A new Dean Wareham album will soon be upon us. The Galaxie 500/Luna/Dean & Britta veteran will release That’s The Price Of Loving Me in March. It marks Wareham’s first collaboration with the mononymous producer Kramer since Galaxie 500’s final LP This Is Our Music in 1990 — which is, as of our recent calendar flip, now 35 years ago.

What kind of influence did Kramer wield on Wareham all these years later. Well, for one thing, “Kramer insisted that I play all the guitars on this record,” Wareham says in a press release. “And we worked quickly. Kramer believes that two takes yield more treasure than 20, and he always seems to have the song mapped out in his head right away.”

The album’s opening track and lead single is a dreamy, string-laden midtempo track with the extremely evocative title “You Were The Ones I Had To Betray.” Wareham cites influences like Bacharach and Gainsbourg, and while he’s surely not lying, my first impression was that it sounds like the Clientele with a bit more of a ’60s Spector kick to it. The song’s a gem, and Wareham has this to say about it:

I wrote this at the last minute, thinking about how love and friendship seem to actually invite betrayal. 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 “You Were The Ones I Had To Betray” video is inspired by Mary Poppins. Director Sylvie Lake has a statement on that, too:

There’s a gorgeous mural of the downtown LA 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 below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “You Were The Ones I Had To Betray”
02 “Dear Betty Baby”
03 “The Mystery Guest”
04 “New World Julie”
05 “We’re Not Finished Yet”
06 “Bourgeois Manqué”
07 “Yesterday’s Hero”
08 “That’s The Price Of Loving Me”
09 “Reich der Träume”
10 “The Cloud Is Coming”

That’s The Price Of Loving Me is out 3/28 on Carpark. Pre-order it here.