Sparks Appreciation & Album by Album thread

What were they thinking with those sleeves?

 

Single sleeves were often done by the record companies without any input of the artists. So maybe they were not thinking at all and were even shocked themselves....

Besides for me "Angst in my Pants" is their highlight of the 80s. The real follow up to the three Island classics Kimono/Propaganda/Indiscreet. As a german listener I'm not so much focussed on the lyrics. And musically here they have some real great tunes like "Angst in my Pants" or "Sherlock Holmes". This album seemed like a return to form. Still sounds good today. On the Sparks Rollercoaster this is a definite high.

 

Angst is the perfect compliment to Whomp, and one of the highlights of the 21 shows in London. I usually listen to them back to back. I never cared much for I Predict, though.

 

I was talking about the album sleeve as well.
Actually I have never heard this album but what you dy about it makes me want to.
I went to the Indiscreet show in Islington. I just happened to be in the country at the time but was furious that I missed the Propaganda show the night before. I completely forgot about the shows until the day I attended.
Worse still I live only 5 minutes walk from the venue so I really had no excuses.

 

Some Band You’ve Never Heard Of - Angst in My Pants

First, the bad news: an unfortunate pattern starts to emerge with Angst in My Pants. Just when you think Sparks are going to start a long, incredible run, they falter. Elvis Costello from his debut to Imperial Bedroom, Prince from Dirty Mind to Sign o’ the Times, or David Bowie from The Man Who Sold the World to Scary Monsters. People may debate the worth of an album or two, but no serious music fan will doubt the hit/miss ratio of that extended period.

Sparks are more up and down than that, and it’s cost them. Kimono My House was a massive achievement, but Introducing Sparks landed with a creative and commercial thud a mere three years later. The very next album, No. 1 in Heaven, sent them through the roof again. But their fortunes crashed with its followup, Terminal Jive, which was completely ignored everywhere except France.

Jive’s followup, Whomp That Sucker was better both creatively and commercially, but it was a smaller upswing. Which brings us to the good news: Angst in My Pants. It is awesome. Every. Single. Song.

It might not be as startling at Kimono or Heaven, but it’s easily their strongest album in years, and the last back-to-front great album they made until Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins fourteen years later. The odd time signatures and occasional curveballs of their previous triumphs (mostly) aren’t present, but the tunes hold their own well enough that they’re not missed. It’s the most straightforward and accessible record they ever made, at least until the FFS project came out earlier this year.

Before, their lyrics would twist and turn, but here they show that they do just fine when everything’s front and center. I Predict’s idea is obvious from the first line: “You’re gonna take a walk in the rain, and you’re gonna get wet, I predict.” And that’s that. Right in the nuts with the first fifteen words. The rest is simply a list of equally ludicrous predictions, but it’s not lazy: every punch hits harder than the one before it, right up to the prediction that the song will fade out (which it of course doesn’t.) It ends with the only prediction that can make the narrator look stupid right on the spot, and it does. Then leaves him there. Looking like a dumb*ss.

The rest of the album isn’t as cruel, but it is just as impressive. Mickey Mouse takes on Disney’s unending happiness with the same eloquence, but in the last way you’d expect: it celebrates it. Moustache is ballsy as hell: “When I trimmed it really small, my Jewish friends would never call.” That would be shocking (and hilarious) from anyone, but considering a certain person’s facial hair, it’s pure cojones. And Sextown U.S.A is a Beach Boys parody that replaces the whitewashed sentiment of “I love you” with an infinitely more accurate “let’s f***.”

Angst in My Pants’ lyrics also feature something that hadn’t been seen since Kimono My House’s Here in Heaven: compassion. Sherlock Holmes is the defeated cry of a poor soul in love with someone out of his league, begging her to pretend that he could be good enough for her: “just pretend I’m Sherlock Holmes.” Instant Weight Loss is also tortured by his love for a woman who barely knows he exists, and the hell he puts his body through. Not only is he rejected in the end, he sees someone else and starts all over again, trapped.

Those examples aside, the album is the exact opposite of a bummer. The music is as direct and eloquent as the lyrics, and are some of the most energetic in their catalog. Hooks stick in your head instantly, and the only thing that can get them out is the next song. The only fault I can find is that the production hasn’t aged particularly well, but considering some of the sonic atrocities committed by the treble obsessed 80s, it barely rates a mention.

