| Sparks | 1971 |
| A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing | 1972 |
| Kimono My House | 1974 |
| Propaganda | 1974 |
| Indiscreet | 1975 |
| Big Beat | 1976 |
| Introducing Sparks | 1977 |
| No. 1 In Heaven | 1979 |
| Terminal Jive | 1979 |
| Whomp That Sucker | 1981 |
| Angst In My Pants | 1982 |
| In Outer Space | 1983 |
| Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat | 1984 |
| Music That You Can Dance To | 1986 |
| Interior Design | 1988 |
| Profile: The Ultimate Sparks Collection (compilation) | 1991 |
| Gratuitous Sax And Senseless Violins | 1994 |
| Plagiarism | 1997 |
| Balls | 2000 |
| Lil' Beethoven | 2002 |
There are a few bands in music history that have slipped through the cracks of rock history as 'lost treasures', 'underground cult favorites', or whatever, while being largely unknown to the general public, and this band is undoubtedly one of the most special in that department. Sure, Sparks have had a little bit of commercial success (particularly in the UK in 1974 and in the States during 1983 with "Cool Places"), but only for brief periods of time, not enough to gain all that much exposure to the general public. This is a total shame, and if not for fellow web-reviewer George Starostin accidentally discovering them by pure chance and praising them to the skies like no other underground band that's ever existed (and they were made out to be something revolutionary and ahead of their time to boot), not to mention Mark Prindle sending me their first two albums on CD-r in a trade, I'm not sure if I would have ever gotten into them. But man am I ever glad I did, since they, along with Sigur Ros to an extent, are definitely the greatest musical discovery I've had in the last year or so.
So what makes this Sparks band so special? Well, there are these two guys from Los Angeles, brothers Ron and Russell Mael that are the main focus of accomplishing that. Ron, with his mustache and nerdy-looking suits, plays keyboards (often of the bright-sounding, happy, carnival-esque, variety, until he discovered synthesizers later on at least) and writing the majority of the music and especially lyrics. Oh man, Sparks lyrics are a big factor in making the band so neat, as Ron writes all these often odd and sometimes hysterical concepts and stories that not many people would ever think up - to use a few examples, songs about having to practice the experience of having sex when you're an amateur, stories such as a hotel manager losing his hands or a guy having a party thrown for him on his deathbed, people literally buying the Mississippi River, lots of twisted songs about girls/women, plus not one, but two songs sung from the point of view of sperm! Not only that, but Ron is also mostly responsible for coming up with some of the most brilliantly complicated and odd, yet still catchy pop hooks in history, the kind that often even exist on their less worthwhile albums.
Don't forget about Russell, the 'pin up boy', either - while his often operatic voice can take getting used to (many a listener have wondered whether or not he's actually female) his vocal acrobatics are a perfect match for the all-over-the-place vocal melodies, even if that sometimes makes it hard to make out the lyrics. Plus, it's hard to explain it, but he has such a unique way of phrasing certain words and sounds that's such a pleasure to listen to, whether or not a particular song he's singing is hilariously over the top (i.e. the 1974 albums), pissed off (like Big Beat), or emotional and sad (like "Rosebud" or "When Do I Get To Sing 'My Way?'"). I understand how his approach to vocals (combined with the odd melodies and lyrics) can be offputting, and probably best explains why Sparks have never been and probably will never be a household name, but potentially irritating or not, I think Russ has become one of my favorite singers ever, and I'm still baffled at how the hell he can sing the melodies on Kimono My House so startlingly well. Even when he stopped really using his falsetto all that much around the early 80's, his voice on those albums continued to have an impact on me, personally - it's all just the way he uses it, and that's all I can say.
Oh, and there's another thing - for several albums, they truly were musically innovative and ahead of their time, especially on pioneering the jerky style and characteristics of New Wave on their debut.... in 1971. They also led the way to the operatic over-the-top hard rock/glam/music hall/pop style of bands like Queen on Kimono (quite honestly, that hybrid they came up with there is one of the most perfect, insanely energetic styles ever), later on pioneered synth-pop with No. 1 In Heaven in 1979 (a collaboration with that disco guy Giorgio Moroder), and God-knows-what with their latest album Lil' Beethoven (dance music without rhythms and flourishes of classical and opera?). Combine all this with their strengths in melodies, lyrics and vocals, and it's easy to hear why it's a great shame they're not more well-known.
Besides the Mael brothers, though, there have been some other guys in the lineup, even though none of them have been constant. In fact, in the beginning they originally were conceived as a full band (including another pair of brothers, guitarist and bassist Earle and Jim Mankey, and drummer Harley Feinstein), but all three were let go before 1974, when the Maels relocated to the UK and formed a new backing band for Kimono My House which turned out to be their best lineup (with drummer Dinky Diamond, bassist Martin Gordon, and guitarist Adrian Fisher, all absolutely top-of-the-line players), but after that, the personnel has shifted constantly throughout their career with different musicians (they actually had a ton of session musicians on Introducing Sparks, especially), with their only remotely stable backing band (the one from 1981 to 1986) actually being by far their least interesting and musically thin. Isn't that always the way things go?
Of course, as much as I dig the band, they've certainly done their share of not-very-good stuff, a lot of which resulted from the three biggest mistakes they made in their career: (1) Dumping their first two (and best two) backing bands, which resulted in a far less creatively powerful and more conventional sound. (2) Their collaboration with Giorgio Moroder, which, although it yielded excellent results with No. 1 In Heaven first time around, led to the Maels placing the dance rhythms and lyrics over actual interesting music, which barely even seemed there at times. (3) The lyrics shifting way too far toward stupid and corny novelty crap and then toward overly serious love songs, therefore allowing their material to often cross the thin line between 'parody' and 'banality'. See, in my opinion the potential really, really was there for Sparks to quite possibly become the absolute greatest band of the 70's, but these three things in my mind prevented them from ultimately doing so, eventually leading to a drop in album quality (great Sparks albums after 1976 are a rarity, though most afterwards are still good or even very good, with their share of huge highlights), and then a sadly clueless, behind-the-times complete loss of distinctiveness by the latter half of the 80's, which they've only recently kinda recovered from. But the talent of Ron and Russell has really been there all along - they've still done several great songs after 1976, and the three disc career-spanning compilation I recently burned is close to the best thing ever. Long live Sparks, and I'll do my best on this page to give them their due, as impossible as it is to top Mark Prindle's.
--Nick Karn
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Nick,
I am just writing to let you know how much I have enjoyed reading your Sparks album reviews. I printed off all 30 pages last night and, like a John Grisham novel, once I started reading I just couldn't put the reviews down. You write very eloquently.
I disagree with your condemnation of Music That You Can Dance To though. I quite like that album. You can see my Sparks album reviews at www.geocities.com/mtruksa
Mark Prindle's Sparks reviews are ace, but yours are even better ! Great work.
Best wishes,
Martin Truksa
Hi there,
I'm sorry, I couldn't find anything on you personally on your site, not even your name but I just wanted to tell you I am utterly impressed by your website. The sheer range of the subject, its complexity and its size is amazing. Chapeau.
I haven't by far read or even seen most of it but I will return many times. I was drawn to it because of your Sparks piece as I seldom meet Sparks fans that found them so relatively late and got the whole picture instantly, instead of waiting for the pieces year by year. It was most fascinating to read. Should you ever be in need of any rare recording by Sparks or indeed any other band I might have, please do let me know. I'm more than happy to burn some cd's for you. I have a list here; http://www.xs4all.nl/~maels/live%20recordings.htm. Always nice to meet a fellow music fanatic.
Take care and all the best with your site,
Ruud - FanMael.
http://www.fanmael.net/
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Fletcher Honorama, Slowboat, Fa La Fa Lee, High C, No More Mr. Nice Guys, Roger, Simple Ballet. LOW POINTS: Biology 2, Saccharin And The War.
First things first, huge props must be given to Todd Rundgren for getting the band (then known as Halfnelson for whatever reason) off the ground when no record labels would go near them. He also produced most of the album, and did a great job, I might add - all the instruments come in very clearly, and the sound is full, with neat embellishments and production tricks popping around. The opening "Wonder Girl" in particular (one of the songs on the four song demo Rundgren was sent) is a fine triumph of production, with the clear quirky keyboards, the loud upfront bass, pounding drums shifting from speaker to speaker, the wonderful 'watery' guitar embellishments... all of it sounds great. And the fact that the song's got a really good lightweight pop singalong melody to it certainly doesn't hurt either. The song was actually almost a top 100 single in the US, but the album didn't do jack commercially - even the name change to Sparks that resulted in a re-release a year later didn't make a difference.
Which is such a great injustice, since in many ways this is an absolutely mindblowing album that must have sounded like it came from another planet at the time. Just play "Fa La Fa Lee" to somebody, especially someone very knowledgeable about rock history, and ask them what year it was made, and I guarantee you they'll say something like, "late 70's, somewhere around 1978 or 79." This song sounds exactly like The Cars with those quirky organey keyboards! Except with disturbing lyrics about a guy who wants to have sex with his sister, and sung by a vocalist who has a cold (or four layers of someone who has a cold)! And awesome slower chorus shifts, followed by a brief bass solo each time! YES! Why the hell aren't 'underground' shows on classic rock radio playing this song? Its' followup "Roger" is almost as unusual - a singalong acoustic pop tune about who knows what embellished by the interplay between loud upfront clanging noises, percussion from glasses of water, and those same organs that are again total late 70's territory. I've personally never heard anything quite like it.
These are just the first three tracks here, by the way, and together with the next four, they represent almost complete brilliance. The sheer impact of "High C" is just overwhelming as it goes from an ear-catchingly fun piano groove to a faster, energetic 'power rock' part, and effortlessly incorporates some 'whoo-hoo-hooo' break with country-ish influences, all with amazingly good vocal melodies. "Simple Ballet" has all the elegance of, well, a ballet, with gently understated piano, guitar fills, crashing cymbals, and another perfectly flowing vocal melody that's easy to sing along to (if you're not one of those that finds it hard to get past the odd singing style, of course). Oh, and while "Slowboat" may be the one song that isn't in a particularly distinctive style (the big emotional early 70's love ballad), it's just so beautifully romantic in a way Sparks usually aren't, yet doesn't seem out of place amongst all the experimentation at all. It's also completely beyond me why this song is not a huge radio standard, as it has loads of single potential within its' gorgeous folkish acoustic/piano led arrangement and vocal melody that sounds like it's always existed, the odd-sounding keyboard guitar break is an unbelievably cool touch, and the way it changes key at the end is one of their most orgasmic moments ever. It truly feels like I'm 'sailing towards the seven seas' when listening to this. What a song.
And I haven't even mentioned my favorite on here yet, a song that might also be my pick for best they ever did, "Fletcher Honorama". The lyrical concept is intriguing as hell - the one about a guy with said name who has a party thrown for him on his deathbed - and the creepy way it builds up with that ominous bass and guitar interplay is something to behold indeed, and as usual, the vocal melody is absolutely classic stuff. But besides that eerie atmosphere, my two favorite things about it are the middle section, where Ron breaks out randomly with upbeat saloon piano, the melody takes a bizarre turn, and it somehow miraculously fits into the rest of the arrangement (totally representative of how they can throw disparate musical elements on the same album, or sometimes the same song), and the ending coda, when Russell sings this final sounding 'so be sure, so be sure, that the... boy won't die until the moooooooorrrrrn....' absolutely kills me.
The last four songs used to disappoint me immensely coming after that classic stretch of music which is all among the best they'd ever do, and while I can get into some of them more than I used to, they're lesser enough to sadly force me to drop the rating to a lowish 9 from a possible 10. I find it odd that no one who hugely praises the album ever mentions "Biology 2" and "Saccharin And The War", but maybe that's because no one wants to admit they're crap songs. The former is actually one of the rare Sparks songs not written, or even sung, by either Ron or Russell, but by guitarist Earle Mankey. I admit it fits into the album well by sounding nothing like anything else that had been done before - it's like... uhh... a hokey pokey DNA-style, with incredibly helium-like vocals, a sluggish guitar/keyboard led groove with utterly bizarre guitar sounds and incomprehensible lyrics - but as far as being actually good, it falls flat. It really, really grates on me. Also, the latter song just plods along on the same unimaginative groove and odd 'weight loss' lyrics with a shocking lack of any kind of memorable or interesting vocal hook whatsoever (especially compared to the rest of the album), and only the neat 'carnival' atmosphere at the end saves it.
