Jesus of Cool

Jesus of Cool
Studio album by Nick Lowe
Released	March 1978
Recorded	1976 – 1977
Studio	Chalk Farm Studios, London, England; Eden Studios; Jackson Studios, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England; Pathway Studios, Stoke Newington
Genre	Rock, power pop, new wave
Length	33:17 (first CD reissue 40:08, 2008 reissue 62:51)
Label	Radar (UK) F-Beat (Scandinavian reissue) Demon (UK reissue) Proper Records (UK reissue) Yep Roc (US reissue)
Producer	Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe chronology
Jesus of Cool (1978) Labour of Lust (1979)
Back cover
From the original Radar Records release

Jesus of Cool is the 1978 solo debut album by British singer-songwriter Nick Lowe who left Brinsley Schwarz in 1974. Produced by Lowe, it was released in March 1978 by Radar Records in the UK. In the United States, the album was retitled Pure Pop for Now People, with Columbia Records replacing "Shake and Pop" with "They Called It Rock" (a Rockpile version of the same song, which had been included as a single-sided bonus 45 in the Radar album), swapping the live version of "Heart of the City" for the studio version that had been released as a single on Stiff Records (the other side of the single, "So It Goes", was included in both versions of the album), and adding "Rollers Show" from a pre-Stiff United Artists maxi-single. The songs are also in a different order than the UK version.

The album has been highly acclaimed by critics. The album was reissued in an expanded, deluxe edition by Proper Records (in the UK) and Yep Roc Records (in the US) in February 2008.[1]

Two verses of "So It Goes" were included in the sound track to the 1979 film Rock 'n' Roll High School.

Jesus of Cool has a number of tracks attacking the commercialism and greed of the record industry and the shallow content of pop music: "Music for Money", the fraternal twin songs "Shake and Pop" and "They Called It Rock", and "Rollers Show"; the last being a parody of the teen audience of the Bay City Rollers. Although musically sophisticated in conventional genres, the album shares the energy, cynicism and rebelliousness of the contemporary new wave movement.

The original vinyl album cover features six pictures of Nick Lowe, with different pictures appearing on the UK cover to the US one. On both covers, spelled out in small letters on the photos is Pure Pop for Now People. "PURE" was small yellow print in the top left photo, "POP" was small red print in the top middle, "FOR" was small blue print in the top right, "NOW" was small blue print bottom left, "PEO" was small yellow print in the bottom middle and "PLE" was small red print in the bottom right.