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Do you like "Interior Design" ?
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Do you like "Interior Design" ? (-see also comments below-)
YES
74%
 74%  [ 37 ]
NO
22%
 22%  [ 11 ]
CAN'T DECIDE
4%
 4%  [ 2 ]
Total Votes : 50

Author Message
Martin Truksa
Power Groupie


Joined: 09 Mar 2004
Posts: 306
Location: England, oh, England

PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 10:47 am    Post subject: Do you like "Interior Design" ? Reply with quote

Quote:
Martin Truksa ponders ...



I never cease to be amazed by the number of Sparks fans that have nothing but contempt for the album "Interior Design". Can I be the only fan to like this album ? Can people really dislike Sparks gems such as "A Walk Down Memory Lane" and "You've Got A Hold Of My Heart" ?

I have spent countless sleepless nights stressing over this very topic, tossing and turning under the duvet, and frequently breaking out in a cold sweat.

Let's resolve this very important matter now. Please vote on this issue; I'll be interested to see how the percentages turn out.

Track listing
01-So Important
02-Just Got Back From Heaven
03-Lots Of Reasons
04-You Got A Hold Of My Heart
05-Love-O-Rama
06-The Toughest Girl In Town
07-Let's Make Love
08-Stop Me If You've Heard This Before
09-A Walk Down Memory Lane
10-Madonna
11-Madonna (French Version)
12-Madonna (German Version)
13-Madonna (Spanish Version)
14-The Big Brass Ring
15-So Important (Extremely Important Remix)
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St. Monicant
Groupie


Joined: 26 Dec 2003
Posts: 245
Location: West Coast

PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 12:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The irrelevance of your taste has been pretty well established, but let me emphasize yet again how appallingly gauche your preferences are--

You like Interior Design, yet believe Whomp That Sucker to be a "dreadful" album?

Seriously--you're beyond the reach of subjective excuses. I'm dead drunk at the moment, on no sleep, and...you can guess the rest.


As far as your 'poll' goes --


--"can't decide"?


What the hell is the point of a poll if you're going to include what is essentially a non-vote?


How a deadwit like you ever discovered the magic of Sparks is beyond me.


Marlowe
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Twinspark
Power Groupie


Joined: 02 Jul 2002
Posts: 252
Location: The Netherlands

PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 2:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry, but no.
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Ian Beach
Sparkologist


Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 607
Location: Nottingham, England.

PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 2:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

At the time I liked most of it. Stand out tracks for me: 'Just got back from heaven, 'Toughest girl in town & 'Stop me if ...

Now it sounds rather lame to me & I very rarely play it.

A good producer might have really lifted it. I thought the album had a potential hit or two on it, the tunes are at least catchy, some a little irritating? Perhaps the Maels coulden't afford a producer or probably wanted to do it ' My way'. (i.e ruin good ideas :wink: )
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Eric
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Joined: 19 Sep 2003
Posts: 413
Location: Sweden

PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Right, we all expected champagne but it never did come.

Seriously, it's hard to find a Sparks album that's weak from a lyrical point of view, and ID has its great moments as well. Maybe not quite as witty as many other albums. Some of the albums made during their second "American period", such as ID, have a hard time being considered classics (afterall the competition is fierce), we all know. Anyways, a walk down memory lane is a favorite of mine..
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cactusboy
Groupie


Joined: 19 Jul 2002
Posts: 228

PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:50 pm    Post subject: I dont think Reply with quote

I dont think another producer would have made a difference in the sound.. maybe in song selection etc.. they werent breaking any new ground with this one.. that is its main fault.. but it was a good sparks record at the time.. Madonna could have been a big novelty hit if it was heard .. So IMportant was very catchy.. sounded a bit like the Hamm's beer TV commercial jingle. Not every sparks record was a classic...
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tsrorexx2
Newbie


Joined: 20 Apr 2004
Posts: 7
Location: NoCal -- Sacto

PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was working at a small record shop in Roseville, CA when Interior Design was released. I was enthusiastic that Sparks had something new out, particularly because I was still relatively "new" to Sparks (Outer Space and crunching Tab cans was my first exposure). A band that could write material with wit and charm and carry a tune (unlike a lot of the punk I was listening to back then) was a big bonus in my mind. So I played Interior Design often when it was my turn to play something over the store speakers. The general reaction of the customer was "WTF are you listening to?" but I think I actually moved all of two CDs out the door with customers intrigued enough to purchase the album. Oh, and an LP. :wink: At the time the album was great. Time has not fared well with Interior Design in my mind. I think the puce CD paint finally took it's toll on me. Or I finally tracked down Sparks' '70's material on disc. ::shrugs::

Having Sparks on Squishy (my iPod) has allowed me to listen to Interior Design tracks in a vacuum of sorts. Well, at least as far as my ecclectic music taste will contrast. Going from a Hawkwind song to "Just Got Back From Heaven" will make me appreciate hearing a Sparks song. Going from "Tryouts For the Human Race" to "Love-O-Rama" may make me flinch. It's all relative.

"So Important", "Lots of Reasons" and "Madonna" are my favourites from this LP but as far as being a Sparks album, Interior Design ranks near/at the bottom.

