SPIKE PRIGGEN - Reviews

Americana UK Online Magazine – October 2006

Spike Priggen – There’s No Sound In Flutes (Re-Action)

Three times is definitely a charm

Jarvis Cocker recently asked what the point of writing about music is; well one of them is to pass on the virus when a record like this infects you, to get the word out for artists who deserve to have a massive audience. Spike deserves to be appreciated; he makes the kind of joyous intelligent music that should be a common denominator amongst music lovers of every stripe, the kind of thing that if someone doesn’t like then you think that they can’t like music. I feel bad for not owning his previous two efforts.

Each song is a mini-symphony to love crammed full of detail; like Matthew Sweet he is able to marry the discordant and the melodious into a satisfying whole. ‘Hideaway’ has corkscrewing lead guitar sparking above a bank of strings and sounds brilliant. After the drums usher in ‘I Know Everything’ and the melody takes over, you are in pop heaven; the hits keep on coming like a fantasy jukebox - ‘Everyone Loves Me but You’ draws on 50 years of pop history to deliver a succinct treatise on the put-down song.

Just to prove he doesn’t need to travel at warp speed to be effective, throw in a ballad ‘Disappointing Everyone’ with gentle strings, cool guitar and you’re devastated - or he picks up the acoustic for ‘The Only Girl (in the World),’ adds some fiddle and slide guitar and gives it a country feel. Crank up the balladry a notch, add in some flowing strings and you have ‘I’m So Glad You Broke My Heart,’ where big is definitely beautiful. Don’t forget the jangle pop though - ‘RIP Green Eyes’ finds some ground between REM, the Feelies and Kevin Tihista and fills it with a garden of power pop where sunshine vocals, chiming blooms of guitar and breezes of orchestration provide the perfect setting for the song. I hope that my words will make a few of you investigate further.

David Cowling  8 out of 10