Chris Price (Photo by Kyle Safieh)
Chris Price’s sophomore album “Stop Talking” took three-plus years to shape, materializing in fits and starts between his work as producer on the comeback albums by Emitt Rhodes and Linda Perhacs and his role in the quintet Bebopalula, which released an EP last year.
Price, who originally came to California a decade ago from his native Florida with the brother band Price, released his first solo effort “Homesick” in 2012, earning acclaim more for how he made album — it was recorded on an iPhone 4 using a $10 app — than the music. Which was kind of a shame, since not many guys have a handle on the Kinksian power-pop in which Price engages.
“Stop Talking,” which arrives May 19 via Omnivore Recordings, again reveals Price as a guitarist’s guitarist, forgoing formula in favor of gently off-kilter chord progressions and surprising song structures. Among the contributors to the album are Kyle Fredrickson, Fernando Perdomo (who worked with Price on Perhacs’ album), Joe Seiders and his Bebopalula bandmate Ben Lecourt. Part of “Stop Talking’s” context, though, was Price’s work with Perhacs and Rhodes, both in their 60s when their albums (for Perhacs, her first in 44 years; for Rhodes, his first in 43) were made. Prices calls them “incredibly inspiring and fulfilling projects [that] ended up deeply informing my work, pushing me to think harder about my lyrics, become more adventurous in my production and never take the safe route musically.”
||| Stream: “Stop Talking” and “Hi Lo”
https://soundcloud.com/omnivore-recordings/chris-price-stop-talking/s-w2W7R
https://soundcloud.com/omnivore-recordings/chris-price-hi-lo/s-eKC6i