ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2010 No. 12 – LEN PRICE 3 – Pictures

This is so derivative, so out of time and rooted in 60s pop that it doesn’t have a hope in hell of getting anywhere near mainstream radio; which for a band making upbeat popular music, in attitude if not reality, is a crying shame. Maybe they’re problem is that they are just so damn good at this; title track ‘Pictures’ is so like The Who that it could be repackaged and resold as a rare lost 60s outtake. You also catch snatches of The Beatles, The Kinks, The Monkees and pretty much every beat combo who ever had a love for Mod sounds in their heart flying around in abundance. But why should that matter? There hasn’t been a genuinely new sound or style emerge for about 15 years now (there’s Drum’n’bass elements that can be traced back to the more far out excursions on Miles Davis later work and as for Grime, come off it). All that matters is that the Len Price 3 are writing some great songs here and the fact that their reference points are nearly fifty years old is an irrelevance; in fact if you love those sounds it’s a massive bonus. They could probably lose a bit of the Sid James-like cockney dialect; “some old twaddle” may well be a half decent rhyme for “could be a model” but it does further marginalise them as a revivalist act, which they do not deserve. Near the end of the album you get a surprise gear change that proves the Len Price 3 have the ears and imagination to take their musical journey a whole lot further. The song in question, ‘Jack In The Greens’, is as near to perfect as I’ve heard an emulation of the sound and heavy-hearted feel of Elliott Smith, a real beauty of a song. Think about it, authentic 60s style Beat and Mod married to the unique sound of a Post-Punk singer-songwriter could be viewed as something we’ve never actually heard before? Or you might just do away with all analysis (old twaddle) and get off on the energy and thrill of a killer guitar-pop band zoning in on the greatest pop sound ever. Have it!