Chris Price
Dalmatian

I don't know, but perhaps when talking about pop-rock music, you might have grown tired at some point of all those citations that seem necessary regarding the Beatle-derived psychedelia from "Magical Mystery" or "Sgt. Pepper", "Goo goo g'joob". Practically that of the "flower power". Nonetheless, you might still continue to think that the Fab Four are the best in life and that Lennon-McCartney wrote the best pop songs of all time. In this case, that form of songwriting which has now become a classic, constitutes everything good you could search for and find in an album like this.

Chris Price was born in Miami, Florida instead of Liverpool, UK, and he obviously lives in Los Angeles, California. His father is the famous producer and songwriter Rudy Pérez. Having gone through youth experiences like Dreaming In Stereo and the Price (together with his brothers Michael and Corey and drummer Alex Ibanez) in 2012, he released his first solo album: "Homesick", recorded entirely with an iPhone. Last year he released his second album "Stop Talking". "Dalmatian", the third and last album, was released on Omnivore Records on March 2. The songs of the album were written and recorded in a period from 2013 to 2017, years in which Price was in any case very busy as a producer or in other projects: in particular, he can be considered among the main authors of the revival of Linda Perhacs for whom he produced "The Soul of All Natural Things" and contributed significantly to the making of "I'm A Harmony".

As mentioned, in the album there is a particular evident devotion to Lennon-McCartney: "Fever Dream", "Breakfast Cruise" (with some references to the Beach Boys), "The Dream Is Over", "Peculiar Lake Superior", "Uncle John", "The Angels Of Buena Vista"... These are, after all, (along with the Burt Bacharach of "I'll Follow Her Anywhere") the best moments of the album which make me give an overall just-passing score. These songs are certainly beautiful but too "vintage" (let's say so) and this lack of "freshness" is poorly compensated by other things like a couple of distinctly catchy rock and roll tracks ("Sick Boy" and "Discount Love"), the acoustic interlude "Dalmatian" and two ugly, radio-friendly songs like "Roller Coaster" and "I Won't Be Loved". Had he simply limited himself to staying within the Beatles-Beach Boys realm, although not very original, the album would have had a more unitary content and a shared common idea. As it is, instead, you can't even understand what you are really listening to and - inevitably - after a while, this album will fall into oblivion.