SPARKS

[waterloosunset]

10/10 but really 11/10

There are few or no albums in the Sparks discography that match up to this to my mind. The melodies, the lyrics, the instrumentation, and Russell's fabulous vocals drive the songs to that place in my head where fireworks errupt. I have different favorite songs depending on the day and my mood, but these are in the Hall of Fame: This Town, Here In Heaven, Thank God It's Not Christmas, Hasta Mañana, Talent Is An Asset, and Equator. Amateur Hour, Complaints, and In My Family are one notch lower. Coming in last as simply a really good song is Falling In Love With Myself again. The bonus tracks Barbecutie and Lost and Found are up at the top as well, Lost and Found being my favorite Sparks song. I think that this album nears perfection in the way that The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society does. I rue the fact that Sparks did not enter my universe when this came out. However, having been musically bored for some time when I discovered KMH, I was so very happy that this ultimate of gifts arrived in my life.

I would love to hear Lost and Found and/or Here in Heaven live, but I realize that that would be asking a lot of Russell. I'm happy to watch YouTube videos of them and see Sparks do whatever the hell they want to live.
_________________
better drop the requirement that everything be great

[highersynth]

[highersynth]

[highersynth]

Imagine if you will the wavy screen of reminiscence...

It's 1979 and I'm 14 years old, simultaneously discovering music and boys. Roaming through shops I keep returning to an old style electrical store selling among other things record players and very few records, which I flip through, with what I imagine to be a knowledgable air. Average White Band and Canned Heat are among the eclectic offerings, along with a bright green album - a couple of disreputable-looking geishas on the front, and on the reverse, a captivating picture of two strange guys, one in a checked jacket, staring straight down the lens and the other a heron of a man with dark glasses looking the other way. That album fascinates me. But I don't own a deck yet.

Around that same time Sparks release Number One Song in Heaven, and I see them perform it on TOTP. I have a mad crush on somebody who bears the most passing of resemblances to Russell, and that's enough to transport me into delight, so I buy the single. In exasperation my parents get me a cheap turntable. One of my first album purchases is Number one in Heaven, and their peace is shattered forever.

But wait - what's this? That guy singing Number One looks a bit similar to the one on that green album in the electrical store! Back I go to feverishly flip through the collection and there it is. It's him. I have to have it. Racing home to listen, imagine my delight at the opening bars of Kimono!
And the rest! So creative, and different, and clever and sexy and .... there I am, hooked and helpless.

I can't listen to Kimono now without reliving those fevered days. Every track is special, every bar, note and nuance an old friend. I'd give it a nostalgic 10/10 - can't find anything to change or skip. Absolute masterpiece of avant garde genius.

(I'll go and have a little lie down now, and try and write more calmly later in the week!! )
_________________
Tomorrow I'll find out all I should know...

[Buckeye Randy]

[Andy M]

Like others Of a Certain Age (i.e. old) This Town was my introduction to Sparks. I remember being bowled over when I first heard it on the radio and then spending hours tuning into different stations to try to hear it again. (We hadn’t a record player at the time and this was well before the time of the interweb, smartphones, etc – tell young people that now and they won’t believe you . . .)

No matter how much I hear that song (and I’ve heard it a lot) it never fails to excite, as does the album – though I do take the point that it can be overpowering: loud and breakneck until the final track, Equator, when the foot is taken off the gas. This Town* will always have a special place in my heart (first love, I guess) but otherwise Talent is an Asset is my fave from the album – dig that intro! No duff tracks – I didn’t care too much for Equator at first but – like veryoldfan - that opinion has definitely been revised since. Thank God It’s Not Christmas is probably the weakest for me, being dragged out a touch too long. KMH, though, is choc-a-bloc with highly quotable lyrics from the master wordsmith. 9/10?

No tracks that could be termed weird, but mention needs to be made of the striking cover – with, of course, no hint of band or album name, a bold move for a little-known group. For weirdness, remember the rumour that the cover girls were actually R&R? Actually, it was Michi Hirota and Kuniko Okamura (Ruud Swart’s examination of KMH goes into details of how the cover came about and more).


*I should add I hate it when people who should know better call the song This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us!

[highersynth]

Oh how I long for reaction emojis on this platform.
Facebook has ruined me.
_________________
Tomorrow I'll find out all I should know...

[phdave that afternoon]

I just realized this week that the album title is a lyric in Hasta Mañana, Monsieur. I was wondering what the inspiration was for that and the album cover.

[Alex Robertson]

[Brightonian]

[waterloosunset]

[waterloosunset]

[highersynth]

[phdave that afternoon]

[phdave that afternoon]

I enjoy Kimono better than the first two and would rate it 9/10, but that rating is difficult and subject to change as I have said before.