A year later, both of those Sparks Interior Design CDs were in the used CD bins. Along with a copy of Music You Can Dance To (Best Of I think it is called, actually. What's up with that title?). But that was about it for Sparks CDs back then, at least domestically (USofA).

~~~Rexx
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Orange Sound
Certified Fan


Joined: 31 Jul 2003
Posts: 95
Location: U.K.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:03 am    Post subject: Interior Design Reply with quote

I think that the track "The toughest girl in town" on Interior Design is wonderful. It puts me in mind of one of the posters to this thread, namely St. Monicant (who am I assuming is a female based on that ice-queen logo thing she uses). Almost every one of her postings is dripping with bile and contempt for the rest of us. :x
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Girl From Glastonbury
Sparks Guru


Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 1833
Location: Glastonbury, England

PostPosted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 5:51 pm    Post subject: Interior design.../ Reply with quote

When Interior Design came out I was convinced that Sparks were a) Dead or b) in prison: it was such a horrible album ( the album of love songs that Ron swore they would never produce). Also, they did not appear on the cover....was this their Abbey Road?????No pictures of Russell barefoot on a zebra crossing (do you have zebras crossing in California?) but just horrible, horrible music - so horrible I thought someone else must have written it! 8O
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Girl From Glastonbury
Sparks Guru


Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 1833
Location: Glastonbury, England

PostPosted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 5:56 pm    Post subject: Interior design Reply with quote

8O P.S. why do you all have it in for St. M.? Male, female, or in between, St. M. is obviously intelligent, witty and opinionated - the purrrfect Sparks fan. Go Marlowe!!! :D
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St. Monicant
Groupie


Joined: 26 Dec 2003
Posts: 245
Location: West Coast

PostPosted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:38 pm    Post subject: This dog isn't letting post-men come and go... Reply with quote

I raise a pint to my Celtic ally...


Marlowe
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Ian Beach
Sparkologist


Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 607
Location: Nottingham, England.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 11:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Marlowes making himself unpopular by insulting people.
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sparkette
Sparkologist


Joined: 05 Aug 2003
Posts: 748
Location: Atlanta

PostPosted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 11:47 pm    Post subject: Why sure! Reply with quote

Considering that "The thoughest girl in town" is one of my theme songs, I have to say I do like this album.

And what more could anyone ask from humor musically than "So Important"? Let's face it, the song goes on about how important this person is to them that they would do almost anything - "right now". Those two words sum up the humor - you are so important "right now". So tomorrow you may be unimportant. I find humor in that, because of the truth it reveals of a ceratin kind of person. True that truth is sad, but it's funny Sparks would make it so obvious in a song.
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Twinspark
Power Groupie


Joined: 02 Jul 2002
Posts: 252
Location: The Netherlands

PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 5:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A few years ago I found a cd made in Holland about Sparks called "The Sparks Gold" and it contains the whole Interior Design LP and it has a really cute photo on the cover. (Russell wearing handgloves and a shawl and he looks so mysterious^^). This album just sounds to normal for me.
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St. Monicant
Groupie


Joined: 26 Dec 2003
Posts: 245
Location: West Coast

PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:15 pm    Post subject: Popularity Reply with quote

How, exactly, can we quantify "popularity" in this forum?

Popularity's a great conceit for the insecure--that's about the limit of its' value, however.

I tend to find gross lapses in judgement, shameless banality, and language-mangling insulting; incisive critical observations don't bother me, for some reason. Maybe I'm a terrible snob. Hope so.


Marlowe
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Orange Sound
Certified Fan


Joined: 31 Jul 2003
Posts: 95
Location: U.K.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 2:55 am    Post subject: Re: Popularity Reply with quote

St. Monicant wrote:
How, exactly, can we quantify "popularity" in this forum?
Popularity's a great conceit for the insecure--that's about the limit of its' value, however.
Marlowe


"Popularity" is also a great song on the "Outer Space" album; it is rather successfully reworked in the "Plagiarism" album. The lyrics have the same piercing simplicity and innocence as a Buddy Holly song; don't you agree?

St Monicant, may I politely point out an error in your punctuation? You have written "the limit of its' (sic) value". By placing an apostrophe after the "s" in "its'" (sic) you are obviously trying to indicate the possessive case; this is, however, incorrect. There should be no apostrophe here because the possessive case of "it" is just simply "its". The word "it" is problematic in the English language because it is the one and only exception to the rules involving the use of an apostrophe and the letter "s" to indicate the possessive case. Moreover, and as you will no doubt be aware, "it's" represents a contraction of "it is" and does not represent the possessive case of "it".

St. Monicant wrote:

I tend to find gross lapses in judgement, shameless banality, and language-mangling insulting; incisive critical observations don't bother me, for some reason. Maybe I'm a terrible snob. Hope so.
Marlowe


St. Monicant, I trust that you will not reproach yourself too hard for the aforementioned example of "language-mangling" (or should I say "gross lapse in judgement"?). As for you being a "terrible" snob, I must say that I am in agreement with you on this point. :lol:
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SOLDAT
Power Groupie


Joined: 28 Oct 2003
Posts: 433

PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

can't decide, i have not listen the album
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St. Monicant
Groupie


Joined: 26 Dec 2003
Posts: 245
Location: West Coast

PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Believe me, Orange, the error was intentional.

If only the same could be said for you. :)

Marlowe
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Orange Sound
Certified Fan


Joined: 31 Jul 2003
Posts: 95
Location: U.K.

PostPosted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 1:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

St. Monicant wrote:
Believe me, Orange, the error was intentional.

If only the same could be said for you. :)

Marlowe


St. Monicant, you've lost me now! 8O 8O

Anyway, "Lets reach accord, and ink a pact" :) :)

P.S.
Taking this rather tenuous link to the lyrics of the song "Reinforcements", did you know that Ron appears to have invented the word "subterfusion"?
This word sounds like (and probably implies) "subversion", but the word "subterfusion" doesn't - and correct me if I am wrong - officially exist in the English Language. You will not find it in any English dictionary. Any thoughts?
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Martin Truksa
Power Groupie


Joined: 09 Mar 2004
Posts: 306
Location: England, oh, England

PostPosted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 1:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



P.S. What has this got to do with Interior Design ???
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