SPARKS

[Alex Robertson]

I can't remember anything of reviews of this release at the time...I must've read something because I had put an order in with Chalmers and Joy in Dundee...
The day it was to be collected was a Friday, the same Friday I had agreed to look after a friend's dog for the afternoon. So the usual early finish and go for a pint was altered. So I collected my album, (the shop had a great big 3d model promo sparkplug on their stairs...so I asked if I could have it...I was promised it if I came back for it in a fortnight)...anyway I caught the bus to my friend's house collected the dog and gave it a good walk although I was impatient to get home and play my album. When I did get home, the dog was treated to a listen too...strangely enough the ( technical alert) "high pitched peeyom peeyom sounds" seemed to upset the dog...don't know if he thought it was another dog whining or whether there is a sound in that sequence at a higher pitch than human ears can detect. After I dropped the dog home again I was able to play the album several times before my flatmate got home.
This is an incredible album, another DIFFERENT Sparks sound, still essentially Sparks...I can't pick a favourite track, I love every single track...a definite 10/10.

As a side note, I don't think Billy Idol was very complimentary about Beat The Clock on Jukebox Jury and Russell gave him a playful slap...and also regarding BTC...it got played one night in my local, The Scout and at the appropriate point I stood up and in my loudest falsetto sang along with the highest pitched "You Gotta Beat The Clo---ock"...to not only the stunned amazement of my friends but to everyone in the pub (it wasn't a big pub but very popular....especially with students from uni), I sat down and carried on as if nothing had happened...

[RobertaF]

[Alex Robertson]

Sorry....I meant to add to my take regarding the sparkplug...when I went back to collect it , I found that some guy working there had given it to a girl he was trying to impress. The manager who had promised it to me was very apologetic...but apologies don't add up to a lost artefact.
I wonder who the girl was because I never met another Sparks fan in Dundee...apart from.Billy Mackenzie.

[RobertaF]

Yes, quite. I would be fuming. Really hope the spark plug graphic makes a comeback as an enamel badge in the shop, like the fan club one of old (and the Viva Strange t-shirt design). It's something I particularly like about the cover artwork.

[highersynth]

[phdave that afternoon]

My entry into Sparks was Past Tense, which I usually listened to on shuffle. Three of my favorite songs were Tryouts, Beat The Clock, and N1SH. I didn’t think about which albums they were from until doing this one album at a time process. So I already have a head start in knowing this is going to be one of my favorite albums. BTC might be my favorite Sparks songs. Just perfect hilarious lyrics and music combination. Also inspiration for my screen name.

My enjoyment of those songs is only enhanced listening to them in the context of the whole album. The sonic themes carried out across songs certainly adds to the enjoyment of listening to the whole album from start to finish. My only complaint so far is that is isn’t longer.
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I don’t have time to fill out questionnaires.

[Buckeye Randy]

[highersynth]

Fairly ill-developed review here, but feeling ready to make an initial post at least.

Score 8/10 (in terms of my enjoyment) and probably 9.5/10 in terms of actual album quality (sorry @Randy - pick one and run with it!!)

This album, and specifically Beat the Clock, performed on TOTP, was my very first awareness of Sparks. I don't remember what hooked me other than Russell, who I adored from the get-go; if he looked different I most likely wouldn't be posting today. That attraction though (happily) was enough to draw me into the Sparks vortex and I ran out and bought No1 in Heaven - I can still see that yellow disc turning in my mind's eye. I loved it so much that I bought the back-catalogue and was alternately surprised and captivated; and, it turns out, a fan for life (despite a long period of estrangement in the middle).

Listening now in the context of so much of their other material, my first love has shuffled down the order a little, but I can't deny its genius - hence the dual scoring.
I can't dispute that I love rock. I have a really broad musical taste, but always return to rock, and that influences how I relate to No1.

Favourite tracks - without doubt Tryouts and Number 1 - both make my heart leap at the initial sounds, and can take me to another place. There is something hypnotic in Tryouts about the syn-drums and synth sounds, and jubilant in the playout; (kind of obviously I guess), and those are reprised in Number 1 with a faster pace (in part 2) that I recall always left me wanting more. Number 1 in Heaven is getting played at my funeral. These two are 10s for me.

Least favourites would be Beat the Clock and La Dolce Vita. I've heard that the latter was one of just 2 tracks on the album that Moroder was actually happy with - which confirms that Mr Moroder and I look for different things in our music! I used to love BTC - but the lyrics of both these are, in summary, jaded and cynical and both plod along (appropriately) rhythmically, to my ears. I'm way past the age where I find that kind of ennui cool or enjoyable. Both 6s.

That leaves the enigmatic "my other voice" and "academy award" - both of which I enjoy. The former is mysterious and sinister, with spreading, smearing sounds like paint on canvass and somewhat threatening lyrics that intrigue. Academy Award also intrigues me - it seems like a story on 2 levels - on the one hand very straightforward, and on the other capable of interpretation as a song about relationships. I'm a sucker for stuff like this. The playout makes my throat ache though, and that's the main reason it's a middle rather than a top song for me. Both 8s - hence for my taste, overall 8/10 for the album.

This is a surprisingly short album, until you consider the TOTAL re-invention required to create it. Synths aren't simply another keyboard - they are a whole new instrument, and in order to create an album of this quality in this medium R&R will have had to come to understand the scope and potential (and limitations) of the medium, master its use, and re-create their own creative process - to good effect as it turns out as this has reportedly formed the basis for their process since. I think this is really the first time we hear Russell's voice stepping into its place as an instrument (the lead instrument) in the Sparks orchestra. I'm also certain that the pitch of this learning curve is the reason for Moroder's writing credits throughout. Despite Moroder, or maybe grudgingly because of him, therefore, 9.5/10 for quality.

