Dean Wareham has announced plans to release his latest solo album, That’s the Price of Loving Me, on March 28 via Carpark Records. He’s working with producer-musician Kramer for the first time since they collaborated on the Galaxie 500 album This is Our Music back in 1990. The Luna and Galaxie 500 frontman recorded this new record in just six days in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Lead single “You Were the Ones I Had to Betray” features seesawing cello and countrified guitar parts, all laid over Wareham’s gentle vocals and backed by a percussive shuffle that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Gram Parsons record. It’s a complicated little number, one that speaks of dissolving relationships and questionable intent.
“I wrote this at the last minute, thinking about how love and friendship seem to actually invite betrayal,” explains Wareham. “I didn’t really anticipate where the song would end up musically; it was transformed when Gabe Noel added the cello arrangement in the studio.”
The track comes packaged with a Mary Poppins inspired video directed by Sylvie Lake. She reveals, “There’s a gorgeous mural of the downtown L.A. freeway interchange with a long cartoon car painted on the side of Belmont High School. I dream of jumping into that mural myself, like that moment in Mary Poppins where Dick Van Dyke jumps into the magical land of chalk.“
Watch it below.
That’s the Price of Loving Me is due out March 28 via Carpark Records. You can pre-order the album here. Follow Wareham on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
