Update: I knew Nick Lowe when he used to rock and roll.

After last year's welcome reissue of JESUS OF COOL (retitled PURE POP FOR NOW PEOPLE in the U.S. by Columbia Records) one would think that the good folks of Yep Roc would have wanted to reissue Nick Lowe's second solo album LABOUR OF LUST (which contains his biggest hit "Cruel To Be Kind").

Not to be. Instead Yep Roc and Lowe give listeners a new double-disc best-of that goes heavy on the snoozy, look-what-a-great-balladeer-I-am later material (naturally from Lowe's Yep Roc catalog--saving lots of money on licensing the earlier, better songs).

[Here's a post on Lowe from last year: http://poetry-arts-confidential.blogspot.com/2008/02/nick-lowe-when-early-music-has-more.html]

From a Yep Roc e-mail:
British songwriting icon Nick Lowe will release his definitive best of Quiet Please..The New Best of Nick Lowe on March 17, 2009.Quiet Please... is the definitive career spinning best of from the British pop genius that makes all other collections obsolete. The 49-track compendium documents the development of one of popular musics greatest song crafters, from his pub rock days in Brinsley Schwarz and later Rockpile, to his now legendary solo career. Healthy doses of material from 20 different albums combine to make it clear why Lowe is credited by artists and critics alike with paving the way for punk as well as changing the face of pop music with albums like Jesus of Cool, Labour of Lust and At my Age.The deluxe version of the set including DVD of nine original-era music videos for tracks like "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass," "Little Hitler," "Cruel to Be Kind" as well as a 2007 concert filmed live in Belgium, set the collection apart from standard best of's and into the realm of bona fide collector's items.

Here's the tracklisting:
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love And Understanding

So It Goes

Heart Of The City

Endless Sleep

Marie Provost

I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass

Cracking Up

American Squirm

Cruel To Be Kind

Without Love

You Make Me

When I Write The Book

Play That Fast Thing (One More Time)

Burning

Heart

Raining Raining

Ragin' Eyes

Mess Around With Love

Wish You Were Here

L.A.F.S.

Half A Boy And Half A Man

The Gee And The Rick And The Three Card Trick

The Rose Of England

I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock And Roll)

Wishing Well

Lovers Jamboree

Shting-Shtang

All Men Are Liars

What's Shakin' On The Hill

Don't Think About Her

Fool Who Knows

Soulful Wind

The Beast In Me

I Live On A Battlefield

Shelley My Love

You Inspire Me

Lonesome Reverie

Faithless Lover

What Lack Of Love Has Done

Man That I've Become

Lately I've Let Things Slide

Homewrecker

Has She Got A Friend?

Let's Stay In And Make Love

Indian Queens

I Trained Her To Love Me

People Change

Long Limbed Girl

Hope For Us All

[UPDATE 3/21/09: In retrospect, the Yep Roc set is probably a well-balanced set for those who want all sides of Lowe--but it's unlikely that older fans will want to listen to more than the first four songs of Disc 2 that often.]

If you want mature Anglophile balladry of the type Nick thinks he's doing, definitely buy Richard Hawley's COLES CORNER.