I find it interesting that Spike Priggen has chosen to release a full-length album of cover songs as his sophomore effort. According to Spike himself, “A lot of people might think it’s weird for a songwriter’s second album to be all other people’s songs, but a lot of the artists I really admire were known as great songwriters and equally as great interpreters of other people’s songs.” Well, that may all be true Spike, but that doesn’t make it okay!
Stars After Stars After Stars includes cover songs by greats such as The Ramones and Alice Cooper as well as New Haven locals The Jacobites and Hot Bodies. Essentially, Priggen takes each song that he covers and overlays it with an alt-country twang that results in an album of mostly monotonous songs. Listening to this record is like going to the ice cream store and realizing that every tub behind the glistening glass case is the same damn flavor! And not your favorite flavor to boot! Additionally, without any knowledge of his previous material (2001’s solo album, The Very Thing You Treasure), I can’t really comment on his raw talent and innovation as a songwriter.
The gems on this record would have to be the Zombies’ “How We Were Before,” because it’s a sweet, tender vintage nugget of a song, and Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen,” because Cooper’s raucous style subtly transfers over to Priggen’s interpretation of the track. While Priggen is obviously trying to relay an intense personal vision through his selection of cover songs, he should return to the originality of song creation and diversification before he sprays the same sheen of twang over a number of well and lesser known classics.
