‘I’d give the album a solid seven out of ten and that’s a high score for me,’ says Nick Lowe

“IT’S not like I’m a hit-making machine,” decides Nick Lowe with refreshing candour.

“Quite the reverse,” he ­continues as he considers nearly six decades in the music business.

We’re meeting Nick Lowe to celebrate his first studio album in 11 years, Indoor Safari Bobby FisherLowe with his mysterious, mask-wearing but finely tuned American partners in crime, Los Straitjackets[/caption] The singer performing a gig in New York, August 1979Getty

But I can’t help thinking...