Some commentators have observed that the album, despite its disco / techno classification, still retains Sparks' "rock" character, expressed through the techno medium, and I tend to agree. I don't sense that any of the tracks, save possibly LDV, are "disco" in the way that Donna Summer or the Beegees did disco. My husband who was into the dance-club scene at the time reports that nothing came close to Number 1 in Heaven (extended dance version) for filling the floor, and I can see why, but it works live too with guitars and drums and has a kind of rock sensibility.

Maybe I'm in denial, but Sparks seem at heart to be a rock-band who continually play, experiment and test how that genre can be expressed in more ways than you can imagine. That idea makes me happy anyway, and this album for me marks the watershed between Sparks as one of thousands of classic line-ups trying with varying success to make their mark, and Sparks as musical genius, genre-defiant (another fan's expression - love it!) exciting and one-of-a-kind.
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Tomorrow I'll find out all I should know...

[highersynth]

Bloody hell, that was a long one. Sorry guys!
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Tomorrow I'll find out all I should know...

[PeterE]

still remember like yesterday (well, sort of)...
in march 79 I bought the album in the center of the
city of Cologne, where I used to live at that time.
There was a stack of about 50 copies of the album
published by Ariola at the Elektrola record store.
By mistake I started the album with side 2, fortunately!
Beat The Clock started with hyperactive electronic
vibe and ... I was just blown away ...
For me the Song is still the most consistent and best track
of the album, and one of the best Sparks tracks ever!

[phdave that afternoon]

I've been listening to this album on repeat this week and I understand why it is so influential. It is a short album, but I guess that is better than adding a song that does not quite fit or does not compliment the other songs. So I don't really think that is a complaint any more. I can't really think of anything else to complain about.

My other voice is the song I would least play on its own, but it seems to fit perfectly where it is in the album and sets up N1SH perfectly.

Were the transformed vocals a thing before this album? Very Daft Punk. I would suggest them as covering something from this album, but I'm not sure how it would sound without Russ's vocals.

I would like to see Tryouts live, mainly because I could not find a video of it for the 21/21 series. The videos I found for that do not have BTC or Tryouts.

I'll give this a 10/10 for my enjoyment + the influence this album had on so many artists + the amazing way Sparks was able to create a new sound/album approach and avoiding the safe route of recreating what brought them success in the past.
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I don’t have time to fill out questionnaires.

[Oscar]

After hearing the "glam trilogy," my introduction to the wider world of Sparks was the two-disc Profile compilation, which covered their career up through Interior Design, in chronological order. The first disc was all pre-No. 1 in Heaven stuff, and the second disc kicked off with "Beat the Clock." For a while, I was MUCH more interested in the first disc and the albums it covered. But then, of course, after hearing all those albums, I needed more Sparks music in my life, so started diving into synthpop and new wave years, which was easy because I was able to find used copies of almost all of those albums at my local flea market. (This would've been around 2002.)

I pretty quickly started to feel like No. 1 in Heaven was the best of this era. "Beat the Clock" has never been close to my favorite on the album, though -- I think everything else except for "Academy Award Performance" is better. If the second disc of Profile had started with "Tryouts" or "Number One Song," I might have paid more attention to it from the start.

Probably goes without saying that "Number One Song in Heaven" is the "best" song on here, objectively speaking (it might even be the actual best Sparks song, from that standpoint), but "La Dolce Vita" has been my favorite track most recently. It's kind of like "Ladies" in the way it subverts the expected male POV -- there are plenty of songs where men complain about women who are "gold diggers," but in this song not only is it the man who's a gold digger, it's apparently a point of pride for him. Unlike "Ladies" though, this song sounds really freaking cool. I just love the instrumental breaks: the lead synth that sounds like a melodica with the choir vocals fading in and dropping out the background is such an inspired section. If I listen to this song while driving, I can't help feeling like I'm an awesome dude.

My previous favorite was "My Other Voice," one of the most abstract and moody Sparks songs. Beautiful chord progression, amazing electronic arrangement. Love it.

10/10 for the album as a whole.

[SteveBoyce]

Just wondering if you are planning to listen to "Is there more to life" which was what Sparks did next?

[highersynth]

[Alex Robertson]

[Alex Robertson]

https://youtu.be/MpHsVzylYzY?si=pkdCYqkxCRhvFRoM

[Buckeye Randy]

Grading this album is difficult for me. It's never going to be essential listening but at the same time I think it is incredibly well done. My view of the relevance and influence straddles a similar line; it may have been influential but not to anybody I listen to on a Friday night.

In the name of accuracy, I find myself referencing my previous scores.

Certainly better than Big Beat and Introducing that were both at 5. Not as good as glam trilogy which were 9 and 10's.

That leaves a head to head with Woofer which was graded a 6/10. Which album has the better songs? More influential? Aged best?

Best song: Moon Over Kentucky vs The Number One Song in Heaven??? Moon Over Kentucky

Overall presentation/production??? No. 1 hands gets an edge.

I have enjoyed listening to this over the last week but these are the first cover to cover listening I've done since 1979.

Overall....I'm going to give No. 1 a 6.5/10 which slots it ahead of Woofer.
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Billy, Don't Be A Porter

[highersynth]

[Toughest Girl In Town]

[SteveBoyce]