PHILIP PRICE: Honey In The Chemicals

Philip Price

Honey In The Chemicals

© 2003 Philip Price (634479544422)

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Haunting modern/acoustic pop; gorgeous vocals.

tracks

1 Love Always
2 Criminale
3 Heart
4 You Don't Live Long Enough
5 Man Down
6 You're Dead Now
7 Invisible Baby
8 Helping Me Fall
9 They Talk To Me
10 Portrait
11 Broken People
12 in another room

notes

The fresh-on-the-heels-of follow up to "13 Songs For Right Now" from 2002. Though that one was well-received, this is somehow the one that is getting all the attention. Really, it's a companion piece to the other one, and the two of them together create something of a seamless beast.... And yet, they are very distinct. "13 Songs" was mostly written in 2002, but there are several songs on it that date from much earlier eras, and some later-era Maggies songs redone with a stripped-down acoustical approach. "Honey", however, was written and recorded all within a 10 week period in the nightmarish winter of 2003-2003. Its startlingly consistent and fresh. God knows how long it will keep.

Sticking with his basic acoustic guitar/stacked vocals/drum machine/piano approach, Philip laid down the tracks before a well-placed mike, mixed them carefully (and sometimes not so carefully, depending on how many Manhattans he had had the night of), and left it at that. Its fantastic, whatever he did. Several years in pretentious art schools in the 1980s somehow gave him the gift of knowing what to leave out, if nothing else. The spareness is alluring, and the writing has never been more concise, focused and bittersweet.

The theme again this time is the tortured byways of love: love requited, unrequited, ignored, denied, confused, betrayed, trampled on, then acknowledged, returned tenfold, multiplied, sanctified, dignified and then again denied. Familial, romantic, gothic, gigantic. "Love Always", the gentle & hauting opener, seems to describe someonee whose loyalties are beyond true and yet somehow is still imprisoned by them. "Criminale" (obviously titled during this country's silly deploring of all things French, or maybe during a bender on Cuvee) seems to be about a love-crime so heinous and attractive the perpetrator can't seem to tear himself away from it and in fact isn't even sure a crime was committed. The chorus is a hook that's impossible to ignore. "Heart" is a rare thing these days, a wide-eyed devotional: "I will do anything/I will be anyone/ gimme the gist /and I'll go down the list for you" written with full awareness of the burden of such devotion: "this won't be the last / of this fucked-up truth..." Truth is indeed fucked up. Thank you.

This is different territory than Price's stuff with The Maggies, which pretty much relied solely on the gift of the hook and a rather pleasingly opaque confessional lyricism. No less confessional, this time there seems to be a fiercely compelling object at the center of it. This around, also, sonically, Price pays his dues to all the 70s soft-pop that poured through his ears as a child; everything from Cat Stevens, Elton John to Bread. Lovely. - Bill Eleven

reviews

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  • Wow! So compelling...
    author: Michelle H

    I love this cd! Sometimes I skip around trying to decide which is my favorite track at the moment--none feel forced, some are forceful, some sweetly so, all alluring. And sometimes I gotta take it in whole. It flows from start to finish like one lovely song, beautifully inflected into parts, but very whole somehow. The rawness of the production adds to the effect reflected in every aspect of it--a sweet pained urgency; beautiful melodies and harmonies, powerful hooks, evocative lyrics that seem like revelations to their author that then demanded to be shared. It's all got this rare combination of devastating focus and spaciousness at once. And Price sings and plays it so gorgeously! Buy it right now!

  • Much potential
    author: mariesa-lize etienne

    Good vocals, and nice guitar harmonies.

  • Resonates with heartbreak that is both personal and archtypical...
    author: Derek Goodwin

    Another album that proves the music industry is deaf, dumb and blind. Philip continues to polish his craft, and the songs on this CD resonate with heartbreak that is at once both personal and archtypical. Why he has not been scooped up by a major label is beyond me, he has more hooks and catchy lyrics on this album than the whole top 20 countdown on any given week. But this is real music, from the heart, and not some bland artist with a pretty face. Highly recommended.

  • Hauntingly Beautiful Songs by an Incredibly Talented Artist
    author: L. Hernandez

    Once again, Philip Price has made a hauntingly beautiful album of finely-crafted songs that beg to be heard over and over again. Philip writes from the heart (albeit a bruised and broken one) on Honey in the Chemicals with a directness that's incredibly refreshing amidst the usual superficial musical fare often heard today.

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