Fortunately, the last two songs do bring the album up from being a disappointing nosedive. "Big Bands", about some guy who's obsessed with collecting every big band record ever made, actually grew on me a bit more - it's got some of the most gentle and moving vocals on the album, probably five or six distinctive vocal melodies, and an almost old-time pianoey atmosphere (it even mentions Herbert Hoover in the lyrics!). I still don't think the faster, more exciting rocking ending (arguably the best part) fits in all that well with the rest, but still, it's fairly good, if not up to the standards of the highs here. And it all ends with the glam rock-style "No More Mr. Nice Guys", a simply fantastic guitar-led raveup that's the most energetic song on here - it's literally about how there really are, in fact, no more nice guys to be found, with great riffage and frantic soloing in the middle, plus a chorus with high tension and drama (especially when it speeds up at the end!), making for a thoroughly gripping end to the album. It absolutely amazes me how this effort throws all these different styles into the pot, yet has such a great flow between tracks, is highly accessible once you get adjusted to it, and is also really original at once - only the inconsistency in the second half keeps it from being an all-time classic. But most importantly, HOW THE HELL IS THIS OUT OF PRINT? And harder to find than most other Sparks albums? That's gotta be one of life's crazy, retarded mysteries.
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COMMENTS
Yeah, Biology 2 is a piece of shit, which is kind of a shame since it could have been decent if they had just given Russell vocal duty, but Mankey turns it into a total novelty. I like Saccharin and the War though, the lyrics are pretty clever and the echoey piano at the end is friggin cool. And, obviously, everything else here rules mercilessly. Wonder Girl, High C, and No More mr. Nice Guys in particular are three of their best songs ever. So I'd give it a low ten, as opposed to the normal ten of Kimono My House.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Nothing Is Sacred, Moon Over Kentucky, Underground. LOW POINTS: None.
I doubt anyone will confuse the title of this album with the supposedly psychedelic-sounding 1969 unreleased pre-Rundgren demo album of the same name, which is a very rare find ("Saccharin And The War" and "Roger", both of Russell's songs, were the two that survived on Sparks, in case you're wondering). But anyway, this actually released A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing isn't as outright adventurous as the debut, and nothing here come close to the highs from last time in quality, so you could say this is a bit of a step down, even if luckily most (heck, probably even all) of the songs stay in the same 'very good' range and never hit any lows either. There's still some of the bizarrely experimental flair of before, but the biggest differences here? Russell's beginning to stretch himself out a bit more into the operatic stratosphere (which may make some people cringe in pain, but certainly not me), and the sound is more energetic during the guitar-oriented moments.
It's still a pretty diverse and hard to totally categorize album, though. To namecheck a few examples, "Beaver O' Lindy" merges waltzy, theatrically-sung verses with thundering glam rock (including a fun spelling out of the title in the 'chorus' of sorts), "Here Comes Bob" is Ron's first really screwed up song lyrically as an absolutely hysterical account of a guy who tries to make friends by crashing his car into theirs (over a musical background of classical strings!), "The Louvre" is an interesting French-styled ballad sung mostly in that language in a hilariously corny way by Russell (he admitted himself he didn't have much clue how to sing in French), with a powerful dramatic ending, and "Angus Desire" is.. umm... I really don't know how to describe that one. It sounds like some bizarre little shuffly thingy with some of the most whacked out guitar and keyboard sounds here. Plus, they actually do a rare cover song in "Do-Re-Mi" (yes, the same "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound Of Music) in such a rousing and exciting, even if a bit crappily produced, way that it's understandable why it became such a popular live staple throughout their entire career.
Like I said, nothing really comes close to knocking me out the way the very best stuff on Sparks did, but all the stuff I mentioned is worthy, and there are certain songs here that to me stand out the most. "Nothing Is Sacred" is probably the best one, a guitar and piano-driven stomp that's lyrically based on the meaninglessness of religion in favor of technology, where Russell's falsetto works in a comically glorious fashion (especially in the parts where he sings the title and the fast breakaway ending where he just goes insane - it's so fun to listen to!), and doesn't that middle section sound exactly like how Freddie Mercury would sing Queen ballads later on? Additionally, Earle Mankey more than redeems himself for his "Biology 2" misstep with the terrific power pop of "Underground" (great guitar line and a completely unexpected shift into fast music hall style, helped by um... unusually high vocals from Russell), and the side-closing "Moon Over Kentucky" has a really great panoramic sound achieved by wordless wailing vocals and threatening guitar lines - sure, the song doesn't really build from that, and the lyrics are a bit meaningless, but that atmosphere more than makes up for that.
Oh, and there's also the most celebrated song on compilations, and like "Wonder Girl" a near-top 100 hit, in "Girl From Germany" - and guess what? It's just 'very good' like most everything else! Very good lyrics (about people who don't like Germans because of what happened in the past during the World War II era), very good snappy melody with dangerously close to girl-like vocals (ha!), very good display of whistling in the background that sounds like another instrument. And the album closes on a, you guessed it, very good note with the "Batteries Not Included / Whippings And Apologies" suite, the first part being an insanely schizophrenic 45 second thing that goes through constant tempo changes, and the second another really cool rave-up rocker with screeching guitar solos in the middle and a vocal performance that convinces me even more that Russell must have been inhaling more helium than usual during the sessions for this album... I mean, DAMN!! I really didn't realize until recently how amazingly 'very good' this album is all the way through, which doesn't make for great or classic listening, but it's still quite worthwhile and intriguing to listen to what these guys are doing. I gotta say, though, the last couple times I've listened to this, I immediately got the urge to throw the next album on, and because of that, you'll see why I don't give it a higher rating than 8. Read on....
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us, Falling In Love With Myself Again, Hasta Manana Monsieur, Amateur Hour, Talent Is An Asset, Here In Heaven, Thank God It's Not Christmas. LOW POINTS: None.
Figuring that their quirky, strangely British-style music and lyrics would be more appreciated overseas than in the States, the Mael brothers relocated to the UK, but unfortunately, they weren't joined by the Mankey brothers or Harley Feinstein. Instead, they put together a new backing band, actually attained commercial success in England (with number 2 single "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us"!) and released what is not only their absolute freaking pinnacle, but also a total classic of the 70's. Ron's melodies and keyboard work are more complex yet catchier than ever, and Russell's singing reaches a crazily delirious peak in how he rattles off the lyrics in his insane falsetto and hitting all sorts of nerves in me, but those other three guys as well as producer Muff Winwood, who probably should get a lot of credit for this being one of the most powerful sounding production jobs I've ever heard, do just as well too!
For one, Adrian Fisher is arguably the most versatile and brilliant guitarist the band's ever had (with great hard rocking energy and tone), Martin Gordon, in addition to boasting quite possibly the coolest, fattest-sounding bass sound ever recorded on this album, supposedly arranged all the songs as well (which increases my respect level for him even higher) and the oddly named Dinky Diamond is a more proficient backbone for the sound than his odd and unconventional but still cool predecessor. Now put these five people together in one band, and if the sound were possibly any more energetic and crazy, the world might have exploded right there. Oh, what a sound it is. Believe it or not, it's actually not as experimental or diverse as the first two albums, but it more than makes up for that by being an absolutely perfect melding of glam, pop, opera, hard rock, music hall, and total comedy elements, especially in the messed up lyrical storytelling, that simply has no analogy whatsoever in the music world - and most of these elements are present within the same song, as one style, not just as a collection of individual songs randomly going from one genre to the next (like Indiscreet would later).
Plus, the first 45 seconds (the aforementioned "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us" opener) might seriously be the most unbelievably GODLIKE opening to any album I've ever heard - a totally genius and uplifting-sounding eight note carnival keyboard sequence fades in, Russell starts singing some crazy stuff about 'increasing heartbeats' and 'elephants and tacky tigers' with erotic overtones to the lyrics, a typically whack melody sequence for this album's standards, and then... the rest of the band enters for possibly the greatest adrenaline rush I've ever experienced in music, especially in how the guitar line answers that keyboard opening, and the rhythm section pounds along anthemically. And there are gunshots!!! Pleasure overload!!! Ahhhh!!!! That song continues for four more short verses, by the way, with the same unbelievably cool elements, and it probably runs a very close second to "Fletcher Honorama" as my favorite Sparks song of all time, certainly defining the band better than any other. What production! What hilarious style and unbelievably whacked out yet memorable vocal hooks!
How to describe the other 9 songs, though, many of them sheer perfection. "Amateur Hour" is this gleefully entertaining singalong about the basics of sex (filtered through the screwed up cerebellum of Ron, of course) and a really giddy uptempo chorus that gets really impossible to resist. Those repeating keyboard chords and guitars filled with energy pound themselves into your head, leaving me stunned at how any band goes about actually writing something like that. "Falling In Love With Myself Again" might be the most bombastic, theatrical waltz ever composed, with that big sound and the heart-stopping way everything drops out except for the guitar and vocals mid-verse, and gets me to try and sing along to it even though I can't (and very few can). "Here In Heaven" is pretty much a rollercoaster ride Romeo And Juliet-styled about a girl who backs off her end of a double suicide pact, and it's like an exhilirating race to the finish the way its' arrangement and melodic pace goes, with dramatic-to-the-extreme vocal hooks and that perfect sound in full effect.
The wacky lyrical concepts continue throughout, and the songs themselves seemingly never let up from that stylistic perfection. "Thank God It's Not Christmas", about a man who hates Christmas Day because he can't get away from his wife, has a great poppy 'holiday' vibe to it in the verse (with those always wonderfully charming keyboards and the best example of that fat bass tone I was talking about from Martin Gordon) and powerful rock bombast for the chorus and the rest of the song. "Hasta Manana Monsieur" deals with someone struggling with foreign languages and has another amazingly brilliant buildup for the ages - the gentle intro where it sounds like Ron's playing a Mellotron-sounding melody and it kicks into high gear again when Ron switches to piano, then the guitar and the Bass That Will Destroy The World simultaneously come in, and all vocal melodies here are a singalong delight (especially the 'Hasta manana, monsieur... were the only words that I knew for sure...' chorus). "Talent Is An Asset" deals with Albert Einstein's genius from the period of time when he was a kid and is an unbelievably fun glam stomper for its' entire running time. Great rhythm and keyboard sound going on that one. Best opening 7 song run ever!
From this point on, Sparks let you in a little bit on the secret that they're actually mere mortals, so as a conspiracy, they make the last three songs not as rockingly awesome as the first seven, but still really good enough that they'd still be highlights on, well, albums that aren't as classic as this one. "Complaints" goes between verses that pound into your skull like a migraine headache with a nifty broken-up melody ('noth-ing in the world is perfect, da da da da da...') and goes into a similar sort of stomping glam/music hall chorus as the previous "Talent Is An Asset" did. "In My Family" talks about family relationships in a twisted Ron Mael way, of course ('gonna hang myself... from my family tree...' is my fave line), and the closing "Equator" is a totally screwed up loungey groove in 12/8 time with fake saxophones, another baffilingly complex but catchy melody, a lyrical concept about meeting somebody on the equator (and how they don't show up!) and that insane ending where Russell improvises over the chorus. To be honest, the last minute of the song is the only small part of the album I don't care for, as all that constant 'equatorequatorequator'-ing in the vocals gets on my nerves after awhile, but other than that, it's such a cool, wacky experience.
If you're going to try and seek out this album, though, and you really should, make sure you get the version that has the two bonus B-sides "Barbecutie" and "Lost And Found", as they're, amazingly enough, just as good as the rest, especially "Barbecutie", another lyrically crazy song about cannibalism, with the intro containing the best example of that huge bass tone that's the greatest thing ever put to vinyl, plus it's got a powerful boogie-style rhythm and a powerful beyond words anthemic chorus. The latter song is nothing to scoff at either, with a fast, uplifting pace to it and more perfect vocal hooks. I personally never listen to the album without hearing either of them, myself. What an absolute classic this is - probably my favorite album of 1974, and if not for the more comparatively 'mortal' moments/songs it would probably rank even higher on my all-time list (say, top 10). Enjoy it, since Sparks would never come close to this peak again.
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COMMENTS
YES! Right on! I mean, the gunshots in 'This Town...'? WHO DOES SHIT LIKE THAT? These guys were geniuses!!! And as amazing as that song is, it might not even be my favorite. 'Amateur Hour' is an unfathomably flawless pop song (that chorus has now been stuck in my head for about a month and I'm still not sick of it). 'Thank God it's Not Christmas' has a gloriously epic feel to it, and bitter lyrics. 'Hasta Manana Monsieur' rocks, and it's funny as well. I used to not like 'Here in heaven,' but I truly think this is one example of a song that's elevated by the great lyrics. Equator is awesome too. Some say it's the best on here. Thank god this thing is still in print, I don't know what I'd do if I lost my copy and couldn't replace it. If you don't have this, go order it on Amazon right now.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth, Achoo, Reinforcements, At Home At Work At Play, Something For The Girl With Everything, Thanks But No Thanks. LOW POINTS: None.
