Len Price 3 - Nobody Knows

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 12 / 2 / 2014

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Review

Pennyblackmusic has been smitten by the Len Price 3 since hearing their debut album, 'Chinese Burn', back in 2005. In his review of that record, my colleague Malcolm Carter enthusiastically compared their sound to the Who, and even dared to suggest it was a better album than the Jam managed at the same stage of their career. He predicted (correctly) that it was an album we'd be playing for many years to come. After a quiet few years, the Len Price 3 are now back with album number four. The qualities that made that debut so enjoyable remain in place nine years later – crunching mod riffs, swooning backing vocals and gently acerbic lyrics. The Who remain a key influence, and the Len Price 3 still play at a furious pace, which only lets up for the occasional wistful ballad. Yet, just as Glenn Page, Steve Huggins and Neil Fromow have upgraded from matching hooped tops to tailored striped boating blazers, so too have they taken advantage of a more refined recording environment. The spiky production found on 'Chinese Burn' has been replaced by a warmer, subtler sound. The emphasis is more on atmosphere, less on the fizz of Page's Rickenbacker. The trio's garage pop is also adorned with organs and a horn section, all recorded on authentically vintage analogue tape. In fact, when work began on 'Nobody Knows', they envisaged a return to the rawer garage rock found on their debut. An alternative version of the title track appears as a reprise as the album comes to its end – stripped of the more nuanced production found on the rest of the record. While this is perhaps a better reflection of what the Len Price 3 sound like live, it's hard not to be glad the band decided to give the rest of the recordings more depth. Utterly unashamed of their 1960's inspirations, they switch effortlessly from the Hendrix-isms of 'Words Won't Come' to the cheeky, Small Faces styled 'Wigmore Swingers'. The trick here is that they have immersed themselves totally in their sound – 'Nobody Knows' doesn't sound retro, it sounds like it actually was made in 1968. Quite literally, it's as if punk never happened. The Len Price 3 found their name in singer and songwriter Glenn Page's old local. On Page's first visit, the landlord enthusiastically introduced the regulars to their new neighbour, without checking he'd correctly heard his name over the din from the bar. Glenn Page thus became Len Price. An unusual back story to what seems like a run-of-the-mill band name. Like his choice of bandname, Page's songs also reveal hidden depths and an ear for a good anecdote. Narrated in plain English, as if they were being told over a pint, Page's songs detail family feuds, difficult colleagues and the disturbing effect of a community of swingers who operated on his childhood estate. Meanwhile, the album's two catchiest songs are directly inspired by scenes from a forthcoming film, 'Pubmonkey', for which the Len Price 3 will provide the soundtrack. The centrepieces of 'Nobody Knows' are songs that pay tribute to Page's two grandfathers. 'My Grandad Jim' is an affectionate tribute to Page's maternal grandfather, who he describes as his main hero as a child. He was part of the eighth army in World War 2 and took part in the D-Day landings. Page pays his tribute the best way he knows – with two minutes of full throttle garage rock, complete with a wild guitar solo. Two more songs are directly inspired by stories told by Page's paternal grandfather shortly before his death. The first, 'Billy Mason' is the story of a man who built his own plane at home during World War II, and had his 'folding wings' model adopted, uncredited, by the RAF. The second, describes an incident when, working as a window-cleaner as a teenager, his grandfather found a row of jars containing the deformed bodies of deceased babies. This disturbing episode inspires an ambitious arrangement, inspired by Syd Barrett, with a psychedelic breakdown providing a thrilling climax to the album. Uninterested in keeping up with the vagaries of the music scene, the Len Price 3 keep ploughing their own furrow. An active hostility to the music industry's mechanations may keep their fanbase small(ish), but once you've found out about them, that matters not a jot. They are a band you want to like – and this is their best record yet.

Track Listing:-

1 Nobody Knows
2 Swing Like a Monkey
3 My Grandad Jim
4 Lonely
5 Preying Mantis
6 Vultures
7 Words Won't Come
8 Wigmore Swingers
9 Billy Mason
10 Couldn't Get Much Worse
11 Medway Sun
12 Nobody Knows (Reprise)
13 The London Institute

Band Links:-

https://twitter.com/thelenprice3
http://www.thelenprice3.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/thelenprice3