England, but he had run of gas creatively by the early ‘90s. Then, thanks to a nice royalty check from a Curtis Stiger cover of “(What’s So Funny ‘bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” on The Bodyguard soundtrack, Lowe was able to hit a reset button on his life. He subsequently reinvented himself as a suave crooner, making a series of albums that presented a semi-acoustic take on soul, country, rock’n’roll, and loungey pop.

Lowe’s record company, Yep Roc, suggested he make a holiday-oriented album. Apparently, he was hesitant at first, but came around to the idea and crafted Quality Street as an album that slots in nicely with his other records from the ‘90s and 2000s.

The album is mostly comprised of Lowe’s interpretations of other people’s Christmas songs, most of which are not overly familiar. He does take on “Silent Night” but in an upbeat arrangement that harkens back to a 1962 rendition of the song by Huey Piano Smith & the Clowns.

The overall vibe of Quality Street is mellow and intimate, but not afraid to rock out a bit, on its own terms.

What Does This Album Mean to Me? Donna and I have both loved Nick Lowe’s work for decades, so we were excited when Lowe played the Colonial Theatre, here in Phoenixville, on Oct. 11, 2009. We met Nick briefly after the show and he was charming and gracious. So, I was still basking in the afterglow of that show a few years later when Lowe released Quality Street. While Lowe himself might have had misgivings about recording a Christmas album, I was quite amenable to the idea and I think many other Lowe fans were too.

Obviously, Quality Street doesn’t evoke childhood Christmas memories for me but I’ve loved playing it every year since it’s been released. It might be the only Christmas album made in the 21st century that I love. (Of course, there is that Minus 5 album to consider…)

Highlights: All highlights, really, but two Lowe originals stand out, maybe in part because they’re so different but equally effective. “Christmas at the Airport”, a witty, toe-tapping tale of being stuck at the airport on Christmas, is the newly-minted classic here. His other original, “I Was Born in Bethlehem”, is a much different kind of song, a first-person account of Jesus’ birth, in which Jesus humbly notes that, in the centuries since his birth, he has tried to make himself available to anyone who needs him: “But I’ve done what I’ve can to be there when a man can’t find a friend.” Quietly affecting.

Lowlights: Can’t think of any true lowlights, just like I couldn’t think of any lowlights from the Partridge Family album. Maybe I should eliminate this “lowlights” category?

Oddities: “A Dollar Short of Happy” is a rare Nick Lowe/Ry Cooder collaboration that features a lyric about ”crazy nannies getting high in the SUV” over a loungey organ.

How Do I Rate This Album, in Strictly Musical Terms, on a Scale of 1 to 5 Jingle Bells? This is a solid 4.5 out of 5 jingle bells. It is very much of a piece with the quieter acoustic-based-but-still-occasionally-rocking albums Lowe has been making since the mid-1990s.

How Do I Rate This Album, in Personal Emotional Resonance (P.E.R), on a Scale of 1 to 5 Partridges in a Pear Tree? I’d say Quality Street gets a 3.5 on the the P.E.R. scale. Obviously, this album came along way too late to be anywhere near my own childhood, but I do enjoy the fact that my sons will carry memories of “Christmas at the Airport” being on my Christmas mix CDs throughout their lives.