Looks like someone was trying to hold the Mael brothers hostage on the album cover's boat trying to discover their secrets, eh? But anyway, they still managed to turn out another excellent album for 1974, even if it's a step down from the immortal Kimono My House. The songs just aren't quite as complicated or melodic, and most importantly, the sound is less awesome - although Adrian Fisher stayed on board for a bit to record some guitar parts, he was replaced during the sessions with Trevor White, and Martin Gordon was also dumped (apparently he wanted more of a say in the musical direction Sparks would go into and the Maels would have none of that - ugh), taking his arrangement talents and awesome fat bass tone with him, replaced instead by Ian Hampton. Plus, the lyrics aren't quite as hilarious as they were before, and that isn't helped by the fact that most of the album is impossible to sing along to because of how Russell sometimes going a little over the top in making himself hard-to-understand. Not many quotable lines even when you read the lyric sheet either.
Once you get past those (nitpicking) minor weaknesses, though, Propaganda turns out to be great, just about on the same level as the debut at least. It starts off on another breathtaking note with two songs no true Sparks fan can listen to separately - the nutty 22 second acapella title track and its' followup "At Home, At Work, At Play", which is certainly one of those constantly thrilling and shifting yet short and concise Sparks pop masterpieces. Energetic power chords, great piano flourishes, four distinctive and awesome vocal melodies, Russell's voice shifting up and down like an opera star, what's not to love about that one? Or "Reinforcements", another brilliant music hall piece the likes of which they're so good at at it's hard to believe the Maels aren't British, with those playful piano notes interplaying with the heavier guitars perfectly, a steady marching rhythm and another absolutely top-of-the-line singalong melody that's actually difficult to sing along to (except for the 'reinforcements... reinforcements... I could use a strong rear guard...' chorus which is singable as anything).
There are more highlights and crazy little ideas where that came from, of course. The carnivalesque atmosphere I mentioned that Ron's keyboards can often create come to the forefront in the hilariously misogynist "Something For The Girl With Everything", where those keyboards playing insanely happy, deliriously entertaining fast chord sequences, and Russell tries to sing about as much like an indecipherable opera star as he possibly can, with the vocal melody being so unconventional, yet still fast, exciting and poppy, it's hard to imagine anyone else ever coming up with it. "Thanks But No Thanks" also has very carnivaley keyboards (brighter and poppier and not as organ-like as, for example, Ray Manzarek), and on this song they come through about as perfectly as Martin Gordon's bass did on Kimono (which means it's one hell of a great production - wasn't this band one of the best produced of the early 70's?), with more of Ron's genius for uplifting, happy melodies and chord sequences that are still unconventional coming through.
My favorite song on here is really tough to pick, actually - it's a very even album, but more in an excellent quality way than a just 'very good' one like Woofer, but I've finally decided that it's the most celebrated "Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth", which rivals "Slowboat" in terms of gorgeous ballad-writing, but with even more big majesty than that song. Beautiful combination of harpsichord, piano and symphonic tones here, a wonderful environmental theme in the lyrics, gorgeous singing as usual, an odd but yet still appopriate spare 'three days and two nights...' countermelody, and a great guitar solo (not sure if it's from Fisher or White). "Achoo" comes a close second to it, one of the snappiest grooves they ever came up with, boasting more breathtaking interplay between those upbeat keys and the harder rocking power of ther rest of the band (like "Reinforcements" did), plus it's got a typically catchy chorus, and an arrangement that keeps building and building as it keeps layering vocals saying 'achoo achoo achoo' over and over again on top of each other in a glorious fashion.
The other four songs aren't as awesome, but they all have their really great points, like the way in which the vocal melody to "B.C." starts off reaaally slowly and gradually starts gaining speed over the exciting music (another fun stomp of a chorus here!) and then stops to restart the verses again. Maybe that melody is incredibly dippy, but still a load of fun if you can enjoy that sort of thing. "Don't Leave Me Alone With Her" again finds Russell operatically yelling the lyrics in the verse at an insanely melodic pace before it turns into a more desperate sounding, pleading chorus, and even though the repetitive guitar riffage at the end is a bit much, "Who Don't Like Kids" is a reasonably quirky and fun hard rocking tune in their normal 'fast song' vein, with another great lyrical concept about a guy who only has sex because he loves kids. And finally, the whole album closes with "Bon Voyage", an odd lyrical tribute to Noah's Ark, whose chorus definitely matches the 'waving goodbye' feel that the title suggests (with the symphonic keys especially), though the verses go all over the place, crazily if sometimes awkwardly shifting between back and forth melodies (especially in the 'two of you, two of them' and 'I wish that I, I wish that I...' parts)
The two bonus tracks here aren't quite up to the level of last time, but "Alabamy Right" is another fun and dynamic music hall-styled piece (the way Russell sings 'Alabamy...' over and over is a whole barrel of entertainment!), and "Marry Me" is arguably an even better closure to the album than "Bon Voyage", ironically, with a funny and bouncy merry-go-round atmosphere all around. Again, like the Kimono bonuses, I never listen to this album without experiencing them, especially since it's only a short 33 minute effort otherwise. I went back and forth between an 8.5 and 9 on this one for awhile, but to hell with it - I'm gonna definitely settle on a 9 for good, just because the style and songs entertain me that much, and the melodies are still often ridiculously cool and complex. At this point in their career, most of what the Maels touched turned to gold.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: It Ain't 1918, The Lady Is Lingering, Hospitality On Parade. LOW POINTS: Under The Table With Her.
On first listen, this album was a huge disappointment, and if I were a Sparks fan in 1975, I'd probably be let down even more. Here you had a band with a sound that defined perfection on Kimono My House, and a year later it seems to have been replaced with not very convincing 'weird' experimentation and not terribly likeable melodies, with most remnants of the 1974 style seeming like watered down takes on it? But once I got past the fact that this is, well, not Kimono (or even Propaganda) but something different, the interesting stylistic excursions on display here (it's actually by far Sparks' most diverse album ever, as they try their hand at a whole laundry lists of musical genres, some nearly uncategorizable) and strange personality which still very much exists in the lyrics and song arrangements as well as some eventually captivating melodies, grew on me more, and now I can consider it a very good record. It's still an album that's easily less impressive than the previous four, and I can't say any of these songs here are brilliant or anything, but it's hard to be genius all the time.
It also isn't hard to see why, after the band had good success in the UK with the two previous albums, Indiscreet stiffed a bit commercially, considering the two most known singles here, while good in their own way, are hardly radio-ready material. "Get In The Swing" definitely has a catchy chorus, but the bulk of the song is driven by parade march music, with odd verse melodies (and slower, somber sections driven by violins and stuff like that) that don't seem to fit in, and even on repeated listens still don't. And "Looks, Looks, Looks" is a swinging 40's style authentic big band number with the horns and with Andrews Sistersy vocals - it's done with a Sparks perspective lyrically, but don't try to tell me that one had much prayer to be popular. Add to the fact it's on the same record with songs like the slow-paced "Tits" that lyrically discusses in the form of a bar story how 'tits were only there to feed our little Joe so that he'll grow' (not even a spirited 'drink, Harry, drink' chorus is going to make it appeal to the general public) or the pure vaudeville of "Pineapple" (with barber shop-quartet vocals, Russell sounding drunk half the time, and utterly comic lyrics about how pineapples 'serve to promote Vitamin C content') and you can see why.
Still, this is really a rather curious listen despite being hardly great or commercially viable. For a couple of the other notable experiments, I don't even know what "Without Using Hands" fits under, so I'll just steal Mark Prindle's brilliant 'bouncy continental Frenchy piano dance' description - and a creepy excursion it is at that, mostly because of the lyrical concept of a hotel manager literally not being able to use his hands after an explosion. The low-key, uneasy bounce to the music helps that too. And my favorite here for no obvious reason, "It Ain't 1918", is Sparks doing a hoedown, you know, with fiddles and stuff. I guess I like it so much because the totally inappropriate use of organ from Ron and the priceless way Russell yells out 'IT AIN'T NINETEEN EIGHTEEEEEEEEN' in the chorus, but the lyrical concept about a couple being happily way behind the times in pretty much everything (fashion, the cars they drive, etc.) and their neighbors being irritated by this is great, too. And it's got one of those fun complicated high-speed melodies and some effective guitar in there.
There are other nods to the past as well, but like I hinted at, most of them end up being slightly diluted, even if still quite good and very listenable, nods to the 1974 period (like the fast Propaganda-style of "In The Future" with New Wavey keyboards and amusing lines like 'in the future lots of sun...', the shift to fast-paced maniacal singing in "How Are You Getting Home?", and "Happy Hunting Ground" with its' multiple melodies, prog-sounding keyboards and exciting 'quirk' in the tempo and style). There's even a lesser take on the novelty classical music style of "Here Comes Bob" in "Under The Table With Her", though it's the only song on the album I really don't like at all, mostly because of the irritating way that Russell pronounces the '..air' sound throughout, sounding a little uneasily girlish in the process.
Finally, there's the other two of my favorite highlights in the opener "Hospitality On Parade" and "The Lady Is Lingering". The former song actually contributed a lot to my initial ehh feeling I mentioned, as it sounds a little too musically thin and Russell takes on a lazy vocal style, but the swaying, theatrical melody (with gospel-ish influences?) flows really, really addictively like nothing else on the album, and the lumbering heavy guitar riff in the second half is a cool addition. The latter, meanwhile, is probably the most 'serious' song on here, with a certain dark and desperate tone to the way lines like 'every word pronounced distinctly slowly', and it's yet another fine example of their captivating melodic skills in the way it builds to that chorus and the 'a look, a touch, a sound' bridge. Don't forget about the other 'serious' one, the closer "Miss The Start, Miss The End", with a fairly downbeat melody and another neat lyrical concept (a couple who always arrive too late and leave early at every event they go to), even though it's nothing terribly special. A really curious and very good album overall, this is, but get it only after you've already gotten into the earlier stuff (as well as maybe some of the later albums) or else it may screw up your brain.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Everybody's Stupid, I Bought The Mississippi, Throw Her Away (And Get A New One). LOW POINTS: White Women.
Once again, a relocation was in order for the Maels, this time for whatever reason back to the U.S. That meant yet another backing band, guitarist Jeff Salen, bassist Sal Maida and drummer Hilly Michaels, and of course, another change in style. My guess is they were desperately trying for any kind of success in their own country during the age of arena rock, so they aim for a much more straightforward and punchy, hard-rocking sound, with very basic chord sequences as opposed to the complex music of before. There's about none of the experimentation that was so dominating on Indiscreet, little of the personality in the keyboards (although he wrote the songs as usual, Ron is pretty much either buried in the mix throughout or just not doing very much interesting the entire album) and vocals (Russell takes an inoffensive, yet flat and unconvincing tone), and a lot less quirk in the lyrics (instead of most of the screwed up concepts and often hilarious lines, most of the words are serious, pissed off, bitter, depressing, whatever)
With all that, I can definitely see why some wouldn't take too kindly to this style (even their former manager once claimed this and the equally 'commercial' next effort were horrible albums). And yrah, there are a few slightly weak songs here - the opener "Big Boy" has thundering energy but is a little too much on the stupid, lamebrained side with that hilariously dumb 'big booooooyyyyyyyyyy' chorus, "I Wanna Be Like Everybody Else" is overly straightforward hard rock that could have been recorded by pretty much anyone (even if it is catchy and has got a good drive to it), and "White Women" just doesn't hold much interest with its' plodding, lightweight music, making it harder to give into the level of obnoxiousness inherent in this sort of style (the lyrics are some of Ron's most grating - I wouldn't recommend women to actually listen to them, and it doesn't help that the song's one of the few times Russell really gets energy into his vocals either).
Fortunately, what makes this album a lot more enjoyable than it really should be on paper is that the band's melodic sense is still going strong, as several of these songs have pretty terrific hooks. Plus, it's not like the lyrics and music suck or anything - Ron's still able to write great stuff even in such a pessimistic mood, there's good riffs and some of the same energy that contributes to making several of the most exciting Sparks songs magical. Like the appropriately titled "Fill-Er-Up", a really exciting slice of overdriven rock and roll with fast vocal hooks and great yells of 'GO! GO!!', or the closing "I Like Girls", which admittedly is a leftover actually written in 1972 with the original lineup (the original version of it can be found on the Profile compilation), therefore explaining why it's by far the most dynamic song in terms of both vocal melody and music and Russell brings out his weird helium vocal style he used often on Woofer. Whatever era it's from, though, it's a stomping good time with a breathtaking ending.
