Yep Roc

Nick Lowe has certainly been reflective of late: His previous album, At My Age, made it clear that, unlike some of his contemporaries, this is one aging singer/songwriter who doesn’t have use for pretending he’s the same man that he was in his twenties and thirties. On The Old Magic, Lowe confronts mortality, wanderlust, loneliness and broken relationships ( “You left me high and dry in a loveless land with nothing but time on my hands,” he sings in “I Read a Lot” ). Yet rather than depress, his songs manage to uplift. Lowe’s raw, admirable honesty, fleshed out with the help of his road band and a smattering of guests ( Paul Carrack, Jimmie Vaughan), continues in the country-rooted vein that he’s adopted in recent years. It’s some of the most instantly likable music of his long career.