SPARKS

[highersynth]

Loving the love in this thread!
Interesting to hear @PhDave yearning for funny lines in Ugly Guys. I hadn't viewed it as needing them - I guess I find it affirming to hear those somewhat cynical, but essentially true ideas expressed so eruditely. As someone blessed with neither great looks nor money, I totally "hear" the narrator.

Life sucks sometimes - I think I appreciate Ron's sardonic wit especially when he's not being overtly funny; it's my kind of humour (along with the silly, punny kind he's also so good at). I wonder sometimes if that's a british thing? Whether we sometimes, culturally / on the whole / speaking very sweepingly, have a drier humour than our cousins across the pond? (I actually think Ron alludes to that in the song England).

And @Oscar - I envy all that Sparksness at your wedding!!
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Tomorrow I'll find out all I should know...

[highersynth]

@Buckeye Randy - message for you stuck in my outbox. Not deafing you out!!
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Tomorrow I'll find out all I should know...

[Alex Robertson]

How Suburban Homeboy got me a ban from HMV.

WHen the single Suburban Homeboy was announced, with the "Ron Speaks" version , I knew I had to buy it.
Crawley at the time was blessed with an HMV store and a Virgin, but I had a loyalty card at HMV so it was my first port of call to buy the single.
Searched high and low but couldn't find it, so recruited the aid of a young employee, she couldn't have been more helpful, as it wasn't on the shelves or in the storeroom, she went to look it up on the computer ( I was armed with issue number)...a supercilious pr*ck of a manager decided he would assert his authority over the young girl and " show how it was done", I assured him I was quite happy with her assistance. Of course he needed some affirmation in his life to prove his worth, I suppose, so he took over. He couldn't find any sign of the single on the computer either, so his conclusion was to the effect of me being mistaken about the release date, despite me showing him a Sparks email. So he said ,"If it isn't on the computer it isn't a release as this has access to EVERY new release in the world!" I assured him he was wrong and left.
I did my little bit of shopping in The County Mall, ending up at Virgin...and lo and behold there on a New Release rack sat the new single, which of course I purchased....you'd think that'd be an end, but no!
My return journey took me past HMV, so me being me decided to show the manager my newly acquired "non-existent" single. He was at the front desk, holding court but not serving, so I brandished the little plastic square with its stylised Beethoven on the front and said, "Here's the single you said doesn't exist, what does your all seeing oracle of a computer say about that?" I don't think he liked being bearded in his own den, especially in front of his ( now smirking) underlings.

He started shouting, yes shouting,"Get out of my shop, get out or I'll call security. You've no right to bring goods from other stores in here!". Not sure where he got that rule from as it would mean you'd have to leave purchases from any other shop outside any shop.
I leaned close and whispered, " Get security because I'm sure your superiors would love the publicity...you tinpot w*nk*r. Rest assured a letter of complaint about your treatment of a customer is next on my agenda!" As I was departing he must have felt the need to assert authority AGAIN...he shouted, "You're banned, banned from every HMV in the country, don't ever...." Then he stopped I think because I halted my exit and turned slowly to eyeball him. His face was scarlet, whether this was embarrassment or anger I'll never know, I just shook my head and walked out. I did email and had an apologetic reply saying the matter was being dealt with and the manager in question would be attending a training course.
Despite my ban I continued to visit HMV but never ever saw that guy again.

[SteveBoyce]

Sorry Brightonian I don't remember where that tidbit about "So Important" came from (it's 30 years ago after all!)
I still have somewhere that dummy "national enquirer" flyer that was done for GSASV
I have somewhere Balls with an early version of "Calm before..." on it and I think maybe the running order is different?
Was at the UEA thing for Plagiarism, remember meeting superfan Derek Paice.
Was also at the LilB Premiere, still have the program somewhere.
Suburban Homeboy I thought let Lil B down, not only in tonality but also since it highly resembles "Back Home" imo. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75zsGLp3GB0 ) But I like the Ron Speaks version.

[Spyke]

Just as well you didn't 'pop a cap up some fool at the HMV', Alex!
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"but we can hear what others can't hear..."

[waterloosunset]

Can we please have an Alex's Collected Stories thread? You outdo yourself with regularity, Mr. Robertson!
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better drop the requirement that everything be great

[highersynth]

[Alex Robertson]

Nah it wouldn't catch on... especially now that I just order my albums on line 🤣

[waterloosunset]

[waterloosunset]

[RobertaF]

[Alex Robertson]

[highersynth]

Welcome to Week 19 of Album Club - w/c 12th November - Hello Young Lovers

You can find a link to the album on Spotify here:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0LXNUZqfLXGmvcgkyLG0yR?si=uLHM_EwKRyWr7tYSyabDrg


Prompts for discussion, if needed, and scores for previous albums, at the top of the thread.
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Tomorrow I'll find out all I should know...

