Dean Wareham – That’s The Price Of Loving Me

Carpark

It’s been a somewhat staggering thirty-five or so years since This Is Our Music, Galaxie 500’s third and final studio record, first appeared. In the subsequent stages of his career, singer and guitarist Dean Wareham has amassed a sizeable, diverse and reliably consistent body of work – with Luna, as half of Dean And Britta, under his own name and via various side-projects.

Whilst such output has fleetingly tipped the hat to his formative enterprise along the way and Galaxie 500 songs have regularly reappeared in recent solo ensemble live shows, it’s taken until now for a fuller recorded reconnection with the most atmospheric elements of the hallowed group’s aural palette.

Reconvening with nonconformist producer and multi-instrumentalist Kramer for the first time since the aforementioned 1990 LP from his still-revered past-life trio inevitably provided the key to unlocking a door back into a more mistily evocative sound world. This isn’t to say That’s The Price Of Loving Me is a straightforward stylistic rewind and reboot, however. Shrewdly, the reunited protagonists have also rolled in plenty of their more matured idioms acquired through the intervening years.

Consequently, the collection is a confluence of many things that Wareham has explored over the best part of four decades in his chosen trade, subtly framed and augmented by Kramer’s sonic toolbox, along with the input of Gabe Noel (cello), Roger Brogan (drums) and Anthony LaMarca (drums) and the ever-adaptable Britta Phillips (bass / vocals). Collectively, the gathered contributors help yield ten tracks — consisting of eight new originals and two typically well-chosen covers — that are wide-angled yet intimate and layered but uncluttered. The outcomes are sumptuous and elevating, in varying combinations.

Hence, we’re lifted right from the start with the chiming languor of “You Were the Ones I Had to Betray”, before gliding through the rest of proceedings. Along the way, this leads us across the dreamy harmony-soaked meanderings of “Mystery Guest”; the soaringly majestic highlight of “New World Julie”; the waltzing warmth of “We’re Not Finished Yet”; the spaced-out ruminations of “Yesterday’s Hero”; the gently rueful and rhythmical title track; an utterly lovely take on Nico’s lesser-known “Reich der Träume”; and the lush symphonically-tinged finale of “The Cloud Is Coming”.

Unhurried in its general flow, That’s The Price Of Loving Me takes a few plays to properly let its thirty-seven minutes submerge the senses. Yet, once immersed in its balmy and beatific charms, it’s clear to recognise that the album stands up with the best of Dean Wareham’s rich latter-day œuvre.

-Adrian-