I don't have much to add beyond the praise that has been mentioned already. I'm looking forward to having this album to go back to over and over. I imagine like others different songs will grow on me in different ways.

Favorite song is probably still Here in Heaven. Love the music but the lyrics blew me away when I read them. Like a well-crafted short story, hilarious with unexpected twists, condensed into lyrics for a song under 3 minutes. I love how economical Ron is with lyrics. Just a phrase or two here and there allows the imagination to fill in the gaps for a range of dramatic sequences, while being hilarious at the same time.

I enjoy most of the other songs as well. I love This Town and it might actually be my album favorite, but I have been listening to that song a lot over the past 4-5 months or so and have been trying to not burn myself out playing it over and over this week.

Least favorite is either Falling in love with myself again or In My Family. Good songs but the lyrics and music don't grab me the same way as other songs. Good album songs.

Equator is probably the song I'd like to see covered, but I'm not sure by who. Maybe a band that would turn it into a latin beat with a duet or a Gimme Shelter type female backup singer singing the Equator Equator You Said parts. I feel like I could match this idea with a band but can't come up with one now.

I probably heard the Siouxsie & the Banshees This Town cover back in the day and recently revisited that and really enjoy it.

For live performance, I'm not sure. I just saw This Town live and would be happy to watch that over and over again. I think Barbecutie would be fun to see live and would not kill Russ like some of the other ones might with the vocal gymnastics required.

[Brightonian]

[phdave that afternoon]

I didn't know that was an option.

[Oscar]

Hard to think of much to say about Kimono! It was the first Sparks album I heard, back in 2000. I downloaded it from Audiogalaxy before buying the record, and mistakenly got the got the Mike Patton version of "This Town" from Plagiarism rather than the Kimono version. Couldn't figure out why the first track sounded so different from the rest of the album. But I knew I liked it (that track and the rest of the album). I remember thinking "Amateur Hour" sounded a little like Yes, but a lot more fun. I had no idea what kind of accent Russell was singing with on "Equator," but I thought it was cool and funny. I learned how to play "In My Family" on guitar because it sounded like it'd be the easiest song to play.

These days my favorites on here are "Here in Heaven," "Thank God It's Not Christmas," and "Hasta Mañana, Monsieur." That's a hell of a run.

10/10. Total masterpiece, and it's not even my favorite Sparks album.

[highersynth]

I've been listening to the bonus tracks this week as well as the "classic" version of Kimono, but having many years ago memorised just about every note and syllable of the original, I find it hard to treat them as part of the same album.

Nevertheless:
Overall score out of 10

About 11. I genuinely love Kimono each time I hear it. Had it on in the car driving to work this week and did the whole journey with a stupid grin on my face getting wider and wider.

Favourite track and why

Favourite is a difficult word isn't it? After careful consideration I have to say, This Town is STILL my favourite, just, with Barbecutie a very close second. Both these tracks combine irresistible musical hooks with the deftest of Ron’s genius lyrical skills. Does anyone else find Barbecutie has a bit of an Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark vibe about it? (OMD came along just a few years later).
Other contenders were Amateur Hour, HiH, and My Family. AA for its driving rhythm and overall joie de vivre; HiH for all the reasons outlined by others here, primarily Russell’s vocal skill for me; and Falling in Love with Myself Again - because who can resist a rock song in waltz time that utilises the word “concur” and includes a tuba in the orchestration?

Least favourite track and why
Equator makes my throat ache, despite the fact I’m not the one singing it. But I love it. I’m least crazy about Talent, though it’s difficult to put my finger on why that is. The production of Lost and Found sounds different to me from the rest of the album - kind of muddier, and lacking the clarity of the other recordings, with the result that until I actually looked them up I couldn’t discern the lyrics, which Russell usually enunciates so brilliantly. It was a bit lost on me.

I’ve studiously ignored the Fairfield Halls recording of Amateur Hour, and have listened right through only once - I find it unbearable. Poor Russell being mobbed and trying to sing at the same time - respect to his professionalism - but his vocal skills were less-well developed back then and who on earth could hit those notes under those circumstances? I’m not actually sure why it’s included on the album. It does no one any favours IMO.

Weird / enigmatic tracks - theories and if anyone has any, background stories
Nothing on this album other than wondering about the workings of creative genius overall.

Track you'd most like to see live
Well, having seen This Town recently - probably Amateur Hour and Barbecutie. No further justification needed.

Track you'd most like to hear covered and by whom
I thought Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer made a very respectable, if whimsical, nod in the direction of Amateur Hour! I find the idea of an ABBA cover of Falling in Love with Myself Again kind of intriguing. (Not that they would even consider such a thing even if they were still recording).

No, on balance, no covers for me can adequately meet up to this masterpiece - and yes please, performed live for me in my living room would be very acceptable!
_________________
Tomorrow I'll find out all I should know...

[SteveBoyce]