The best albums by Sparks
A legacy act that carries on delivering fresh, exciting, and innovative material, Sparks are a true outlier within the musical world. For upwards of 50 years at this point, the band, led by brothers Ron and Russell Mael, have been crafting cult classics, pop smashes, and underrated gems. Most impressively, though, the band always seem to be looking forward; there is a spirit that their best material is always ahead of them. Their latest album, Mad!, for instance, reflects the rich history of the outfit while pushing them forward into yet another bold new era.
It was back in 1971 that Sparks first emerged from their Los Angeles dwellings, then operating under the name Halfnelson. Delivering an art-rock take on the state of American mainstream rock of the early 1970s, their albums achieved little to no attention upon release, despite the innovative genius of Ron Mael’s visionary songwriting on anthems like ‘Wonder Girl’. Instead, it would take the brothers relocating to the UK to find mainstream success, which they did three years later with the release of the seminal record Kimono My House.
Readers of a certain age will remember hiding behind the settee when Ron Mael appeared behind his keyboard on Top of the Pops, complete with a toothbrush moustache and a piercing, menacing gaze. There was nothing else like Sparks in mainstream music at that time; they have always been in a league entirely of their own. That is not to say, however, that commercial success has eluded the pair, even if it was rarely consistent.
Sparks flittered from one style to another with effortless grace, but some efforts were certainly more successful than others. Now, with nearly 30 studio albums under their belt, including two soundtrack albums and a collaborative record with Franz Ferdinand, breaking into Sparks’ discography as a beginner can be more than a little daunting, particularly under the watchful eye of Kimono-era Ron Mael.
Fear not, though, as we have selected six of the band’s greatest albums, each representing a different era within their work, and providing an apt starting point for any would-be Sparks fans to immerse themselves in the vibrant world of the Los Angeles brother duo.
Far Out’s definitive list of the best albums by Sparks:
Sparks’ modern masterpiece album: ‘The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte’
Release Date: May 26th, 2023 | Producer: Ron Mael and Russell Mael | Label: Island Records
With Sparks, as with any rock outfit who first emerged back in the 1970s, an immediate instinct of any music aficionado is to focus on their earlier material. For many legacy acts, the sentence “OK now we’re going to play some new stuff” is concert suicide, but Sparks aren’t like everybody else. They might have released their debut back in 1971, but their 21st-century material remains just as innovative and exciting, as reflected by the release of their 2023 masterpiece, The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte.
Opening into harsh electronic noise and distortion, before delving into the neo-synth-pop satire of the album’s title track, The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte is reflective of Sparks’ enduring legacy within art pop. Even in their 70s, the Mael brothers remain wonderfully innovative in their output, and with their fingers firmly on the pulse of modern culture, too. In addition to reflecting the band’s seemingly endless penchant for inventiveness, the album is also one of the greatest signifiers of Sparks’ unique sense of humour within their output, most evident on the title track and the endearingly pessimistic ‘Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is’.
At the same time as driving the duo forward into modern musical styles and songwriting themes, the 2023 record also pays faithful homage to the beloved history of the band, too. Not only did the release of the album mark the Maels’ reunification with Island Records, whose previous Sparks release was 1976’s Big Beat, but it also harked back to the glam rock leanings of the band’s early 1970s output. It is an album which perfectly marries the new and old of the Sparks brothers and demonstrates their ability to consistently look forward rather than live endlessly in the past.
Defining track: ‘Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is’
Trading glam rock for power pop: ‘Angst in My Pants’
Release Date: March 29th, 1982 | Producer: Mack | Label: Atlantic
Sparks have explored a countless array of musical styles over the course of their long and illustrious career, and 1982’s Angst In My Pants marked a move towards power pop, following on from the lacklustre reception to their previous two efforts, Terminal Jive and Whomp That Sucker. Of course, this is power pop in a distinctly Sparks manner, drawing upon elements of glam, synth-pop, and art rock at the same time as delivering impactful rock-led anthems like ‘I Predict’ and ‘Angst In My Pants’ at the same time.
There are also a few of Sparks’ typical oddities included in the tracklisting, too. Namely, the band’s raucous romp ‘Sextown U.S.A.’, followed by the comparatively melancholic ‘Sherlock Holmes’. Ron Mael’s songwriting expertly captures the spirit of early 1980s popular culture while remaining true to his own artistic principles and motivations. There certainly weren’t any other American rock groups of the time producing albums like Angst In My Pants, much less that could be truly considered within the power pop genre.
Up until this point in their career, Sparks’ popularity was largely confined to the shores of the United Kingdom, where they had initially found an audience in the glam scene with albums like Kimono My House (more on that later in this article). However, Angst In My Pants wasn’t much of a success in Britain, failing to chart upon its release. Instead, the album provided the Maels with their commercial breakthrough in the US, earning a modest hit with the album’s lead single, ‘I Predict’.
Defining track: ‘I Predict’
An unexpected journey into Eurobeat: ‘Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins’
Release Date: November 15th, 1994 | Producer: Ron Mael and Russell Mael | Label: Logic
Youth was the name of the game when it came to mainstream music during the 1990s; the influx of guitar-led Britpop and electronic dance domination dominated the scene. A rock group of lesser quality might have thrown in the towel or rooted itself further into its old-school rock sound. Sparks, on the other hand, rolled with the punches, adapting and developing their inherent sound to move with the changing tides of the music industry. The result was their 1994 record Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins, which saw them pick up on the influences of techno and even Eurobeat.
