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->"''You've gotta be\\
Cruel to be kind in the right measure\\
Cruel to be kind it's a very good sign\\
Cruel to be kind means that I love you\\
Baby, you've gotta be cruel to be kind''"
-->--'''Nick Lowe''', "''CruelToBeKind''"

Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is a [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} British]] SingerSongwriter who has been active since the late [[TheSixties 1960s]]. His first group, Kippington Lodge, evolved into pub rock pioneers Brinsley Schwarz. After they broke up in the mid [[TheSeventies 1970s]], Lowe began his solo career, which continues to this day. He's also worked as a RecordProducer for Music/ElvisCostello, Graham Parker, Music/{{The Damned|Band}}, Music/{{Pretenders}} and others, a career which earned him the nickname "Basher" due to his habit of recording quickly and without production tricks, wherein he would instruct bands to "bash it out, we'll tart it up later". He is best known, at least in the USA, for his song "Cruel to Be Kind", in the UK for "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass", and, indirectly for Costello's CoverVersion of the Brinsley Schwarz song "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding." He also worked with Dave Edmunds on several of his albums and in the band Rockpile, but personality clashes between the two meant Rockpile disbanded after releasing one album, although they have remained friends outside of the studio.

His early music career is best described as PowerPop catchy hooks meets [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] energy, hilarious, frequently sarcastic or surreal [[LyricalDissonance lyrics]] and a cheerfully irreverent approach towards songwriting, especially manifested through fondness for [[PlayingWithATrope playing with pop music conventions]]. Starting with ''The Impossible Bird'', he's transitioned into a more reflective, less energetic style more heavily inspired by CountryMusic, classic pop and {{Soul}}.

Not to be confused with the long-standing movie reviewer in ''Magazine/{{Interzone}}'' magazine, who is a completely different Nick Lowe. [[note]] Amusingly, they decided to swap roles once, with singer Nick doing a film review, and film reviewer Nick trying to sing on a NickLowe track. When it came out that they'd done that, the consensus was singer Nick was a rather good film reviewer, but film reviewer Nick was only a moderately good singer. [[/note]]
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!!Studio Discography:
* ''Jesus of Cool'' (1978)[[note]]Originally released as ''Pure Pop for Now People'' in the US; reissued as ''Wireless World'' in 2022[[/note]]
* ''Labour of Lust'' (1979)
* ''Nick the Knife'' (1982)
* ''The Abominable Showman'' (1983)
* ''Nick Lowe and his Cowboy Outfit'' (1984)
* ''The Rose of England'' (1985)
* ''Pinker and Prouder Than Previous'' (1988)
* ''Party of One'' (1990)
* ''The Impossible Bird'' (1994)
* ''Dig My Mood'' (1997)
* ''The Convincer'' (2001)
* ''At My Age'' (2007)
* ''The Old Magic'' (2011)
* ''Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family'' (an album of ChristmasSongs) (2013)

!!With Rockpile:
* ''Seconds of Pleasure '' (1980)

!!With Little Village:
* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Little Village]]'' (1992)

!!Pure Tropes For Now People:
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: ''Pinker and Prouder Than Previous''
* AdolfHitlarious: "Little Hitler" has Lowe comparing Jake Riviera, his notoriously thuggish manager, to the Fuhrer.
* AffectionateParody: Of Music/PaulMcCartney in "Nutted By Reality". "Rollers Show" pokes fun at the Bay City Rollers, but is noticeably more snarky.
* BitingTheHandHumor: Several of Nick's songs take shots at record label executives and the failure of Brinsley Schwarz, such as "I Love My Label", "Music for Money", and "Shake and Pop" and its alternate version "They Called It Rock".
* BlackComedy: "Marie Provost", detailing the drug overdose of the silent film actress Marie [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Prevost]] and her subsequently being eaten by her dog.[[note]]An UrbanLegend spread by Kenneth Anger.[[/note]]
* {{Bowdlerize}}: Lowe's solo debut album, released in England under the title ''Jesus of Cool'', was originally released in the U.S. as ''Pure Pop For Now People.''
* CoverAlbum: ''Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds Sing Music/TheEverlyBrothers'', whose covers were originally issued as a bonus EP for the Rockpile album ''Seconds of Pleasure''.
* CruelToBeKind: Well, duh. It's only the name of his ''biggest hit'', after all.
* GenreRoulette: Lampshaded by the cover of ''Jesus of Cool''.
* LiarsParadox: "All Men Are Liars" informs the listener emphatically that "all men are liars, and that's the truth".
* PowerPop: One of the standard bearers.
* ProtestSong: "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding". The original Brinsley Schwarz version was an AffectionateParody of the genre. Elvis Costello's version [[CerebusSyndrome wasn't]].
* PunkRock: His early Pub Rock recordings and "bash it out now, tart it up later" production style were important in its development in Britain, and he produced [[Music/TheDamnedBand the first British Punk Rock single and album]].
* RatedGForGangsta: Nick commented that he deliberately changed his style because he didn't want an inappropriate StrictlyFormula reputation, saying "I didn't want to become one of those thinning-haired, jowly old geezers who still does the same shtick they did when they were young, slim and beautiful. That's revolting and rather tragic."
* RecordProducer: If he'd never recorded a note of his own music, he'd still be a legend as one of the pre-eminent producers of PunkRock, Roots Rock and NewWaveMusic, working at the helm for acclaimed singles and albums by Music/ElvisCostello, Music/TheDamned, Music/ThePretenders, Graham Parker, John Hiatt, Carlene Carter, and Music/JohnnyCash amongst many others.
* RockStarSong: "They Called It Rock" (aka "Shake and Pop"), about the rise and fall of a OneHitWonder.
* SelfDeprecation: Some of his albums were named after punny plays on certain idioms, like ''Labour of Lust'' and ''The Abominable Showman''. ''At My Age'' and ''Quiet Please: The Best of Nick Lowe'' also [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] his stylistic change. The GreatestHitsAlbum titled ''16 All-Time Lowes'' is another example.
* ShoutOut: The title and cover of Lowe's 1977 EP ''Bowi'' is a riff on Music/DavidBowie's album ''Music/{{Low|DavidBowieAlbum}}'', released earlier that year. According to Lowe, the idea came from the fact that "Low" was "Lowe" without an "E," so he would return the favor by naming the EP "Bowie" without an "E."
* SillyLoveSongs: "Cruel To Be Kind" and "I Knew The Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)" are both subversions of this trope.
* SpringtimeForHitler: Lowe wrote "[[BoyBand Bay City Rollers]], We Love You" to be as bad as possible in the hopes that his label, Creator/UnitedArtistsRecords, would drop him. Instead the song turned out to be so catchy that it was released worldwide. It flopped everywhere [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff except Japan]].
* {{Supergroup}}: Besides Rockpile, Little Village teamed Lowe with Ry Cooder, John Hiatt and veteran session drummer Jim Keltner. They'd previously worked together on Hiatt's album ''Bring the Family''.
* TakeThat: To Music/RickAstley in "All Men Are Liars".
-->"Does anyone remember Rick Astley?\\
He had a big fat hit, it was ghastly\\
He said 'I'm never gonna give you up or let you down'\\
Well I'm here to tell you that Dick's a clown!"
* {{Tsundere}}: "Cruel to be Kind".
* WithFriendsLikeThese: From "Cruel to Be Kind": "Though you say you're my friend, I'm at my wits' end."
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