The three big highlights, though, are some of the most addictive and incredibly catchy songs of their career, pushing things up considerably. "I Bought The Mississippi" takes the ridiculous idea of commercialism and puts it over the top by having a guy literally buy the Mississippi River and trying to 'lug it out west', with a simple but fantastic groove, another priceless, effortlessly singalongable melody that blows away most hard rock competition (this time you can sing along to it, unlike Propaganda), a great guitar solo in the middle, and an 'it's mine... all mine!!' part that's quite a cool rush. "Everybody's Stupid" is my favorite, even though it's so venomous, or maybe because of it - this is the anthem for when you're dumbfounded by how clueless people around you can be, or when you're just generally mad at the human race. The actual music is the rock punchiness at its' absolute best, and the vocal melodies are just as dizzingly catchy as anything they've ever written. "Throw Her Away (And Get A New One)", meanwhile, puts the mean-spiritedness so over-the-top it's almost impossible to take it seriously (about literally throwing a girl away and getting a new one), with a whirlwind of rock energy and more of that endless supply of anthemic hooks.
Rounding things out are more melodic punchiness in "Nothing To Do" (which links to The Ramones in the fact that Joey Ramone actually wanted to cover it at one point), "Confusion" (which like "Fa La Fa Lee" again links to The Cars in that Russell's voice on there sounds exactly like Ric Ocasek, and it has some odd 'high pitched' New Wave sound effect that functions as a solo of sorts), and "Screwed Up" (yet more bitter moods, especially in the 'screwed up, that's the problem, you're going down down down....' chorus, but also some hilarity - 'in 1920 you could dance, in 1930 lose your pants, in 1940 you could go to war really soon, in 1950 you could just be dull and a bore...'), all of which prove there is still quite a bit of distinctive Sparks personality throughout, in spite of some offputting elements present. What I think, though, is that Big Beat is more of a one-time experiment, a theoretical picture of what they'd sound like if they were a straightforward hard rock band, since they never did an album like this one before or since. In all, inconsistent, but still solid, and the best stuff here like usual, is classic.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Occupation, A Big Surprise, Goofing Off. LOW POINTS: Girls On The Brain.
Most known in Sparks lore as the only album in their catalog that still hasn't seen CD release yet, presumably because of record company complications. I guess the label was really pressuring the Maels to come up with a hit by this time, so they hooked up with a bunch of L.A. session musicians and a multitude of backing vocalists (none of them worth mentioning, really), resulting in yet another one-time experiment. If Big Beat was what Sparks might sound like if they were a straightforward and simple hard rock band, Introducing might be what they'd sound like as a slick and extremely commercial-sounding mid-late 70's AOR pop outfit, with lyrics presented as so amazingly simple and naive they just have to be parody, right? Yeah, the part of my brain that really worships the 71-74 period doesn't like these developments one bit, especially since the corny commercial vibe works almost too well at times, while most of the music here is kinda faceless and not very substantial. Though Ron is thankfully back near the front of the mix, he doesn't sound like his usual self musically either - he mostly just plays unobtrusive piano patterns.
It's still quite a good album, because just like Big Beat, the melodies at their best are top-of-the-line, and a song's success is pretty much based on their quality, as well as how effectively a Sparks parodic vibe is injected into the material. As far as the songs that work most, I would definitely have to single out the first two tracks "A Big Surprise" and "Occupation" - the former because there's a certain brilliant pop gorgeousness to the seemingly standard but incredibly well-written flowing melody and the way Russell uses his voice emotionally (especially the 'it's boy meets girl, and here we go once agaaaaaaain....' part of the chorus), and the latter because it sounds exactly like it could be some children's singalong on Sesame Street or something. The lyrics go over all these different occupations and their flaws and advantages (like athletes, pilots, and salesmen) and in such a basic way that it becomes glorious, especially because of the awesome sing-songey melody throughout. Plus the ending coda where another backing vocalist joins in and runs off his own list of occupations is great, since it's a decidedly darker and more screwed up list of professions (baby killers, undertakers, X-rated actors, etc.) What a hilarious song! I love it!
Also effective are the last two tracks, the slick Beach Boys parody "Over The Summer" (apparent in the chorus harmonies) that of course hits upon the 'California' vibe this album has best, with its' sunny upbeat chord sequence, vocal hook and nostalgic lyrics about the changes you can go through during the summer, and the closer "Those Mysteries" (which has precious yet strangely hilarious lyrics about a young, naive child asking questions about the world in lines like, 'why is there time? why is there space? why are their dogs and cats and trees in the human race?', a moving 'power ballad' feel in the chorus, and a great guitar solo at the end as the album fades into out) are quite good, too. There's also the biggest departure from the style, the hilarious groove based on Greek dancing that is "Goofing Off", with effective use of playful piano and an addictive rhythm, an incredibly fun 'goofing off, goofing off, I can do it do it do it perfectly' hook, and another excellent guitar solo (heck, the few solos on here account for most of the really interesting musical ideas on the album). I'd imagine it would be perfect for a party of some sort, or maybe a particularly entertaining movie scene. Not like anyone's ever tried either of those things.
The other four songs just don't grab me that much, and taken together with the sometimes overly slight feel even the best material sometimes has, I can't really give it more than a 7.5, much as I want to. "I'm Not" is a ho-hum bouncy song that's just 'not' very striking melodically, "Forever Young" is just an okay anthemic track that's nothing to write home about (though longtime Sparks fans may associate it with the sharp contrast of "When Do I Get To Sing 'My Way'?" 17 years later), "Girls On The Brain" is dull, slow-paced generic blues with only a slightly funny and appropriate lyrical concept (how Ron is obsessed with girls - do you realize how many Sparks songs have 'girl', 'women', 'lady' in the title??) pulling it up, and I really have to be in the right mood for "Ladies", since its' sheer corny dippiness really comes through in the vocal melody, lyrics that discuss famous 'ladies' doing different things in the Mael house, and that bassline throughout that lumbers along like a dinosaur are just sooooo dumb. A guilty pleasure I wouldn't be caught dead playing in front of most people.
Still, despite the inconsistency, surely this overall fun and still very good album totally deserves a CD release, doesn't it? I'd love to hear some of this stuff with much better sound quality than my warbly downloaded MP3s (which apparently were recorded right from the vinyl, and you can tell) can provide. It goes without saying that downloading the album and trying to lay your hands on the vinyl are really the only ways to get it. Like Indiscreet this surely ain't a Sparks album you should hear early, but once you've gotten heavily enough into their world, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try and hear it through either of those routes at some point, or you could get Profile, where "A Big Surprise" and "Over The Summer" can be found.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: La Dolce Vita, Tryouts For The Human Race, Beat The Clock. LOW POINTS: None.
After being dumped by Epic Records on account of the last album's poor sales, I guess, Ron and Russell continued their persistent mid-to-late 70's trend of constantly reinventing themselves, as this one really sounds nothing, and I mean nothing, like Introducing Sparks. I'm not sure what brought the upon the idea to collaborate with disco producer Giorgio Moroder, best known for his work with Donna Summer, but somehow, despite being kind of an odd pairing on paper, the marriage of Ron's crazy lyrics and Russell's operatic singing (which is back in full force after being sorely missed the last couple albums), with a rhythm-heavy and layered disco/trance production style actually works. A big departure indeed, and one that might take getting used to at first - not only is it musically pretty much all dominated in a robotic way by the keyboards, dance rhythms and sound effects typical of disco music (no guitars here!), but the songs are much longer for the band as well. Plus, Moroder's influence is so strong he actually gets a co-write on most of the album, and that may be a warning sign.
Once you get past any possible dislike you may have for this disco style, all this stuff become pretty much awesome and addictive. "Tryouts For The Human Race" has one of their most fun and powerful arrangements ever - it builds up from some neat spacey effect at the beginning to a throbbing, repetitive, hard to resist trance rhythm (with a great descending figure in the background), the song itself showcases Russell in his trademark falsetto in smashing fashion, and the lyrics are from the point of view of sperm!! In a supposed disco song!! Stuff like that reminds me of why I love Sparks so much, much like those great synth melodies added on during the instrumental breaks, as well as that epic and thrilling falsetto-led 'we must, we must, we must...' / 'let us out of here... let us out of here...' sequence in the middle section before it goes back to the main rhythm. And the way the chorus gets more thin and sparse as layers of backing vocals sing 'now we are a quarter-million strong'? Awesome!
Elsewhere, "Academy Award Performance" is the most energetic and upbeat of the set (in the rhythm and simple but effective synth-led chord progression), making fun of stereotypical 'award-winning performances' that sill hold true today ('do the saint, do the waif, do the child, that was great'), and it's got another catchy chorus with awesome effects sprinkled into the sound. "La Dolce Vita" is probably the best one melody-wise and the album as well, the absolute finest example here of those kind of absolutely brilliant Sparks-ified pop hooks so deliriously fun to sing along to (most notably the 'Mira, mira, guys, there's Lira in her eyes' part of the verse that make it even more infectious). It's also got an almost bouncing ball-like rhythmic pace to it in the keyboards, a great buildup from an 'ahhhhhhhhhh' wall of vocals in the beginning, and lyrics suggesting revolution in the chorus. A perfect dance tune it is.
"Beat The Clock" also has unbelievably cool singalong power to it (How can anyone resist the 'you gotta beat the clock you gotta beat the clock' hook over the rhythm that almost bounces up and down like a spring? Or the fast-paced 'I've seen everything there is...' counter-chorus?), with an awesome lyrical concept that takes the cliched phrase that is the title literally ('Entered school when I was two / PhD'd that afternoon / Never entered any sports / Didn't look too good in shorts / Got divorced when I was four' - that should say it all, and it's glorious). Plus it's got a great middle section with the synths and drumming creating a fabulous sort of bombast you just never hear in dance music of this sort.
If there are any flaws to be found on this album, they're probably within the last two still very good tracks. "My Other Voice", building up from its' backwards cymbal intro, has an otherworldly futuristic atmosphere with a lengthy buildup of robotic keyboards and effects, with a gorgeous romantic melody and equally hypnotic singing. Too bad that buildup runs a little long and the singing only lasts for one verse, after which an electronically encoded vocal takes over for a short time. Also, the 7-1/2 minute closing epic "The Number One Song In Heaven" indeed has a heavenly, layered majesty to it in its' buildup on a "Baba O' Riley"-styled chord sequence, as well as a religiously flavored lyrical perspective on, well, the number one song in heaven and how it's angel's music. The second part is also neat, a dizzingly energetic fast rhythm and dramatic 'it's number one all over heaven... it's number one all over heaven...' singalong, but the song as a whole takes too long to get there, much like the "My Other Voice" buildup.
Overall, a fairly great, highly entertaining collaboration - just forget that it got Sparks a little too dependent on dance rhythms and thus marred their career progression. I guess the main thing that just prevents this album from becoming truly near-classic like well over half of it actually is, though, is that while the rhythms and melodies here are great, there just aren't enough of them! Come on, six songs in 34 minutes? If No. 1 In Heaven had just a couple more tunes of similar quality and there was a bit more development in the arrangements, it'd be an easy 9, and maybe higher. It's still kinda close to a 9 as it is, though, one of their best albums overall. Plus, remember that it's very influential stuff, because this sort of Sparks sound is more in line with the development of robotic, well-produced synth-pop than straight up disco, therefore laying the groundwork for a lot of 80's pop music (okay, it's not a very good influence, but still!)
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Young Girls, When I'm With You. LOW POINTS: Rock And Roll People In A Disco World.
This is it - the precise moment where Sparks fell into a lengthy rut of albums that weren't any better than just 'good' in quality, barely contain much in the way of interesting musical ideas, and don't exactly sound vital or inspired. Don't get me wrong - I don't think Terminal Jive is nearly as weak as some fans may think. In fact, it's actually a good, nearly very good, album (I even considered giving it a 7.5 when I first heard it), but still very disappointing after the last one. Although Giorgio Moroder didn't stay on board the entire time, the sessions didn't get off on the right foot when he rejected almost every song the Maels presented to him, with one notable exception, and I guess there was a bit too much influence from him and producer Harold Faltermayer to write more easily accessible, commercial, 'idiot music' (to quote Mark Prindle's term), which really comes forward in a couple of the somewhat lower-tier Sparks songs on here.