Techno might seem an unlikely sound for a group of 1970s glam rockers to adopt, but it sounds almost effortless on Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins. Incidentally, it might be the only techno-influenced album of the mid-1990s to begin with a jaunty a capella introduction, in the form of ‘Gratuitous Sax’. What’s more, these modern musical influences were often contrasted with the lyrical content of the record, which name-drops performers like Frank Sinatra and Charlie Parker, both of whom had yet to make their mark on the world of Eurobeat…
‘When Do I Get To Sing ‘My Way’’ is an unavoidable highlight on this particular album, capturing the unsuspectingly profound nature of Ron Mael’s songwriting, as he ponders when his grand finale will arrive. Reflecting Sparks’ unique ability to toe the line between profound lyricism, musical innovation, and commercial success, that single marked the band’s first entry into the UK Top 40 since ‘Beat The Clock’ back in 1979. Meanwhile, songs like ‘(When I Kiss You) I Hear Charlie Parker Playing’ predicted the later sounds of fan-favourite albums like Balls, ushering in yet another new era for Sparks.
Defining track: ‘When Do I Get To Sing ‘My Way’’
Sparks’ most underrated album: ‘Hippopotamus’
Release Date: September 8th, 2017 | Producer: Ron Mael and Russell Mael | Label: The End/BMG
Although they have been a consistent presence for over 50 years, it was 2017’s Hippopotamus which ushered in the ‘modern’ era of Sparks discography. Drawing upon a vast range of influences from throughout the band’s career, including their experience recording the radio programme The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman in 2009, the album is often understated, marking a return to the art pop songwriting style that had made a name for Ron Mael all the way back in the 1970s.
Hippopotamus is rarely afforded the same kind of recognition as other triumphant efforts within Sparks’ discography, but it marks an utterly essential period in their discography. Briding the gap between the exhaustive–and often underwhelming–work of their 2000s output, and the expansive genius of their more recent efforts, like Mad! and The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte. What’s more, the album’s standout track, ‘Edif Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)’, might just be one of Sparks’ greatest songs from throughout their existence, exemplifying all the best aspects of Mael’s writing, from self-effacing satire to a deeply-entrenched knowledge of music and compositional theory.
This was the album that also set Sparks up for projects like Annette, the 2021 film for which they provided the incomparable soundtrack. Viewed together, these two distinct projects are adept at showcasing Sparks’ unparalleled ability to embrace wildly different styles and atmospheres in quick succession. In terms of the band’s modern era, there is no better starting point than this 2017 triumph.
Defining track: ‘Edif Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)’
Sparks’ experimental masterpiece: ‘No. 1 In Heaven’
Release Date: March 1st, 1979 | Producer: Giorgio Moroder | Label: Virgin/Elektra
Glam rock might have been the style that broke Sparks into the musical mainstream during the 1970s, but it wasn’t going to sustain the band forever. As the decade progressed, and their output gradually fell out of favour with the record-buying public, a change in approach became inevitable. Still, few people could have predicted the profound futurism of their magnificent comeback album, No. 1 in Heaven. Embracing the blossoming sounds of synthesisers and electronic experimentalism, the album might as well have been delivered via Marty McFly on a hoverboard; it opened up an entirely new world of artistic expression back in 1979.
It was producer Giorgio Moroder who first inspired that spark of electronic expression in the minds of Sparks, as the brothers adored Moroder’s work on the Donna Summer disco anthem ‘I Feel Love’. However, the producers work on No. 1 in Heaven expanded upon the otherworldly electronica of Summer’s track tenfold. Bolstered by the ever-inventive songwriting talents of Ron Mael, Moroder’s synthpop rendering of the Sparks sound brought with it a renewed commercial interest in the group, spawning hit singles in the form of ‘Beat The Clock’ and ‘The Number One Song in Heaven’.
In addition to providing the band with a renewed sense of commercial success, No. 1 in Heaven, also provided a way forward for the ageing glam rockers. Prior to the release of this record, Sparks could have easily faded away into obscurity along with countless other mainstream rock successes from the early 1970s. However, the profound innovation and experimentalism of the 1979 album signified the fact that Sparks weren’t going anywhere, so long as Ron and Russell Mael still had some artistic muscles to flex.
Defining track: ‘The Number One Song in Heaven’
The definitive best Sparks album: ‘Kimono My House’
Release Date: May 1st, 1974 | Producer: Muff Winwood | Label: Island Records
Inarguably the band’s magnum opus record, Kimono My House introduced Sparks to mainstream audiences back in 1974. The brothers’ first record following their relocation to the United Kingdom, the sound of the album reflected that colossal change within the band’s life. Musically, the record aimed to capitalise on the glam rock sound which was gripping the rock scene of the UK during that period, adopting an upbeat, flamboyant, and dramatic atmosphere throughout much of the tracklisting.
At the same time, however, the album expands tenfold on the sounds of glam rock, adopting an incredibly broad spectrum of sounds and imbuing the output with an art rock sensibility, which had followed the Sparks brothers from their early years in Halfnelson. Right from the outset of Kimono My House, on the opening track ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’, Sparks firmly establish their unique sound. An intriguing, suspenseful, cinematic masterpiece which still represents one of Ron Mael’s finest songwriting moments, the opening track often takes the limelight on this record, but the rest of the tracklisting is equally worthy of note.
From the pop-centric sounds of ‘Amateur Hour’ to the strange comedy of ‘Thank God It’s Not Christmas’, the album is positively packed with a plethora of different ideas and atmospheres. Sparks must have been a revelation to the music-buying public of the period, sounding and looking so alien in comparison to the rest of the nation’s musical output at that time. Yet, Kimono My House remains Sparks’ defining album, still sounding as fresh and inventive now as it did over 50 years ago.
Defining track: ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’
