I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass

When it comes to cool, there is no one -- no one! -- cooler than Nick Lowe. You can take your Miles Davises, your Kurt Cobains, your Dan Fogelbergs; nobody is more preternaturally, effortlessly, endlessly cool than Nick Lowe. Here's why:

1. He looks good. Am I wrong?
2. He does the crossword, apparantly.
3. For a while, Johnny Cash was his father-in-law.
4. He wrote the song "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?"
5. He wrote a rather good song called "Time Wounds All Heels."
6. He wrote a rather good song called "All Men are Liars," in which he rhymes "Rick Astley" with "ghastly." Those who listened to pop radio in the 80's will recognize.
7. He wrote a rather good song called "What's Shaking On the Hill?"
8. After David Bowie released an album titled Low, Nick Lowe released an album titled Bowi.
9. The UK version of the Nick Lowe album known in the US as Pure Pop for Now People was Jesus of Cool.
10. He was alternative country before anybody.
11. His English country band was called Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit.
12. "I need the noises of distruction when there's nothing new."
13. "Oh, heart: you motor of emotion!"
14. "True love travels on a gravel road."
15. In the late 70's, Nick Lowe, recording as "The Tartan Horde," put out a single called "Bay City Rollers We Love You!"
16. He wrote a song about the death of Marie Provost.
17. He was the producer for the first several Elvis Costello records.
18. He was the producer for the first Damned record.
19. In an A.V. Club interview from the Onion, he says of his two-year-old son, "he's a blooming nuisance, but he's a lovely fellow."
20. I saw him play for free in a churchyard in Boston.
21. He's WIDELY underappreciated.

Now go buy his new record, At My Age, from Yep Roc records.