Mockingbird: Weds Afternoon Rock n Roll: Nick Lowe's "All Men Are Liars"

It's a tad ironic that the song of Nick Lowe's we've featured most prominently on here is "The Beast In Me". A phenomenal piece of work for sure, but also as earnest as they come, characteristic of Lowe's insight into human frailty/conflictedness but not really his approach. His two most famous songs, "What's So Funny (About Peace, Love and Understanding)?" and "Cruel To Be Kind" are considerably more emblematic. Nick has a rare knack for dressing up fairly intense sentiments with humor and hooks, and making it look easy. Actually, "wit" might be a better word than humor - a slight winking at the camera, a sense of playfulness that thankfully never crosses the border into cuteness. Nick Lowe understands the merits of spoonfuls of sugar when it comes to the medicine going down... Of course, he can also shoot straight from the hip and hit his target, e.g. the aforementioned "Beast" or his amazing cover of Henry McCullough's "Failed Christian."

Although his wise little songs tend to roll more than rock these days, his gift for wordplay has never diminished. The immortal "Time Wounds All Heels" springs to mind, as does "All Men Are Liars" which comes toward the end of his transition from new-wave god to distinguished torch singer. A prophetic track from a forgotten album (1990's out-of-print Party of One) and not just in regards to the whole Rick-Rolling phenomenon (though about that, too). It takes a real master to pull off an assertion-song without sounding totally full of himself, but Lowe does 'deceptively simple' with more self-deprecation than anyone. While perhaps not one of his musical highpoints, "All Men Are Liars" is a chief example of the Lowe charm, impressively hokey video notwithstanding. Like his brilliant treatise on the divided self, "Half a Boy and Half a Man," it's as winsome an argument for a biblical anthropology (Romans 3:23) as we're likely to hear:

While we're at it, why not enjoy another viewing of the catchiest song about "God's alien work" ever written. Also with a one-of-a-kind video, featuring Rockpile: