Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family

Easing into his second decade as a dapper crooner, it's little wonder that Nick Lowe has succumbed to the siren call that seduces every gentleman vocalist: he's gone and made a Christmas album. Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family is cut from the same cloth as all of Lowe's recent albums, cannily mixing up country, rockabilly, torch songs, and '50s pop, a cozy blend that's well suited for evenings snuggled up by the fireplace. Surprisingly, Quality Street isn't as sleepy as its predecessor, 2011's The Old Magic, a charmingly low-key collection whose pulse rarely quickened. That's not the case with Quality Street, which opens with a kicking rockabilly revision of the traditional "Children Go Where I Send Thee," a cut that rocks harder than anything on The Old Magic. It's not the only thing here with a swinging backbeat, either. "The North Pole Express" swings loose and low; "Rise Up Shepherd" skips to a sprightly country beat; Lowe strips away the excesses on Roy Wood