Lots of Nashville songwriters rely on characters like those drifting through Margo Price's That's How Rumors Get Started. There's the delusional lover who sabotages his one steady relationship without even trying; the road dog who begins to see travel, once liberating, as a prison sentence; the couple locked in a dance of dysfunction they can't understand summed up in couplets like "You were the footsteps, I was the floor."
When Price tells their stories, what begins as cardboard-cutout generic is transformed into a disquieting, vivid, and sometimes messy experience. The people in songs like "Letting Me Down" and the title track sure do start out as "types," but as Price follows their everyday conflicts and responses to circumstance, nuances appear. Their profiles deepen. With this, her third full-length effort, she's refined a communication style that drops listeners beyond the narrative twists, to the yearnings below the meanings and the subtexts below that.
Produced by Sturgill Simpson and featuring sparkling contributions from keyboardist Benmont Tench and drummer James Gadson, That's How Rumors Get Started is a marvel of writerly precision set against impulsive flailing and of steely craft blasted with headstrong vibe. The musical support is apt, tuned to the faint twinges of bitterness in the lyrics. And the much-discussed pivot toward rock and roll is deftly executed—there are echoes of Tom Petty in the backbeats, glances in the direction of mid-'70s Eagles balladry, and even the twitchy '80s hits of Huey Lewis. Price uses those as touchstones, not templates; she could interpret these songs as country weepers or polkas and they'd retain their depth and resonance. That's one measure of a great song. There are a bunch of them here. © Tom Moon/Qobuz