Abandoning the Cowboy Outfit but not roots-rock, Nick Lowe followed the winning The Rose of England with the amiable but muddled Pinker and Prouder Than Previous. Working with the same blend of classic pop, rock & roll, and country-rock, Lowe gets thing off to a roaring start with the driving "(You're My) Wildest Dream," but the record quickly bogs down in mediocre material. Many of the songs are certainly not bad, yet they rarely distinguish themselves from each other -- only "Lover's Jamboree," John Hiatt's "Love Gets Strange" and Graham Parker's "Black Lincoln Continental" stand out, and they would have been second-string songs on The Rose of England. That doesn't necessarily make Pinker and Prouder Than Previous a bad record; it's just not particularly memorable. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
