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Reviews of "The Very Thing That You Treasure"


  • "Beautifully crafted, laid-back pop songs as sunny as a fresh summer's day, and as melancholy as mid-fall, Spike Priggen's The Very Thing That You Treasure is a delicate, yet sophisticated acoustic pop record."

    Alex Steininger

    In Music We Trust


  • "The Very Thing That You Treasure, Priggen will tell you, has been a lifetime in the making. Quite frankly it’s been worth the wait."

    Kurt Hernon

    Bangsheet


  • If there is any justice in this teen-popping world, The Very Thing That You Treasure won't get lost on the streets. It's a sweet little treasure that deserves a home.

    Carrie Havranek

    SonicNet


  • "The Very Thing that You Treasure is, quite simply, an amazing album. From the first track, a gorgeously reverby, jangly pop ballad called "Every Broken Heart," you know you're into something good. Priggen's voice is kind of nasal and a little bit awkward, but there is a gentleness to it that is immediately charming."

    Scout

    Delusions Of Adequacy


  • "Next time I'm getting over a terrorizing, head-over-heels heartbreak, The Very Thing That You Treasure will be in the driver's seat, helping me cry myself into the nearest telephone pole. Until then, this unbelievably depressing CD will be sitting on my shelf, safe from unsuspecting ears that can't deal with its gut-wrenching power. Priggen definitely has issues with chicks, as several tunes (including "Every Broken Heart" and "She Used To Be My Baby") highlight a borderline obsessive-compulsive singer-songwriter bloodletting his emotions onto a recorded medium. Priggen has a way with words, and his exceptional lyrics weave intricate tales of desperation and loss that somehow, by the disc's end, inspire a sense of hope and yearning. Nonetheless, this potent collection of tear jerking, honky-tonk pop tunes is a marvelous expression of calculated emotional outbursts. Medical authorities should be contacted immediately, as this CD should only be allowed into your CD player with a prescription from your local psychiatrist."

    Andrew Magilow

    Splendid E-zine


  • “To be blunt about it, this is a brilliant LP, and as debuts go ranks right up there with those of Marshall Crenshaw, Big Star and The Pretenders. It’s full of indelible hooks and I just want to keep playing it again and again and again…One of the year’s best”

    Toast Magazine


  • “Turns simple phrases around gorgeous melodies and into moving pop poetry”

    Mean Magazine


  • “Gloriously melancholy. Worth every minute of the ride.”

    Power Of Pop


  • “The very definition of bittersweet”

    Joey Sweeney

    Time Out New York


  • "His lyrics seethe with John Lennon's anger (and wit), but most often, and most brilliantly, they hinge on the sort of forlorn melancholy that Chris Bell made so affecting."

    Red Tunic Troll

    Amazon Customer Review


  • "In the finicky music world, Spike Priggen may well be destined to skirt around the perimeters of success for a few more years to come, but his satisfying songs are already worthy of a wider audience. Priggen's debut, The Very Thing That You Treasure, finds the accomplished musician joining the alt.country fray as a less cocky version of Ryan Adams. Two of the better offerings, Every Broken Heart and Outtasight take to the sort of countrified twang that R.E.M. tried for on 1991's Out Of Time. .. It is welcome news that Priggen has already set to work on a follow up."

    Rip It Up Magazine


  • "Priggen's songs are so melodic and throw up so many surprises both lyrically and sonically that it is hard not to love everything on this record.All of the tracks have been a favourite at different times so it is hard to pick out a standout song. It changes from the opening 'Every Broken Heart' to everything in-between that and the last song, 'So Good To See You', a strange psychedelic ballad full of weird effects and mellotron.

    Pennyblack Music Website


  • "In truth it's hard to single out tunes for praise when all 12 tracks are consistently solid. This is a 'song' record, an album that's not about glossy production or sampled drum beats. Spike Priggen writes damn good songs, and that's what you'll find on The Very Thing That You Treasure."

    Barfly.com


  • "Not the most rock 'n' roll of names, and one most likely that most of you have never encountered before, but then 'The Very Thing That You Treasure' isn't the most rock 'n' roll of records. In fact, the debut from New York based multi-instrumentalist Priggen is a wonderfully vibrant melting pot of eclectic pop rock styles that will have power pop fans drooling.

    Classic Rock (UK)


  • "Starting with a chorus of “Every broken heart is just like the first one”, Priggen shows his perfect hand early. Matching Teenage Fanclub with Matthew Sweet, he can’t help but sound like Big Star – which is even better! Irresistibly ragged production and endlessly bittersweet guitar solos will have you singing every line, and feeling like you wrote them all yourself. Proof beyond question that the one thing you can never grow out of is a teenage crush."

    TNT Magazine (UK)


  • "It's an album of confidant versatility, and the two years it took to record are evident in the sound of the material, the care that has been given. So often these days music can seem meaningless, vocals tossed away with a cheap rhyme, but not here."

    Logged Off Website

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Spendid Magazine Review

Splendidlogo2002If nothing else, Spike Priggen is a generous man. Not only does he offer both Stars After Stars After Stars and his first album, The Very Thing That You Treasure, for free download on his website; he also sent us a CD featuring the originals of the songs he covers on Stars....

Yes, you read that correctly: for his second outing, Priggen elected to record a covers album. Given that he spent his entire life recording his debut, it's understandable that he might have trouble coming up with an album of new material in just two or three years, but it's still odd, to say the least. Even if the songs he covers aren't very well known, it's a strange career move.