[Andy M]

“The skies are starting to cloud up”

A return to a more conventional pop sound, the follow up to Lil’ Beethoven gives me some difficulty as it’s a real curate’s egg. Some very good songs: Metaphor (left over from the LB sessions, I believe), Aliens, and Notre Dame; some pretty damn good – Dick Around, Perfume, Waterproof; the rest, alas, I dislike. Earlier on this thread somebody said of one album that they skipped tracks on it. Listening to HYL I do the same.

At fifty minutes it’s a fairly lengthy album*, and only one song clocks in at under three minutes. Some of the duff tracks** could have been excised completely; even Dick Around, which I do like, outstays its welcome.

I’m not sure about the cover, either. Oh dear. 6/10?

*It’s been a long-held belief of mine that no film should be over one and a half hours in length, and no album should be longer than forty-five minutes, thus allowing it (in the old days) to fit on one side of a C90 cassette.

**Of course, we on this forum won’t agree on what constitutes the weaker tracks!

[Spyke]

I'd say that any album which followed Lil' Beethoven wouldn't be helped by being in its shadow. As Andy M says, Hello Young Lovers has a more familiar sound than its predecessor and is also more of a mixed bag. My favourite tracks are Metaphor (among the band's very best songs), Dick Around (when the guitars first kick in is one of the band's very best moments, and how many singers other than Russell could manage the vocal gymnastics of all those lyrics and keep them clear?), Notre Dame (another ambitious epic) and Here Kitty (the album could have done with more of its offbeatness). The other tracks are never less than good, but don't quite hit the highs that Sparks have reminded us they can reach.
Overall, the album's an 8/10 (and the live shows which accompanied the album were fantastic!)
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"but we can hear what others can't hear..."

[Alex Robertson]

Before the album release we were promised a single release to be premièred on the radio, like countless others I tuned in at the alloted time...the opening of Waterproof brought an instant smile to my face, which stayed there right to the end. I could barely wait for my album to arrive...when it did I wasn't in any way, shape or form disappointed.
Bold and adventurous once again, Sparks proving that their laurels weren't being rested on but wrung out and reshaped to fit any head.
Waterproof being the first track I heard remains my favourite.
The album presentation live was astounding...as is often the case with a Sparks album, the favourite track is the one you are listening to.but Aliens is a close second.
A solid 9/10

At DeMontford Halls in Leicester, having had a few more pints than I normally would....I wondered how long my bladder would hold out...I held my own for as long as was humanly possible, right up to the start of the last track as it happens..calculating the length of Notre Dame, I decided I wouldn't last that long without suffering an accident or internal damage....so I was the one skulking out just as it started...believe it or not I was able to hear the music from the (totally abandoned) Gents....on my return though the bouncers wouldn't let me back to my seat...so I stood with them in the aisle by the door, until the song finished. Then made my way back to my companions through the throng who were heading to the loo, obviously having better pelvic floor muscles than me. (Pilates has helped with that as has drinking a lot less before a show)

[Oscar]

[Toughest Girl In Town]

Finally, here comes my favourite Sparks album!
More than just a perfect work of art, "Hello Young Lovers" is also full of creativity, talent, complexity, innovation and intelligence. Even the picture they chose for the cover makes the title even funnier!

But most of all, it holds my favourite Sparks song ever, "Notre-Dame", which has (just like "Dick Around"), a brilliant "4-songs-in-one" structure I really love. It is so clever I'll never ever get tired of it. The legend says Ron really went to Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris to play the organ for this song (well, I read it somewhere in an old interview), not quite sure whether I should believe it or not.
"Rock, Rock, Rock" is also one of my favourites, those lyrics are really something else, I feel deeply moved each time I listen to this song. I've been a bit disappointed to hear this chorus with different lyrics in Annette, the music remains fabulous but it kinda lost its soul without its original lyrics I think.

Have you noticed there aren't many drums on this album, just like their previous one? You don't get that very often on pop/rock recordings, and the fact that I didn't realise it straight away is precisely what completely blows my mind about Sparks. It all sounds so precise, technical and yet so natural, you just have to go with the flow and enjoy the ride!
I especially love the work they did on "Hey Kitty", where the "Hey-Kitty-Kitty-Kitty" singing does mimic the sound of a hi-hat drum cymbal throughout the whole song. This is pure genius to me.

No weak songs in here, in my opinion they all serve their purpose in order to create a nicely balanced album.

Definitely the type of record that makes me utterly proud to be a Sparks fan.
10/10 of course, I'd give more if I could.

[Buckeye Randy]

I look at Lil' Beethoven, Hello Young Lovers and Exotic Creatures of the Deep as an era much as the glam trilogy or the first three albums with Bates Motel. Am I alone in this?

Dick Around, Perfume, Metaphor and Waterproof are top shelf.

I don't love the album cover but the contents are good!

7/10
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Billy, Don't Be A Porter

[highersynth]