It does start off on an impressive note with that aforementioned "When I'm With You", the one song Moroder didn't reject, and actually a huge hit single in France. It may be slightly overlong, but it's still a great dancey love song with a very European influence in the keyboards (particularly the solos throughout), a killer robotic groove, New Wave guitars added on in the mix (the kind that were totally absent before on No. 1 In Heaven, and they also make their apperance in pretty much every other song on here) and moving love song lyrics about how 'I almost feel normal when I'm with you...' (which I certainly wish I was feeling now... blah). The only nitpick I have is how the 'it's the break in the song, when I should say something special....' lines are repeated a few times throughout, which kind of annoys me in an awkward way, for reasons you can figure out.
The rest of the side, though, is shockingly mediocre - "Just Because You Love Me" and "Rock And Roll People In A Disco World" are 3 minute generically slick, commercial New Wave/dance pop tunes repetitively stretched out to 4-1/2 minutes for no reason at all, which is a shame for the former since it's got a pretty snappy and seductive, if standard, groove going, but the latter has a pretty darn unimaginative and dull series of hooks. And not only do they stretch those two out, they include an instrumental version of "When I'm With You" on the same side (it's kinda neat with the way it emphasizes the keyboard solos in there, but it's very pointless). I bet they did that because the album's only 36 minutes long when all is said and done - can we say short on material? Plus, to make things worse, if it seems like Ron isn't his usual self again, he's pointed out that he didn't even get to play keyboards on most of this album! Aggggh!
While side one is easily the weakest half Sparks had done up to this point, at least the second half is much better. Still not No. 1 In Heaven quality for sure, but it's got another big classic in "Young Girls", my fave on here. Not so much for the music, which is kind of generic and conventional like most of the album, but for the great vocal melodies, and of course, the hilarious 'perverted old man' concept of the lyrics which are uniquely Ron (the 'I have a home, I have a car, they like that' lines just crack me up every time). Plus, the vocals are their usual awesome self, especially in the 'they will hold you, but it might not be right...' chorus with awesome falsetto behind it. "Noisy Boys" brings good rockin' energy to the table, even if, with different production, I could easily see it done as a lamebrained hair metal song. The melody's still one of the best and catchiest here, though, with a great anthemic joyfulness in the 'noisy boys are happy boys...' chorus, and don't those guitar colorings in the intro sound a lot like The Police's "Wrapped Around Your Finger"?
As for "Stereo", that one's not too much to write home about, even if it's another decent robotic dance/New Wave groove, but the closing "The Greatest Show On Earth" is another minor highlight, the album's fastest and arguably most exciting song. That altered vocal singing 'steady as she goes cause she's the greatest show' throughout (maybe done by Russell, I guess, but I'm not sure) makes the song even more fun, and they definitely didn't forget to provide well-written, very good quality melodies for the rest, even if the more generic keyboards are probably not played by Ron again. Enough of that - that second side, along with "When I'm With You", is definitely strong enough to get the album up to a solid 7, but those odious smells that would later spawn Inferior Decline and Music That You Can Crap To are starting to showing themselves a little here - beware.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Funny Face, Tips For Teens, Wacky Women. LOW POINTS: That's Not Nastassia.
Perhaps due to their awkward experiences with the recording of Terminal Jive, Ron and Russell decided to get away from disco/dance music for a bit and make a fresh start, opting for a keyboard-driven, lightweight power-pop sort of sound and adding of bassist Leslie Bohem, guitarist Bob Haag, and drummer David Kendrick that taken together would actually be the longest-tenured Sparks backing band, staying on board through 1986. But exactly what the Maels saw in these guys is beyond me - they're professional, but none of them do anything especially interesting throughout the course of the album, just kind of playing along with little personality. They're not as bland as they'd get later, but still, there are precious few great musical ideas on here, and the production sound is really thin and wimpy with not much power at all. So yeah, Whomp That Sucker threatens to be an unbelievably slight sort of album. And, well, it is. But I'd say the vocal melodies are actually more consistently catchy than they were on the last album (even if the grooves certainly aren't), and then there are the lyrics.
My God, some of these concepts are so ridiculously dumb it's understandable (if not totally fair) why Sparks got pegged as a lame novelty band during this period - but that helps make some of this stuff so much fun and hilarious! Almost every song on here cracks me up, especially the opening two classics, the most well-known of the album. "Tips For Teens" brings out a bunch of layered Russells singing the chorus for a brilliant effect, the singalong vocal melody has a lightweight comic genius to it, and of course the lyrics are so nutty that Mark Prindle quoted them in their entirety for his review and asked to imagine them being sung - in a song. I concur with that - who else could throw out totally ridiculous lines like 'don't eat that burger - has it got mayonnaise? give it to me' and 'keep that mystique up, and wear a D-cup no matter what' in a pop song and make them work? I'm not doing justice to its' impact by merely describing it, so I too will link to the lyrics here. And they have the audacity to follow that up with "Funny Face", quite possibly the most crazily genius concept Ron has ever thrown at us. A male model who's tired of being judged for his looks tries to kill himself by jumping off a bridge, but disfigures his face instead - and he's happy about it because people can now see him for who he really is (the way Russell operatically sings 'HE GOT HIS ONE RE-QUEST...' afterwards brings an immortal closure to that). To add to that, it's got another brilliantly Sparks style singalong melody again, the kind that makes most of their best stuff classic, even if it still doesn't have particularly interesting music behind it.
The high quality unfortunately doesn't continue from there, but there's still plenty of the crazy humor going on. Like with "The Willys" - while it's on, it's a gut-busting laugh riot, particularly the way the irresistible 'they call it the WILLYYYYYYYS...' chorus is sung (and it repeats several times, making it even easier to enjoy). Plus, there's farting keyboard noises (one of the rare interesting musical ideas on here - pretty telling, isn't it?) and lines like 'it's hard to explain, like Citizen Kane, to someone who's blind...' - LOL! "I Married A Martian" is similarly stupid, a 'moving' piano-driven anthem (that piano line also sounds incredibly familiar) about how Ron 'married a Martian' that took human form, and then went to Vegas to get a quickie divorce! Another fun melody to add to the hilarity! It's really too bad about the musical deficiencies, though, because "Where's My Girl" and "Wacky Women" could potentially have been Kimono-level classics in addition to being entertaining if done with the 1974 band - the former has easily the most complex melodic structure on here, with like five different neat hooks and an unforgettable intro where Russell sings the title in such a silly way, and the closing latter song has for this album a rare rocking drive that Fisher, Gordon and Diamond could have turned into a rousing monster instead of a thin, anorexic 80's production thing that only resembles something tough. The repeated 'wack-wack-wack-wack-wacky women' line is golden, though!
The other four songs aren't especially good, but with one glaring exception there aren't bad either. "Upstairs" has some more humor (love the 'take a foreign girl upstairs, learn a few foreign words' lines and the deliriously operatic 'upstairs, upstairs, why don't you get out of there?' chorus), just with a simplistic as hell robotic Devo-sounding groove as a musical backing, "Don't Shoot Me" is kinda okayish lumbering riffage with a not very interesting concept about a hunter, his wife and animals in the jungle, while "Suzie Safety" really is complete and total novelty, with a stupid as hell 50's-based melody and lyrics more appropriate for elementary school kids (I know it's supposed to be metaphorical, but it don't come off that way). I can't get myself to dislike it, though! It's charming in spite of itself! I can, however, get myself to dislike "That's Not Nastassia" with all my built-up hatred - what a horridly annoying excuse for a song, where Russell takes some purposely whiny and grating vocal tone, the title is repeated about a billion times throughout (especially in the near unlistenable 'coda' with more irritating voices being layered over it), and the lyrics are some of the dumbest ever written by a lyrically great band. A shame, because there are a couple fairly good, creative vocal melodies within, as well as that descending piano thing that shows up, but they're totally obscured by the rest.
Man, I'm lame. I can't believe I wrote so much for such a lightweight album, one that doesn't deserve more than a low-to-mid 7 because of the lack of imagination in the music and especially the inclusion of one of the worst pieces of crap Sparks has ever laid down to vinyl (believe it or not, that song is actually a fan favorite, and I think in an interview Ron and Russell both mentioned it as one of their favorite tracks on the album - what. the. hell?????). But damn it, "Tips For Teens" and "Funny Face" are definitely some of the best songs they've ever done, and when the album is at its' peak, sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in the entertainment value here, you might not even notice, or more likely care, how shallow the songs really are.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Eaten By The Monster Of Love, Sextown U.S.A. LOW POINTS: Mickey Mouse, Instant Weight Loss.
Yuck. This album does an even better job of proving my recent theory that something quite possibly got lodged into Ron and Russell's brains during the early 80's, as just about every weakness I mentioned on Whomp That Sucker goes even more here. There's even less interesting musical ideas, but at least on the last album, the melodies and music actually sounded written and professional with at least some effort put into the songs - a few of these tracks sound like they could have been written in one lazy 10 minute session (I'd wager the early-to-mid-70's version of Ron could have written this entire album in a whole afternoon, and it would probably sound better too, with the help of whoever's backing him up at the time). Also, the melodies generally just aren't as strong, and while the lyrics were quite on the ridiculous side before, you should really direct any 'novelty' accusations at the band here. Some of this crap is way too corny and cartoonish to even laugh at - the line between parody and banal novelty has now truly been crossed.
For a good example of what I mean, check out the first two songs. The title track has a monotonous rhythm and murky keyboard atmosphere that sounds like it's based upon about maybe one or two chords, and Russell's boring vocal tone makes him sound like he's either depressed and worn out, or just woke up. While certainly a listenable and decent song on account of the pretty good vocal melody, it's not too satisfying an opener. Then we go into the fairly mindless, stomping anthem "I Predict" - again, the melody is quite catchy, but there's nothing to the song other than that (especially in the thin music), and the lyrics are exactly the kind of unfunny novelty crap I'm talking about, almost basing themselves on headlines Ron happened to read in the National Enquirer. Later on in the album there's "Tarzan And Jane", whose music is another murky synth/rhythm-heavy mush with a decent vocal melody, but yet another stupidly corny lyrical concept (two kids in a classroom imitiating Tarzan and Jane, this time with dumb 'oooeeeooooeeooo' noises throughout).
The worst offenders, though, are "Mickey Mouse" and "Instant Weight Loss" - the former actually does have more energy than anything on this or the last album, but the melody and lyrics obliterate that novelty/parody line (you can probably guess the impact of the dumb Disney concept by the title with lame lines like 'if a mouse can be, special, well so can you...' or the section where Russell randomly starts listing animal names - 'dog, pig, cat, deer, fish, goldfish'... MEH), and the latter is a dreary, dull slow ballad with an uninteresting 'weight loss' concept and a constantly repeating corny adult pop organ line (made even more annoying by the 'don't play that riff..' lines right before it). At least these songs, do have hooks, though, average as they are - the carnival-esque, lyrically personal "The Decline And Fall Of Me" just doesn't have any ear-catching vocal melodies in gaining its' status as one of the very rare unmemorable Sparks songs, which is a shame, since it might be quite good otherwise.
So in these tracks, we have a very mediocre and uninspired listening experience, though the other half of the album is somewhat more worthy, bringing the rating up a point. "Moustache" has amusing lyrics about Ron's facial hair that may be awkward with the decidedly non-mustached Russell singing lines like 'I tried a handlebar design, my fu manchu was really fine' (plus I don't like how it grinds slowly to a halt a couple times), but the rest is a decent energetic New Wave-styled rocker. "Sherlock Holmes", despite having too much musical murkiness like in some of the other tracks, has a moving ballad melody where Russell's vocally imitating Marc Bolan (complete with the 'aaahhooohhh.... ahhhhooohhhh...' vocal thing, plus lyrics that don't make one bit of sense - 'I can dance like Sherlock Holmes'... haha!), and "Nicotina" has an effective tense grinding arrangement lyrically dealing with a cigarette having all of its' insides filtered out, and it's kinda neat, even if not that great a song by any means.
But then there are "Sextown, U.S.A." and "Eaten By The Monster Of Love", the only two songs I'd call anything great on here. The former uses the rock and roll drive of "Mickey Mouse" to good effect, with a 'Californian' vibe going for it again (in the Beach Boys overtones of the 'ba ba ba ba' chorus backing vocals), rare exciting synth lines, and terrific singalong vocal melodies ('look around, who are you...'), while the latter closing song uses the novelty aspect to good effect, as it's a great funk-styled anthem with a hilarious 'DON'T LET IT GET ME' repeated chant with clapping and stomping noises making it more fun, lyrics sung about the 'monster of love' in an amusing hick-ish voice, playful synths and guitars in the background, and a truly creative, unabashedly entertaining melody. Sure it's really dumb, but it's more in line with the most successful Whomp That Sucker tracks, so it's a great pleasure. But good stuff like this merely props up an otherwise lame album, as I really don't like this continuingly lazier, dumber direction they're going down one bit.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Rockin' Girls, Popularity. LOW POINTS: A Fun Bunch Of Guys From Outer Space.