Then again, after listening to Stars After Stars..., you get the idea that maybe writing your own material is overrated, particularly when you're able to make other people's songs sound so much like your own, as Priggen does. In part, this is because the songs he covers -- tracks from acts like Hot Bodies, the Pontiac Brothers and The Jacobites -- are hardly chart-topping hits, so Priggen can apply his Stipe-like vocals and power pop sensibilities to them without immediate concern about unfavorable comparison to the originals. Thus, Jennifer Jackson's "When You Looked At Me" becomes Beatles-tinged country-rock, while Hot Bodies' "In The Inside" and the Pontiac Brothers' "Be Married Song" evolve into big, crunchy pop-rock.

Songs by better-known acts give more of a sense of how much Priggen makes each tune his own. His version of Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen", for example, is just as rocking, but his twangy vocals are a distinct change. Similarly, his version of "Questioningly" is a million miles away from what The Ramones did with the original -- it would work well on an early REM record. In Priggen's hands, The Zombies' "How We Were Before" becomes a hybrid of power pop and flamenco, and Big Star's "Nightime" evolves into a beautifully understated acoustic lament.

It's unlikely that Stars After Stars After Stars will bring Priggen much attention or acclaim, except from power pop aficionados who have a thing for covers. That said, it's definitely worth your time to investigate it; not only is it free, but the accompanying blog functions as the sort of old-school liner notes most artists can't be bothered to provide, offering background information and revealing the personal significance behind each song choice. Priggen deserves a bigger, more devoted fan base, and Stars After Stars After Stars can only help it grow.-- Matthew Pollesel

Note From Spike: The music is actually only available as pretty low-res Realplayer files for the most part, although I have been putting them up as mp3s one at a time. I'm not actually giving it away for free (at least, I wasn't meaning to).  Also, I've actually written many more songs than ended up on my first CD and have already recorded 11 songs for my next CD which will be all original songs. As far as it being a weird career move for me to record an all-covers record, I'd have to say, what career? Cool review though. Starts off like it's gonna be really negative, but I won him over!

Posted by Spike on Jun 21, 2005 at 08:24 PM in Reviews |

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Reviews Of "Stars After Stars After Stars"


  • "New York-based Spike Priggen of Liquor Giants, Pussywillows, and Dumptruck enthralled fans with his 2001 solo debut's synthesis of Big Star's chime, the dBs' quirkiness, and Dwight Twilley's pure pop power. This follow-up of lovingly selected covers (in the tradition of Bowie's Pin-Ups and the Band's Moondog Matinee) melds the hearts and minds of the originals with his overarching melancholy, mating a collector's ear for material with a producer's imagination for re-creation. Highlights include Priggen's versions of the Pontiac Brothers' yearning "Be Married Song" and the Zombies' delicate morning-after B-side "How We Were Before." The Ramones, Tracey Thorn, and Scritti Politti's songs all find a common wistfulness in Priggen's soul- and country-inflected arrangements. Closing the disc is a mesmerizing found-sound "J&H Productions" tape, in which a would-be Cincinnati concert promoter attempts to "get with" the "label industry." Whether the "label industry" "gets with" Spike Priggen, lovers of Lennon, Chilton, Stamey, and Sweet certainly should."

    Eli Messinger

    East Bay Express


  • "Although it is a highly eclectic collection of mostly obscure songs by other artists, Priggen's second album, "Stars After Stars After Stars," underscores the considerable depths of his talent. Priggen makes each song his own, giving the album a remarkable coherent sound. Some of that is due to his song selection, songs which, except for a straightforward reading of Alice Cooper's "Eighteen," render themselves to his vaguely rootsy power pop interpretations. Priggen reclaims "Questioningly," the Ramones' well-written but improbable stab at country-rock and rescues from obscurity early British pop gems such as Tracy Thorn's "Plainsailing" and Scritti Politti's "A Slow Soul.""

    Mark Wilson

    Evansville Courier & Press


  • "This second album finds Spike Priggen and a bunch of friends (Ivan Julian, Bun E Carlos, etc.) covering some great underknown songs by folks like the Pontiac Brothers, the Zombies, Nikki Sudden/Dave Kusworth the Jacobites, Tracy Thorn, the Ramones, etc. If Spike is doing all of the vocals as the press kit seems to indicate; he's the best singing vocal mimic I've ever heard. His Tracy Thorn, and Joey Ramone are uncanny."

    George Parsons

    Dream Magazine #5


  • "Priggen is a frequent performer on the NYC scene and at various times has been a member of Dumptruck, Hello Strangers, Liquor Giants, Schramms, and Pussywillows. His 2001 debut revealed a tremendous talent for perfect pop songs often filtered through a country sound. Therefore, the first track on his new disc comes as quite a shock with its blast of synthesizer. Thereafter, he returns to his normal style, for which a useful comparison is Freedy Johnston, whom Priggen resembles in vocal timbre, melodically (especially), and to a lesser extent in overall style. It's a sound that doesn't work well unless lavished on high-quality songs, and Priggen supplies plenty."

    Steve

    The Big Takeover


  • "Most of the album is a nostalgic look back at the artist's past, including the bands he's played in as well as those he's idolized, including the Hot Bodies, the Jacobites, and the Zombies. He works through these songs competently and respectfully, and in the end what he's created is a tribute to his own musical development. But in doing so he's also given us a window back into some forgotten moments in music from the 70's and 80's various indie, new-wave, and punk scenes."

    George Ford

    Delusions Of Adequacy


  • "On Spike's new "Stars After Stars After Stars" he pulls off the neat trick of recording a classy set of covers (The Pontiac Bros. "Be Married Song"; Zombies, Jenifer Jackson, Sudden & Kusworth) with a star-studded cast (Bun E Carlos, Ivan Julian). He's kicked around in some bands that almost crossed over (Dumptruck, The Liquor Giants, The Caroline Know)--can he finally get a break?". -

    Josh Goldfein

    The Village Voice

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