Jeff Lowe - Hitchcock Cafe

Hitchcock Caf is the title of the new album from former session guitarist Jeff Lowe. The title track is set in a transport caf where ghosts wander and everyday items are used as metaphors for love affairs gone astray. The album is full of such sentiment. Goldilocks is a modern fairy-tale about another relationship gone wrong in which our heroine is either an alchemist or a prostitute, honest. Bypass the Bypass is not a conservationist's plea for a curb on road building but a gentle tune about evading the heart of the matter in a failed love affair. Suicide River, a rock song with folk-influenced violin arrangement and a delightful background singers' chorus has another dream-like lyric and is the standout track. Death Duo (Wave and Particle) is less dreamy despite its interesting string arrangements and what sound like tubular bells built around Lowe's more orthodox lead guitar. It talks of the meaning of death and a plea for human rights. Hitchcock caf is not your normal rock fare.

Public Information Song, a parody of those government films we occasionally see on the telly, is a fun but serious take on the Big Brother society both in the Orwellian sense and of the reality TV equivalent. "Cameras everywhere, up the skirt and down your trousers". There's an amusing video of the song available too.

Lowe has had success as a writer with bands like Cutting Crew, Stoney and his niece Holly Jazz Lowe for whom his Blindfolded got a lot of airplay last year. Hitchcock Caf is a fine vehicle for his writing skills as well as for the rich variety of his musicianship. Adept at heavy rock, gentle slide and soft acoustic, the decades of session playing has reaped its reward with this album. Add to it lyrics that combine tenderness, wit and biting humour, and the result is a very enjoyable experience.