Sparks finally have some resemblance of commercial success in the States, with an actual top 40 hit single! Granted, "Cool Places" was actually credited to Jane Wiedlin and Sparks, as the Mael brothers collaborated with said member of The Go-Go's (a very popular act at the time, of course) who was actually president of an unofficial Sparks fanclub at one point - somehow I can't imagine a member of the freaking Go-Go's really getting into stuff like the debut or Indiscreet, but that might just be me. But hey, you gotta take what you can get. The album itself is a return of sorts to dance music like in the Moroder era, only with really 1983 to-the-extreme production style - Sparks are definitely no longer ahead of the times by now, as In Outer Space covers so many of the cliches of 80's pop music in the instrumentation, the ideas attempted, the backing vocals, and even the lyrics at times, which doesn't particularly hurt the album, as the melodies are still quite distinctive and there's enough great humor lying around, but it doesn't particularly help it either.
What hurts the impact of the album is the huge monotony and almost total lack of 'spark' (ha!) of the music, which led me to believe I was actually underappreciating the playing within Angst! I realize all these songs were probably made to 'dance to' and to build up an 'image' for the band (i.e. we've got a 'pretty boy' singer and the keyboard player who's so dorky-looking we'll have him get hit in the face with pies - yeah, that'll work!!!), but the musical backing of most songs is simplistic and rarely changes - the drums sound exactly like machines, and the guitars and bass don't even exist in like half the songs - even when they do, they play a lot of the same patterns over and over, much like the one or two repeating keyboard lines. Some songs manage to hide this shortcoming better than others, but some don't, like the totally wasted potential of "A Fun Bunch Of Guys From Outer Space". It's wasted because a crazy band like Sparks surely could have done so much better with that title than only slightly funny simplistic stuff like 'we're a fun bunch of guys, and we come from outer space, we speak English real good' over the most dull, robotic music and dull, robotic singing of the album. But believe me, things don't get better on repeated listens.
Still, the vocal hooks are generally really good and consistently entertaining, no denying that. Just don't look too much into the music and have fun! The aforementioned "Cool Places" lets me do just that, with Russell and Jane gleefully trading off lines in the verses until building up to a fun ascending 'cooler now, cooler now, cooler now, COOLER NOW' harmonized refrain, while their other collaboration, the ballad "Lucky Me, Lucky You", has a nicely warm feeling to it, with melody and lyrics that I used to dislike but now find very charming in spite of the inherent 80's sugariness. In the same, 'like, totally 80's dude' vein, the way all the dated elements on "Prayin' For A Party" mesh together - the hard rock power chords of the guitars, the light synths in the background, the low backing vocals, the cheesy melody - with the faux-gospel theme of the lyrics is actually a heck of a stupid guilty pleasure, and "All You Ever Think About Is Sex" has some funny lines going along with that 'perverted Ron'-inspired title, with another entertaining melody and another unbashedly cheesy but fun 80's element to the sound (the big 'rhythm heavy/keyboard' buildup that's supposed to be all 'dramatic').
"I Wish I Looked A Little Better" has a pretty cool quirky synth figure, simple but funny lyrics about how Ron wishes he looked a little better, and a vocal hook that sounds almost like Ringo Starr could sing it (funny how you always hear about songs that are Lennon or McCartney-esque, but when do you ever hear a Ringo-esque melody?), the robotic as hell closer "Dance Goddamit" has the best lyric ever written within ('I like clubs, I like girls, I like music, and that's it' - the mindless side of 80's pop culture summed up simply yet brilliantly), also making me want to dance around the room in the proceess, with more of them cool keyboard lines, and "Please, Baby, Please" actually somehow overcomes the fact that it sounds exactly like your average cheesy 80's dance pop love song to be good - maybe because it's melodically a bit better, and it's got the Russell Mael vocal personality. Plus it has a line about being the 'corniest guy in all of LA'.
The classics this time? "Popularity" seemingly fits the description of all the problems this album has - repetitive and unchanging sparse musical backing as well as completely straight-faced and astoundingly simple lyrics, but maybe because, as in the Introducing Sparks tradition, it's so simple it becomes classic parody. Plus, the verse melody is awesome singalong brilliance, and the lines 'I like you, and you like me a lot, and we'll do those things, that can make us feel hot' and especially 'there's a place, that's called, I forget what it's called, but it's really great' actually crack me up. Oh, and there's also my just as priceless favorite "Rockin' Girls", an irresistibly danceable rockabilly type song (only led by bombastic 80's synths instead of the guitars) as well as probably the most addictive melody and hilarious lyrics on the album ('you're the only girl I ever met who hates "Hey Jude", maybe that's the reason that I'm so in love with you', 'come on baby, please stay 17', etc.). Plus, the cheesy and, again, totally 80's random 'ahhh' backing vocals make me love it even more. To sum up, I can't possibly give this total product of the times more than a loooow 7 because it's even more musically and lyrically shallow than the 81-82 period if that's possible, while the simplistic 80's-ness of it all is sometimes overwhelming. But it's still good! The last good Sparks album for a decade, in fact.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Sisters, Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat. LOW POINTS: Progress, Everybody Move.
Unghhh... pretty much in the same style In Outer Space and all of its' musical deficiencies, but with a huge percentage of the humor sucked out and more straightforward love songs thrown in without a hint of irony. Maybe the 'novelty' accusations really did bother the band, I don't know, since this certainly is a more serious-sounding album than anything they'd done in the past. I will say one thing, though, and I may be the only one, but I actually like this one slightly more than Angst In My Pants - the music's still basically on autopilot the whole time, but at least it's a little easier to pick out a few more instrumental melodies and embellishments in the sound than before, even if that's saying very little. I actually think there are a few good or very good tracks on here as well, and several more that could have been worked into something quite good with a few changes, which, all told, amounts to more than Angst did.
Of course, it's hard to explain why I like the opening title track as much as I do, especially since the arrangement is typically unimaginative and dated sounding with the constant fake orchestral synth melody it's got going. Yet I think behind all that crap the vocal melody is very good, and there's an uncertain, dark tension not really found in many Sparks songs within the whole atmosphere that really grabs me, as well as a strongly bitter emotional impact when Russell sings, 'all I get is polite applause, applause, applause, etc.' I also like the dance funk style of "Pretending To Be Drunk", especially since it's probably the catchiest and maybe the only entertaining song on here, with an addictive groove, amusing lyrics about peer pressure, and a neat drunken party wobbliness to the kazoo-sounding synth horn parts in the middle, while my favorite highlight "Sisters" has maybe the only slightly intriguing lyrical concept (a threesome, Ron Mael-style) and best instance of the patented classic, creatively written Sparks pop melody in the chorus. It's got a very nicely flowing, innocent melodic charm to it, and I quite like the 'double moon in the sky' lyrical imagery as well.
As far as the songs that could be something very good, but are rendered a mediocre due to the dated production and bland music, they're mostly in the love songs, the best one which manages to rise slightly above that level is "A Song That Sings Itself" since it has a neat high-speed synth loop slightly reminiscent of the Genesis classic "The Carpet Crawlers" and a somewhat pretty Christmas carol-style chorus. I also found potential in the nice romantic melody of "Love Scenes" once I heard a live acoustic cover of it on MP3 taken from a Sparks convention, but the actual album version of it sounds like generic, sappy dance pop which makes it hard to tell that. I can see the same sort of melodic potential in "With All My Might" and "Kiss Me Quick", too, but the way they're presented here (and by Sparks, no less) makes me wonder why I should care about them more than every other mediocre 80's love ballad ever written.
So that leaves the three tracks which really wouldn't sound very good in any environment, even if they're not exactly unlistenable, just kinda blech. The hi-tech sound with booming drums of "Progress", a groove which seems to drag forever, isn't helped any by the annoyingly mechanical way Russell sings that broken up melody, and I always just want to answer that chorus of 'I know it's progress!' with 'NO IT'S NOT!' every time. They actually thought crap like this was progress? Also, "Everybody Move" is just generic dance shit with all the simplistic obnoxiousness of "I Predict" yet none of its' hook power, along with moronic lyrics like 'move to the beat, it's sweet', and although the main melody of the instrumental "Sparks In The Dark" (which bookends side two in two parts) isn't the worst thing in the world, it all sounds like incidental, silly, and obviously dated workout music. Again, not a bad album, and there's enough solid stuff here to guarantee it a decent rating, but I just can't see how a band like Sparks that was so cutting edge at one point could fall into such a rut. But things would get even worse, and very quickly.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Rosebud. LOW POINTS: Let's Get Funky, Fingertips, Shopping Mall Of Love, The Scene.
Rock bottom has been hit, as the Maels' 'dance' music obsession and declining sense of taste and knowledge of what the hell they were trying to do converges for one brain fart of a 1986 album. So bad it was actually re-released four years later with a The Very Best Of Sparks subtitle (okay, it was an accidental move, but hilarious all the same). There are so many things going wrong here that lead me to ask, "What were they thinking? How could these guys get so laughably out-of-touch? Did they really think they were making good songs that both the mainstream and their fans could respect, or that they were being 'experimental' by inserting all these constant obnoxious synth horn blasts and dated 'state-of-the-art' 80's production effects, all with the usual thin sound and continued faceless music?" Plus, at least half these songs actually aren't even danceable at all. I wonder if that was supposed to be 'irony'? Really, I'm not sure if any sort of 'irony' or 'parody' was behind all this, but I'm not counting on it. Not that it would make things better anyway.
The opening title track pretty much sets a fairly blargh tone for the rest. Pounding generic synth bass, presumably some sort of 'jungle' drum machine rhythm, stereotypically 1986 dance pop keyboards, 'wonderous' effects (cheesy tinkling bell sounds, the synth horns that soon will become as common and irritating as mosqutos, 'majestic' backing vocals, saxophone solos... hey, isn't it ironic that there's a real saxophone on this song, yet it sounds so much stupider than the actual fake one from "Equator"? All about context!). It does have a very catchy and memorable melody, but that melody's also quite novelty-ish and corny (especially when it gets to the hopelessly stupid 'get up, dear, don't be weird...' bridge). "The Scene" is some attempt at an artsy 'epic', I guess, with the synth and heavy guitar buildup going, but it's a pretty mediocre buildup, and the main body of the song is dull funkish crap with an obvious, generic hookline. Also, there's the 1982 holdover "Modesty Plays", the kind of dance pop that might be listenable but in this environment sounds as stale as old bread, its' main memorable, unspectacular hook mostly being the title in the chorus being repeated over and over, with the music being as monotonous as ever.
But these tracks still sound quite worthy compared to three shitstorms on here that all compete for the title of 'most unlistenable Sparks song ever'. They really thought it was a good idea to cover a Stevie Wonder tune he wrote when he was like, 12 years old ("Fingertips") in a nauseating synth-funk style?? Russell uses a very idiotic form of his falsetto all the way through (presumably trying to add 'soul', I guess), and it makes me wonder whether or not the original song sucks ass, too, because the constant 'yeah yeah yeahs' and random adlibbed shit that passes for 'lyrics' gets grating really fast. And the sampled crowd cheering following some announcer yelling 'LET'S HEAR IT!!!!' brings a vomit-inducing arena rock obnoxiousness to it that makes it even worse. Then there's the absolute nothing that is "Shopping Mall Of Love", which has Ron speaking mindless crap like 'I found my thrill, I found my thrill... in Beverly Hills' over a lame pounding unaccompanied beat, followed by some kind of atonal 'chorus' (if it can be dignified with that description), and the closer "Let's Get Funky" is about the least funky song with that word in the title that has ever existed. It's like a lethargic, go-nowhere dinosaur that lasts for 6 minutes with an ugly backwards classical sample (or irritating synth horn, whatever the hell it is) constantly repeating itself, and everything else thrown in there makes for an absolute sonic disaster. Even Russell using his funny "Eaten By The Monster Of Love" hick voice doesn't help. It makes it worse. Shoot me.
