‘The Sparks’ are two brothers, Ron and Russel - the Mael brothers. One is a a keyboard player, the other is a singer. When they produce albums they are accompanied by a band.
I was aware of the sparks in the 80’s from their album ‘Angst in my {ants’ but I was such a prude that I could not bring self to buy the album.
Last year, I was watching the season 4 finally of ‘The Amazing Mrs. Maisel’ and the Sparks song ‘How do you get to Carnegie hall?’ caught my attention. I’ve never heard that song before, and liked it so I bought the cd ‘Lil beethoven’. I thought it was so good. I bought 3 more CDs, and I have been buying their CDs ever since. I have just a couple more to purchase before I have the full collection (of what you can get these days)
I have to say, I like the keyboards. The singer has a high voice, but good range. All albums tend to be good.
Here are my quick review of the Sparks Cds (in no particular order)
- Propaganda - 1974 - 6/10
- Angst in my pants - 1982 - great. Includes v angst in my pants. And eaten by the monster of love. Actually all songs on this cd are great
- Lil Beethoven - great. Has the Rhythm Thief preformed by an orchestra. Has How do you get to Carnegie hall? Actually the whole cd as a whole is a great listen. 10/10
- The seduction of Ingmar Bergman - 2009 - great. This is more of an audio book than a musical cd. Except that each track is a song. But they should be listened to in order. This is another one where the whole cd is a great listen. 10/10
- Gratuitous sax and violins - 2019 - hmm - on the one hand this came as 3 disc set. And there are no bad songs. There are certainty greats like ‘Frankly Scarlet, I don’t give a Damm’ On the other hand after listening to the whole collection as a whole. I’m not very satisfied - maybe it was too long? Maybe it sounded too polished, maybe to disco’y, maybe Ron and Russel do not stand out enough. I think it’s this last bit. The band overshadows the Spark brothers - 7/10
- Exotic creatures of the deep - 2008 - another great cd. Songs are witty - 10/10
- Hello young lovers - 2006 - great
- Ffs - 2015 - in an age where there are thousands of different bands are out there, it’s quite an amazing coincidence to have independently discovered Franz Ferdinand, and then later discovered Sparks did a collaboration album with Franz Ferdinand. This is a collaboration album between the two. Of course it’s a great album. Still witty. Includes the song ‘Collaborations don’t work’
- Hippopotamus - 2017 - great
- A steady drip drip drip - 2021 - good
- Annette - 2021 - great - this is a sound track for a film they made. Which is have not yet seen.
- Balls - 2022 - good
- The girl is crying in her latte - 2023 - good