Spike Priggen – There’s No Sound In Flutes

Spike Priggen – There’s No Sound In Flutes / 2006 Volare / 11 Tracks / http://www.spikepriggen.com / Reviewed 23 August 2006

Spike has a definite nineties sound to start out “There’s No Sound In Flutes”. However, the disc starts off with “I Know Everything”, a track that has the arrangements struggling against the vocals for dominance. The instrumental interlude during the track is also something that seems out of lplace during the track, especially when Priggen’s vocals are so full of humanity where the interlude sounds forced or downright cold. Either way, individuals should be able to hear hints of seventies pop stars when they listen to Priggen, especially with individuals like Cat Stevens. This is Cat Stevens as seen through the eyes of John Maher; the entirety of “There’s No Sound in Flutes” has Priggen cutting single after single. This has one problem, specifically that Priggen does not build on top of the previous tracks on the disc.

The average Priggen track is thus like a Simpsons episode; it sounds good, but ultimately is more of the same at the end fo the day. The guitar work during tracks like “Hideaway” is impressive, but would be more so if hints of the Cat Stevens sound was more present from previous tracks. “Little Star” is another track of Priggen’s that hits on the style of other stars (Rufus Wainwright, Joseph Arthur, and Sean Lennon all come to mind) that do not have much to it besides a superficial, yet fun sound to it. Priggen tries to break free of the rut that ey created for eirself with the previous tracks on “There’s No Sound in Flutes” during “Everyone Loves Me But You”, but overextends eir vocals without having an instrumental bunting to fall back on.

This overextension of eir vocals happens again in a major way during “Disappoiting Everyone”. The fact that the tempo fo this track is slower than practically every other track on the disc makes the stretched-out vocals even more lacking than before. I understand that Priggen wants to make a maudlin track here, but the tempo is like molasses and the track ends up sounding like a revamped fifties teen death song than something in which we are supposed to feel sorry for Priggen for. There are better indie and pop rockers out on the market; while the tracks that Priggen commits to disc may sound good on the outside, there is little in the way of musical development or substance lurking behind these compositions.

Top Tracks: Something, Til It All Falls Apart

Rating: 3.3/10

[JMcQ]