However, Music That You Can Crap To is saved from horrific 2 or 3 status by one song in particular - the awesome "Rosebud". I don't know why on Earth this is ignored on Profile in favor of the title track and "Modesty Plays", but try and download this one if you can. It's probably one of the darkest and resonant tracks they ever wrote, with the lyrics focusing on a man comforting his wife who has suffered through a car accident, some of their best and most emotionally direct in proving Ron can write a good serious song if he wants. Yes, it is unfortunately marred a little by those annoying synth horns, but that's only a small detraction. A pretty epic melody where the synth panorama actually works for the most part. To a lesser extent, there's whatever song happens to be the fourth track depending on what edition you've got - some pressings have the 1985 single "Change", and others have the Fright Night soundtrack song "Armies Of The Night". Personally, I think both of them are about equal quality and would be the second best song on either version.
And yes, I'm quite aware "Change" is often considered to be one of Sparks' best songs ever, but that's an idea which I would dispute. Sure, the optimistic chorus is very good, while the spoken word verses dealing with lost love have a captivating and clever emotional power ('I know that dogs can't drive cars, but that's about the only difference between us now'), but the music is nothing to write home about, sounding too sparse in the verses, and making the synth horns way too prominent throughout. Plus, the midsection which the band themselves find to be awesome doesn't sound like much in my opinion - just a bunch of loud booming drums and some not very special scattered sound effects. As for "Armies Of The Night", even though it's cheesy as hell with its' oh-so-80's Caribbean-style rhythm and dumb lyrics like 'it's the sleepy sort of night, the last thing that I want is sleep', I like it just as much - it's still unabashedly fun and catchy, and the chorus resolves itself with one of those really nice Sparks pop hooks. Other than those bright spots which bring the rating slightly up, though, this is an absolutely dismal wasteland of an album for the hardcore only. I'm shuddering just thinking about "Let's Get Funky".... ugghh.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: So Important. LOW POINTS: Stop Me If You've Heard This Before, Love-O-Rama, You Got A Hold Of My Heart, Let's Make Love.
A marginal 'improvement' over the last one - I can't say that anything here is overwhelmingly terrible like "Let's Get Funky", and there aren't all these irritating production effects or synth horns. In fact, from a technical standpoint, the production on this album is actually quite good, and the vocal melodies are all catchy and memorable. The problem is that everything surrounding the album sounds so polished and professional it could basically come from anyone - one minor song excepted, the only thing that makes these songs at all recognizable as Sparks are the vocals, but that's a given anyway. It's just appalling to me me how they're simply burying their talent in indistinguishable soft rock shit, and that's why something like "The Toughest Girl In Town" almost brings me to tears for the wrong reasons, even though there's really nothing formally wrong with it. The vocal melody and keyboard plinking lines are good, if basic, but the whole thing just sounds like totally inoffensive yet 110% faceless and wimpy elevator/dentist's office music that's sonically way behind the times by now. And the worst thing about it is that you can hear some bits of emotion in the vocals trying desperately but failing to keep their head above water.
That's probably the most depressing example of the sound here, but there are definitely others. The lite funk/adult pop cross of "You Got A Hold Of My Heart" could easily come from someone like Richard Marx or solo Phil Collins with no problem, the Eurodisco of "Just Got Back From Heaven" sounds like a toothless, anemic version of the more commercial stuff from Terminal Jive (again, a good, memorable melody, but the facelessness of it is disposable), "Stop Me If You've Heard This Before" sounds like a Janet Jackson or Paula Abdul outtake with weightless popping dance rhythms (I won't even try to make fun of the title - it's already the closest thing to an atrocious song here), "Love-O-Rama" is a laughably dumb, stereotypical 'uptempo' song with a catchy but ingratiating 'love on board for... love-o-rama...' hook you do not want caught in your head, "Lots Of Reasons" is New Wave synth pop that might have sounded in vogue in 1981 or 82 but sounds hopelessly lost for 1988 with the production here, "Let's Make Love" is more adult contemporary bull... eggh, forget it.
Just like every Sparks album there are moments of quality though, and with actual distinctive production and lyrics I can even see some other tracks turned into something good instead of highly mediocre. The opening "So Important" might have kind of wimpy and fake hard rock anthemic production as opposed to soft rock, but it's still captivatingly melodic and more nice to listen to than the others, and I actually like the 'so important to me..... right now' lyrical twist, emphasizing that whoever the narrator's talking to may not be very important down the line. Also, while the verses to "A Walk Down Memory Lane" are kinda bleh, the depressing, final-sounding ascending chorus has some kind of emotional majesty everything else lacks, and the closing "Madonna", based on some obscure underground pop music artist no one knows exists, has the only hint of Sparks personality I'm talking about. Sure, the spoken-word stuff is a bit of a second rate "Change" and the music is just uncreative repeated synth lines, but the dialog about I guess Ron meeting Madonna at least tries to be amusing and clever, with some almost funny lines like 'I saw her platinum records, and of course, there were a lot'. The chorus is okay too.
But still, after listening to this it's no wonder that Sparks took almost 6 years off to rethink their direction, with the brothers also pursuing film and theater work during that time. For all of Music That You Can Dance To's thorough ungoodness, it did have a little more Sparks personality than this one and at least tried to be sonically adventurous. Sure, the adventures it stumbled on were more often than not shitty and obnoxious, but at least that counted for something! This album, on the other hand, is about as cluelessly 'safe' and 'inoffensive' as a formerly groundshaking band gets, even if it's not horrible - there's just no reason to ever listen to it at all. Of course, it's so inessential that it's been repackaged a couple times, one version with an alternate title of Just Got Back From Heaven, and it's still probably easier to find than the Sparks/Woofer two-fer disc (and, goes without saying, Introducing Sparks). Sigh.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: When Do I Get To Sing "My Way"?, When I Kiss You (I Hear Charlie Parker Playing), Now That I Own The BBC. LOW POINTS: Hear No Evil See No Evil Speak No Evil.
A huge step in the right direction, as this is an actual 'return to form comeback' of sorts, really making me believe that the long layoff did Sparks a ton of good. They still definitely haven't gotten dance music out of their system, not by a longshot, but there are a few key differences that make this album superior to everything they did in the 80's. First, instead of the often dated synth pop style, this is a lot closer to the to me generally more preferrable 'modern techno' sounds of artists like Moby, The Chemical Brothers and especially The Pet Shop Boys (who this album supposedly sounds a lot like from what I've read, though I can't really say for sure since I haven't heard them yet), and most importantly, the sound is actually full and layered and worked on, with interesting embellishments going on like good dance music should have, as opposed to the total sonic thinness of the entire 83-88 period. And overall this is honestly a much stronger set of melodies than anything they'd done in awhile, and in many places the clever, sometimes even hilarious lyrics, have returned!
Plus, I love the way the album starts in immediately making the listener think it's going to have some actual Sparks presence with the 30 second opener "Gratuitous Sax" that, in its' accapella harmony style, is supposed to remind them of the title track from Propaganda, and then following it with possibly the best song they've written in the last 20 years. "When Do I Get To Sing 'My Way'?" should be considered one of their greatest ever, since it has a fantastic combination of beautifully melancholic melodies, a killer synth string-embellished dance rhythm, and even better, an emotionally really hard-hitting lyrical concept - it can either be taken as being in middle age yet feeling like you haven't accomplished much worth giving a shit about, or how a long-time veteran performer feels about his frustrating lack of commercial glory or acceptance, which is Sparks in a nutshell.
That's definitely the obvious huge classic on here, but the album still stays at a very good quality pace. Yes, you could argue that these 'modern techno' elements in the music are an example of 'old fart' bandwagon jumping, and you may be partly right, but you could also argue that Sparks helped trailblaze this style themselves with No. 1 In Heaven, and besides, the songs sound so well-written regardless! "Now That I Own The BBC" is one of those flat-out well made dance grooves, with such a good series of infectious hooks (the 'what was I thinking?' parts especially) and clever lyrics about the subject, "When I Kiss You (I Hear Charlie Parker Playing)" is excellently energetic fast-rave style with romantic overtones in the lyrics, a great fast paced quirky melody that they once could regularly churn out, and subtle piano embellishments that add a lot to the atmosphere. The 'doo doo doo doo doo doo doo... DOO' melody line of "Frankly Scarlett, I Don't Give A Damn" makes for one of their most hypnotic tracks, and the rest is a cleverly weird 'Gone With The Wind set in a slow techno enivornment' panorama, with all sorts of smart hooks that make it even more so like the distorted vocals on the 'buildings are burning to the left of us...' part and the key change over the 'if I wanted to, I could remove all thoughts of him from your head...... like this' line. So catchy!
The self-explanatory "I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car" has fun over-the-topness in its' overdubbed Russell harmonies singing the title (which really gets hysterical in the middle section as it gets more layered), and the symphonic "The Ghost Of Liberace", the biggest departure from the rest of the sound, has lyrics that are at the same time funny (particularly in the comically dead on Dylan-style way Russell sings stuff like 'Sometimes he blinds the drivers with his shiny suits / They see that smile and they laugh at him, 'hey don't shoot') and sad. The concept does deal with how Liberace returns as a ghost hovering over town and is ridiculed by villagers in the process, after all. Very good classically influenced vocal hooks, too. Plus, the way the album ends, with the darkly beautiful, moody and again hypnotic "Let's Go Surfing" (actually set in prison lyrically - not exactly your upbeat literal surfing song) followed a short but amusing album-ending 'outro' "Senseless Violins" (with the spoken hilarity of 'he came home, and instead of hearing the usual drums and bass, he heard.... violins, violins, violins' - all with 'violins' in the background!), is a great example of how Sparks can still play around with the listener's emotions when they want to.
Of course, Gratuitous Sax isn't quite great, as there are a couple weak spots like the bland slow R&B of "Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil" that drags for 5-1/2 minutes without interest, and the filler-ish spoken word "Tsui Hark" with a cameo from the film director of the same name - a decent, amusing enough near-instrumental groove, but it does wear thin after awhile. Also, maybe the album as a whole can get a bit too repetitive and generically techno-sounding (as well-made as the music is, a lot of it is nothing many artists in the genre at the time weren't doing already), but heck, there's still a lot to like about it anyway, with some much needed personality and good creativity injected into the songwriting, and it actually gets more likeable with every listen. In fact, it's not too far from an 8!
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Funny Face, Angst In My Pants, Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat, Amateur Hour, Popularity. LOW POINTS: Propaganda.
Continuing on their comeback trail they began with Gratuitous Sax, Ron and Russell next decided to remind people even further of the things that made Sparks great by doing a remakes album, which admittedly, is one of those sad signs of a once great band trying desperately to hold on to their past glories when they know they're not as good as they used to be. Still, as a remakes album Plagiarism is more worthy than most, and once again in typical Sparks fashion, the Mael brothers made sure the album would have no prayer of being a huge seller in making the album cover photo.... a bizarre shot of the two of them in their underwear. Now who wants to see two guys in their mid-to-late 40's looking like that? Although the end result is uneven (since there are some takes that don't add much to the originals, like "Beat The Clock", the faster "When I'm With You" and the slightly slower "When Do I Get To Sing 'My Way'?" for starters, among other problems), a few of these remakes are very imaginative and in some cases improve on their counterparts.
As far as the most successful makeovers go, they would have to be mostly in their early 80's material. "Angst In My Pants" is transformed from a dull, murky, and lifeless New Wave tune to a fast and energetically exciting guitar-heavy techno rocker, which makes me appreciate the very good vocal melody it had way more now, the silly 1984 synth bangs of "Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat" are now replaced by a full on exquisitely dramatic orchestral string and choir arrangement that retains the drama of the old version yet sounds less cheesy and more musically full, while "Popularity" is made better since the more elaborate Gratuitous Sax-like production is far more preferrable to the totally wimpy In Outer Space production (I really dig that organ backing and faster tempo too) and although I loved "Funny Face" on Whomp, I have to admit this absolutely gorgeous slower guitar and piano version is even more a classic, and in my mind at least is right up there with the best Sparks performances of all time. The arrangement really brings out the moving emotional sadness of the 'model jumping off the bridge because he hated his funny face' concept, as does Russell's vocal tone, and it's absolutely killer. Go seek it out.
Additionally, "Change" waves goodbye to those stupid 1986 synth horns and replaces them with parade instruments in the chorus and sad violins in the verses (though it still doesn't do nearly as much for me as it seems to for other fans), "Amateur Hour" now becomes a full blown dance tune as opposed to just hints of dance music on Kimono, which with the help of Erasure adds a new perspective on it (the verse chord sequence with those keys sounds even more heavenly!), there's a good 80's styled moody instrumental called "Big Brass Ring" that I never previously heard (I think it's a bonus track on some versions of Interior Design, and while it's nothing special, it would certainly be a big highlight on that album) and the symphonic version of "Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth" coming out of the first part of "The Number One Song In Heaven" (with guest vocalist Jimmy Sommerville, who ends up sounding even more like a woman than Russell ever did most of the time) is a really satisfying way to end, and a creative transition there.
