Philip B. Price, “Oceans Hiding In Oceans” (Signature Sounds)
The title is apt. Pandemic lockdown transformed Winterpills frontman Philip B. Price into a one-man ring on”Oceans Hiding In Oceans,” and yet there’s impressive depth and range into the sea of sound he creates.
Cost played all the instruments at his home studio in Massachusetts, such as keyboards, synthesizers, drums and guitars, both acoustic and electric. He also sang all vocals, as well as the 11 tunes sensibly spotlight his arresting tenor, which is handsome at either end of his register, as octave intervals show.
Price’s resources of pop inspiration period decades and genres. “First Hail” could be a British folk relic, while”Me and the Stars” rides atop gurgling synths. “Paleflower” unites guitar riffs with handclaps, the percolating”Little Bell” contrasts for turntable scratching and the druggy”Forever Vines” remembers a poor trip involving a disgraced Florida golfer. It is all particularly entertaining through headphones.
From isolation Cost sings about deceit, delusion and disconnection, but also discovery and devotion, with the ocean a metaphor for our mind and the world. “We were left alone, on the edge of finding out,” he sings. That sounds right.
