Spike Priggen - Stars After Stars After Stars

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 18 / 10 / 2005

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Review

Spike Priggen released the album of the year in 2001 / 2002 (depending on what part of the world you live in) with his debut release ‘The Very Thing You Treasure’. With every song displaying Priggen’s talent of writing melodic pop/rock tunes coupled with his unique heart felt vocals it deserved all the accolades it received and left all who heard it eagerly waiting for a follow up. Even Apple noticed that Priggen could write catchy songs; ‘Outtasight’ from that debut was featured in the very first iPod TV commercial. So initial expectations of another 10 or 12 first class Priggen originals were dashed when ‘Stars’ arrived. It’s the dreaded covers album. Not always a good idea, from Bowie’s ‘Pin Ups’ through Lennon’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ to Paul Weller’s ‘Studio 150’ covers albums have always been a bit hit and miss. At the end of the day why listen to a cover that generally doesn’t add anything new to the original that we grew up to? The odd cover or two on an album is fine but eleven or twelve of them on one disc? No thanks. But Priggen has, maybe not surprisingly, made the first consistently good covers album to date. This is due to the realisation that Priggen can take almost any song and inject it with those unique Priggen vocals which make the song his own and also because Priggen hasn’t taken the easy way out by picking eleven well known songs. In fact a cursory glance at the track listing initially only threw up a handful of titles which registered immediately. As the majority of those were fairly obscure anyway I wouldn’t be surprised if Priggen could actually pass this off as an album of originals to some people anyway! Of the better known songs, Alice Cooper’s ‘Eighteen’ starts as one would expect it too, all loud guitars and crashing percussion but Priggen’s vocals take the song to an entirely different place than the original did. The most surprising song is Priggen’s version of Tracy Thorn’s ‘Plain Sailing’. Picking out a gorgeous melody on the guitar which was missing on Thorn’s original it adds another dimension to the song which wasn’t there before. The Ramones ‘Questioningly’ is given the biggest makeover. It sounds like it was left off ‘The Very Thing You Treasure’ and Priggen really does make this song his own. I doubt if I would have even doubted this was a Priggen original if I didn’t know the song from ‘Road To Ruin’. By the time we get to Priggen’s cover of Big Star’s ‘Nightime’ it’s no surprise to hear that this too could have been passed off as a Priggen original. With pedal steel and mandolin from Jon Graboff, Priggen makes a beautiful song even more appealing. The sound of someone falling apart set to the most gorgeous sounds. Of the more obscure songs, Priggen offers his takes on the Hot Bodies ‘In The Inside’ a band he was once going to join, a superb version of the Colin Blunstone song ‘How We Were Before’ which stretches way back to July 1965 when the Zombies recorded it and ‘When You Looked At Me’ a stunning ballad originally by Jenifer Jackson. There are two songs originally by the Jacobites which are not such a surprise. ‘Big Store’ written by Stephen Duffy (finally getting his reward after numerous excellent albums by writing with Robbie Williams!) and a Jacobites original ‘Only Children Sleeping’ where Priggen captures all that was good about the Jacobites, that romantic, Romany feel with a junkie punk feeling and with some stunning guitar from Mark Spencer. Priggen follows the same path as his last album by adding an ‘in joke’ among musicians after the main album. There is a an advert of sorts for the J& B boutique by a guy called Prophet Omega, a black radio preacher in Nashville who gave ‘The Very Thing You Treasure’ its name. Then we have a scam of sorts from J & H productions lifted from a tape sent to record companies in the 70's and which gives this album its name. The first time it’s a little confusing but gets more and more amusing with repeated plays. If you leave the CD playing after that we get Priggen’s version of ‘The Company You Keep’ by a New Haven band called the Furors. It’s lifted from a double CD tribute to the band which also includes Mark Mulcahy. If this cover by Priggen is anything to go by they are worth checking out. The song is given a light psychedelic treatment by Priggen and really should have been part of the actual album. Finally there’s a version of ‘Felicity’ originally by Orange Juice which is more or less a straightforward cover but still worth hearing. So the initial disappointment that this isn’t an album of originals is compensated by Priggen’s choice of material and a pointer for any future albums of this ilk. Now, come on Spike, don’t make us wait 3 years until we hear from you again.

Track Listing:-

1 In The Inside
2 Be Married Song
3 How We Were Before
4 When You Looked At Me
5 Big Store
6 Only Children Sleeping
7 Plainsailing
8 Questioningly
9 NIghtime
10 I'm Eighteen
11 A Slow Soul