Like hinted at in the opening paragraph, though, there are a few bothersome problems that I don't understand. I don't know why they had to include two versions each of "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us" and "Something For The Girl With Everything" (one orchestral, one with Faith No More backing them) given that both of them rely heavily on the rock power of Russell's old voice and the '74 band to get their full impact, and they could have put a few other songs in their place. Why do all the 80's albums get represented, yet there's nothing from their 75-77 period or their first two albums? So they added the original deleted verse to the orchestral "This Town...", big deal - it still doesn't work very well. I do very much appreciate Mike Patton singing/screaming along in both the full band versions, though. Plus, there's a reason why "Propaganda" was only 22 seconds long originally - as a short acapella intro to "At Home, At Work, At Play" it ruled, but stretched to a normal length 2 minute song format with all the original lyrics, it gets tedious very quickly, and I just want another song to come on already. Plus, there's the aforementioned problem of other songs not adding much to the originals. But there are enough interesting wrinkles and improved versions, as well as a very enjoyable 'listening to a various mix of different Sparks melodies through the years' factor that comes from listening to the whole thing, that make it a very worthwhile stop-gap in between regular albums.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Balls, Irreplaceable, The Calm Before The Storm. LOW POINTS: Aeroflot, How To Get Your Ass Kicked.
Why are Sparks taking six years between albums all of a sudden after once being so prolific (and no, Plagiarism hardly counts)?? Especially since this is pretty much more of the same 'modern techno' as Gratuitious Sax, just, well, more modernized, with some actual guitars thrown into the mix as well as more slower grooves and maybe a slightly more diverse sonic pallette. Still good certainly, if a bit more tired-sounding and sluggish overall than before. But man, just like the last album they start off with a so thoroughly Sparks concept in the title track - not so much in the thundering dance groove that's totally excellent to get down to, but there's a singalong chorus that actually goes 'BALLS..... are you need are BALLS.... to succeed are BALLS.... all you need are...' (insert awesome guitar riff here)! Fantastic. Can you imagine how hysterical and adrenalizing at the same time that would be in concert with the audience participating? And it's also got more totally random Dylan-ising in the vocals (especially in the way he sings 'they're agreeing with you, what you say is true...')
The remainder of the album, though, is on the more uneven side. On one hand, there's two great examples of how Sparks are still at the height of their powers in serious songwriting ("The Calm Before The Storm" is one of the most effective examples of 9/11 foreshadowing this side of U2's "New York" - check the lyrics out and tell me you don't agree on their creepiness - with an uncertain synth-horn groove that builds up to a layered harmony middle, and "Irreplaceable" has uplifting yet sad piano again blending wonderfully with the rhythms to go along with well-written emotional perspectives on the title - i.e. trying in vain to replace little things in life that you've lost), but on the other hand there are two blah examples of this style getting somewhat stale (the fun at first but later overly repetitive and go-nowhere electro-rock style of "Aeroflot" seriously runs out of steam halfway through, and "How To Get Your Ass Kicked" is in the "A Fun Bunch Of Guys From Outer Space" vein in wasting a great song title they could have been so much more creative and hilarious with lyrically, and its' bland R&B ballad music and melodies only makes things weaker).
Patterns of songwriting weakness alternating with songwriting strength continue in a couple other tracks, like in the way I could predict exactly how "More Than A Sex Machine" would sound musically and pretty much melodically just from the title (very much your typical macho-sounding uptempo drum 'n bass dance floor groove) yet it has some very irresistible hooks and lyrics like 'I'm much more than this, more than a sex machine, I really do exist' that put a fresh perspective on things. Or in how "Bullet Train" seems to repeat the same high-speed singalong 'it's a bullet train bullet train bullet train yeah' melody over and over, yet that rhythm and hook is killer enough to sunstain interest for at least a good amount of time and get in your head. Or how the closing "The Angels" sounds oddly out-of-place with 'heavenly synths' mid 80's adult contemporary ballad production, but it also has a beautiful Sparks love ballad melody and a 'gratuitous' usage of the phrase 'fucking good' and variations on it during several lines throughout to add a strange off-kilterness to the song. It's neat.
Rounding out things out, we have the mystically-flavored symphonic ballad ode to "Scheherazade" (with a neat 'once upon a time, very very long ago...' spoken word organ bridge thrown in), the industrial rhythm and choir vocal flavorings of the otherwise standard "It's Educational", and more slow R&B balladry done in a Sparks fashion lyrically with "It's A Knockoff" (dealing with how pretty much everything right down to your eyes are, well, a knockoff). Come to think of it, there might be even more instances of odd cleverness in songwriting and lyrics that not many bands other than Sparks could pull off than Gratuitous Sax, though its' inconsistency and moments of generic tiredness give it a slightly lower overall rating than that one. But they're still on the good comeback trail here, a trail that would reach a very special climax with what would follow two years later....
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: My Baby's Taking Me Home, Suburban Homeboy, Ride 'Em Cowboy, How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall? LOW POINTS: None.
Where the heck did this come from? I don't really know what their motivation was or how they did it, but after many years of trend-following as well as varying degrees of (mostly disappointing) quality in their albums overall, Sparks somehow regained their trailblazing spirit (the one that was responsible for Sparks and Kimono My House) and made an album which, like those two, sounds nothing quite like anything else ever recorded. The concept behind what Ron and Russell have done here on most of these tracks is simple - turn the concept of 'dance music', the style they've been so unhealthily obsessed with the last 20 years, completely on its' head by nearly eliminating drums from the sound, yet still making it esssentially danceable by the groovy 'repetition' of vocal hooks serving as the 'rhythm' instead, and adding in classical and opera flourishes within the layers of keyboards and layers of vocals respectively.
Be warned, though, while the Lil' Beethoven sound is very cool and groundbreaking in a way that's incredibly rare for music of the period, it does have serious potential to annoy and really not seem like much at first, and in fact, I was disappointed a lot by most of it initially too. The songs seem to be repetitive to an unreasonably irritating extent, often repeating single hooklines and short sets of lyrics over and over until it can drive the listener insane. On future listens, even though I now recognize the repetition is a lot of the focus of the entire style, it's still a bit much for me on certain songs, like the opening track "The Rhythm Thief", which has a brilliant concept revolving around the title character stealing the beat and how 'you'll never get it back' as well as a super harmonized 'oh... no... where did the groove go??' hook that's really really cool, but I get tired of the same few lines done over and over a few minutes in just because the music behind it doesn't vary enough and the 'faux' groove isn't quite that hypnotic on my end, which makes it a couple minutes overlong.
Also, "Your Call Is Very Important To Us. Please Hold." relies a bit too much on the repetition of a phrase that's ultra-cliched to begin with (though it's got enough groovy hooklines like 'the green green light... red... light (alright)' and 'I'm getting mixed, mixed signals' part to still definitely take hold and make me dance despite not having a conventionally accepted sense of 'rhythm' at all), while "I Married Myself" doesn't seem to altogether work for this sort of 'repetition' concept. I guess it's mainly because of it being a love ballad with its' beautiful electric piano flourishes and a very nice romantic pop melody, so I'm not sure if the repeating the same lyrics in each verse over and over is a good idea. The individual elements here are great, though, and it does go through a couple of those lines again with an alternate melody, so I can't call it a less than good song by any means, even if it is my least favorite on here.
However, I list those three as the weakest yet still mention really cool points about them, so imagine what I feel about the remainder. "How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall?" and "What Are All These Bands So Angry About?" have an intriguing 'opera house' atmosphere, the former greatly enhanced with its' fast and exciting piano melodies, ridiculously goofy singing of the 'practice, man, practice' lines, that mournfully emotional 'technical facility, old world sensibility' alternate melody, and entertaining middle where all the Russells start clapping and humming along, while the latter is a total condemnation of all those whiny, simplistic and cliched post-grunge bands like Puddle Of Mudd or Staind. Really, I can actually almost imagine all those bands gathered together in this same 'opera house' while the layered Russell vocals are putting them down viciously, all with distortion in the singing added on later to give off an intensely ominous and menacing mood. The fact that they don't sound like condescending old farts singing lyrics such as 'Hey everybody, they called our bluff / Our profane ain't profane enough' or 'Some might have done it, but not today / Beethoven, Coltrane, or Lady Day' is a wonder in itself.
"Ride 'Em Cowboy" is another brilliantly rhythm-less delight, with an irresistible back-and-forth two syllable melody that keeps throwing all these different stream of consciousness cliches at your head ('From great... to good... From good... to fair.. To barely pass.. Stay after class.... I'm hot... I'm cold... I'm bought, I'm sold... First accolades....Then hand grenades') and the insanely infectious 'ride 'em cowboy ride 'em, get back on again' counterpoint. Why all these cliches and repetiveness, cynical listeners may ask? Because Sparks are essentially milking these two elements to an extreme - aren't cliches and repetition a huge factor of what a lot of popular music is all about? An unbelievably smart and at the same time fun demonstration of this idea!
My absolute favorite that I've gained a huge amount of respect for over the last few listens, though, is "My Baby's Taking Me Home". Like a lot of this album to an even more hardcore extent, it has the potential to become the most annoyingly repetitive song ever to some listeners, as other than a short spoken bridge, the lyrics consist only of the song's title repeated I would estimate literally close to 100 times. But the piano/vocal groove it sets up in doing this is impossible to resist and not shake your ass to unless you have no soul, and they throw in so many alternate melodies, harmony arrangements, guitar lines and rhythmic changes over this phrase that it acts like a lengthy repeated coda where there's actually a lot more going on than it may seem at first, never getting remotely boring at all. Plus, that spoken bridge has a wonderfully beautiful 'night' feeling to it that adds an indescribable amount of power, as does the ending with guitar and actual drums joining in on the fun, which just feels like such a satisfying conclusion.
The band's humorous side, meanwhile, really comes through in the final two tracks. The 7 minute epic "Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls" is also the most energetic - both guitars and drums are present in the main body of the song (in between a short but beautiful ballad-like bookending part), and this is the place where a heavy rock drive takes over. The guitarist on this album, Dean Menta, also was a touring guitarist with Faith No More in the mid-90's, and maybe not coincidentally it's a very FNM-sounding song - not only in the metal-ish guitar riff, but especially the hilariously psychotic 'it ain't done with smoke and mirrors...' chorus and 'wahwahwahwah' hookline following it. And as for the lyrics, they're absolutely crazy - they're done mostly in a spoken-word format, and the way they deal with relationships in about the absolute nerdiest way ever is so incredibly dumb it's a great laugh riot ('How is it possible that a guy and a girl / So dissimilar in physical appearance / There being such a disparity in how attractive each is / Be nonetheless in what would appear to be a relationship?')
And finally, there's the closer "Suburban Homeboy", which not only boasts priceless lyrics poking fun at the 'homey G' lifestyle that are shockingly dead-on considering they were written by 50 year olds ('I am a suburban homeboy / And I say, 'yo dog' to my pool cleaning guy / I hope I'm baggy enough for them / I play my Shaggy enough for them / I'll pop a cap up like some fool at the Gap / 'Cause I'm a suburban homeboy'), but what makes them even more hilarious is that they're delivered over layered classical and vaudeville music with an unbelievably catchy theatrical melody! And those organs over the ending 'props to our peeps...' section is such a perfect closure to one knockout album.
You know what else, though? Sparks have had so many 'periods' and lineups in their career that it's hard to really tell what album of theirs is their most representative or quintessential - without factoring in this one. Seriously, it's got the innovative and unique as hell experimental edge, the opera-influenced vocals, the unbelievably good melodies, the clever and often hilarious head-spinning lyrics and arrangements, the great rhythmic pulse despite the album boasting less than 10 minutes worth of actual drums within, the classical influences (which were more like one-offs on their albums before, like with "Here Comes Bob"), and the emotional resonance like in their most beautiful love ballads or their moments of depression and/or bitterness. The only thing it doesn't really have much of is the energy of Kimono and Propaganda, but even that's contained a little in "Ugly Guys...". In all, excellent stuff, with tons of sonic personality here that made it little wonder why I described most of these songs in large detail. Not quite a flawless album, of course, but I've been over that already, and it's still certainly one of the top 5 greatest they've ever made. Apparently, Ron and Russell are actually working on a new album as I write, one they say will 'expand' on the sound here, though I really can't imagine how this style is capable of being perfected much more without sounding second-rate. We shall see, though.
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