Nick Lowe traverses fleeting love and ensuing loneliness with a dose of wry observation on new song “Trombone.” Backed by Los Straitjackets, the Sixties brass pop-infused cut will appear on Lowe’s forthcoming Starvation/Trombone EP, which will be released on May 17th via Yep Roc.
While Lowe cleverly plays into the “sad trombone” trope, at heart the song addresses themes of navigating abandonment after love is lost. “Trombone, come play your song/Make it the one about good love gone wrong,” he sings. “My one true love has flown/So blow something sad and slow for me, trombone.”
Fittingly, the horn-inflected tune features the title instrument, played by trombonist Duane Benjamin. Lowe’s forthcoming EP is the follow-up to the 2018 EP, Tokyo Bay/Crying Inside, which also features Los Straitjackets. Love Starvation/Trombone includes the previously released “Love Starvation.”
“Apart from being a fantastic rock ‘n’ roll band, they know how to play tons of different styles really well,” Lowe wrote of his Los Straitjackets collaborators, who first teamed up with him in 2012 during a 15th anniversary event for their mutual label, Yep Roc.
“They can knock you out a version of Bacharach & David’s ‘The Look of Love’ with no trouble at all. Plus, we get on with each other really well. And that makes the music work,” he continued. “This is a collaboration. They’re in no way my backing band. At first, they very kindly started learning up my records, note for note. I told them, ‘Don’t do that. Just learn the chords and we’ll play them together so it sounds as natural as we can make it.’ Rather than doing some kind of tribute band kind of act, you know? And that’s when it started being fun and click into gear.”
Lowe and Los Straitjackets are currently in the midst of a tour, with East Coast appearances scheduled through this weekend.