Times – album review and Podcast

Sparks Download our exclusive podcast of Pete Paphides’s interview with the band and hear extracts from their new album, including the single Perfume Hello Young Lovers Gut Asked in 2002 to describe the album that Sparks were promoting at the time, Ron Mael proffered that finally, he and his brother Russell had made their “are-you-for-us-or-are-you-against-us?” record. Considering that the album in question, Lil’ Beethoven, was a richly orchestrated pop suite doomed to moulder in the abyss between Radios 2 and 3, he had a point. But then, you could make the same claim for any of Sparks’ previous releases: from the glam-dram landslide of This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us to the Los Angeles duo’s roaring, soaring 1995 comeback Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins. Wherever you alight in the Sparks canon, the fundamental things apply: namely, Russell Mael’s semi-falsetto and Ron Mael’s inability to pen a song about the sorts of things that other lyricists write about. To the best of my knowledge, they’re the only band ever to sing about sex from the sperm’s point of view (Tryouts for the Human Race) or — on the current single, Perfume — the pheromonal allure of a woman who makes no attempt to conceal her own scent. If their 19th album is anything to go by, the well is far from dry. Here Kitty is predicated on the idea that cats deliberately get stuck up trees so that their lonely owners can perv on the firemen who rescue them. But if you dismiss Sparks as wacky, the chances are that you’re not listening carefully enough. Admittedly, Metaphor pays tribute to the place of metaphors in the English language in — as you might have guessed — metaphorical terms. Written down, it might be a tad too Richard Stilgoe for comfort. But in the Sparks circus of incongruities, the swirling chamber-rock arrangements leave you momentarily convinced that you’ve been issued with an urgent telegram from, well, if not the Queen, then, Queen about the time of A Night at the Opera. If Justin Hawkins’s recent version of This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us surgically removed everything that was good about the song in the first place, the rifftastic pomp-rock climax of Dick Around offers a welcome reminder that big and clever are by no means mutually exclusive. And so it turns out to be throughout Hello Young Lovers. In Very Next Fight the possessive boyfriend in need of anger management is given a setting that Giuseppe Verdi might have considered a touch overblown; while the euphoric ivory-hammering of Waterproof and There’s No Such Thing as Aliens suggest that, where a Sparks musical is concerned, it’s surely a matter of when rather than if. Indeed, if there’s a criticism to be made of Hello Young Lovers, it’s precisely that a bunch of songs as dense as this could do with being broken up by the space that — in a theatrical setting — dialogue would allow. Back when albums such as Kimono My House and Propaganda could be taken a side at a time, that was never a consideration. Remember to replicate those conditions when listening to Hello Young Lovers and you’ll be rewarded with a record that stands shoulder to shoulder with its creators’ best work. PETE PAPHIDESHear Sparks songs and interview, only at www.timesonline.co.uk/podcasts Sparks are featuring in the third in our series of free music podcasts, available from today. Visit Times Online to download exclusive audio content as a podcast or MP3 file. As Ron and Russell Mael celebrate their 35th year in Sparks, they play Pete Paphides exclusive extracts from their new album Hello Young Lovers, plus the new single Perfume. And you can hear them talking about exchanging faxes with their neighbour Morrissey, collaborating with Franz Ferdinand and, of course, the profound culture shock of moving from Los Angeles to Purley in 1974. No payment or registration is necessary. If you’re connected to the internet you’re ready to subscribe to our podcast updates, including one from last week’s cover band, Editors. There are also links to websites from which you can download the software you need to receive audio files. For more information and downloads, type the following URL into your internet web browser: www.timesonline.co.uk/podcasts [url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-2032458,00.html]Times Online Podcast[/url]