As mentioned at the start of this review, this peak in their catalog was soon followed by a slow but inexorable decline. But it would take six years before things well and truly sucked, so for the moment...

 

The idea of this topic is "Sparks appreciation" and it's basically a good idea. But more and more it turns out, that there is not only light but also a whole lot of shadow. And obviously most contributors here agree on the highs and lows. So now after "Angst" there will be a lot of poor stuff coming - apart from maybe a single ("Change") or a collaboration (Les Rita Mitsouko). So do we really want to "bash" all the next albums up to "Interior Design" in detail?

 

Hope you're not going to say that the decline starts on Outer Space (which I love). That would be one album too soon.

 

They missed an opportunity with the 21 albums concerts in London, to issue them as a set or as limited editions, which would have made at least something of a more positive impression of most of the lesser-loved albums.

The "Interior Design" concert was great, the track "A Walk Down Memory Lane" was awe-inspiring. They projected a film of rain falling through the city streets onto the stage, and the song was sinister and spellbinding. One of the highlight songs of the 18 of the concerts that I went to.

 

Question for Sparks experts: Beginning with (I believe) "Introducing", both brothers were now credited with all the songwriting. Was this an actual change in their working method? or an acknowledgement that Russell had contributed all along (or conversely, just Ron being nice?) It didn't seem like the flavor of the writing changed much over the years.

 

I've often wondered this as well.

 

There's a moment in the 'Dee Vee Dee' DVD where Russell introduces 'Pineapple' by saying that Ron writes pretty much everything else, but here's one he actually wrote.

 

They're gonna stop Saturday night
So you better have fun now
I predict

They're gonna stop having the sun
So you better get tan now
I predict


Some of my favorite lyrics ever! I love this whole album; it was the first Sparks album I ever bought. I wish the production wasn't quite so "smushy" but that can't diminish the album in my eyes. Or, er, ears.

Funny you say that because that's how I feel about Whomp. I think these two go together just like Kimono and Propaganda do.

 

Since 1977 nearly all the compositions have been written by Ron. Russell has some editorial input, but mainly concentrates on the technical side of things (production and engineering). As both have equally important roles as Sparks, I think that's fair and it seems to work. There's never been any rumour of disagreement about this arrangement, but they wouldn't air their differences in public anyway. It's their nature.
As for 'Angst' there are a couple of duds ('Tarzan & Jane' and 'Instant Weight Loss') but overall I quite like this one.

 

I see Whomp, Angst, and In Outer Space as the second great Sparks trilogy. They seemed to adjust to the eighties somewhat gracefully. The Pulling Rabbits album kind of ended that run, even though it has some decent songs. I look forward to the discussion on that one later on.

 

Never been able to warm up to 'Tarzan & Jane' or 'Mickey Mouse.' I can remember being disappointed when they played MM on their SNL appearance. 'Sherlock Holmes, 'Decline And Fall Of Me', 'Eaten By The Monster Of Love' and 'Moustache' are all masterpieces, though. Everything else is just kind of forgettable fun.

Overall, this one always seems a little too lukewarm-water for me, though. (Too MTV-friendly?) 'In Outer Space' would be nice and hot and 'Whomp' was just a little too cold. Plus, the cover kind of put me off. It's just trying too hard to be funny, and it fails. I prefer my Sparks subtle and subversive.

No one's thought to mention that David Lynch directed the video for 'I Predict' yet? 'Angst In My Pants' appeared in 'Gilmore Girls' and 'I Predict' appeared on 'Bunheads.'

 

In Outer Space is a step down IMHO, but a small one. It's a great record.

 

It took me a while to get itno it, but I agree that 'Angst' is chockfull of goodies, and the best album I've heard of their 80s run. Agree with 'Sherlock Holmes' ' Decline and fall of me' and 'Monster Of Love' as highlights.

I've always wondered if 'Sherlock Holmes' was inspired by the delusional yet dignified lead character of the 1971 film 'They Might Be Giants' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Might_Be_Giants_(film)

'Decline and Fall Of Me' seems to me just the kind of brilliant song concept most bands wouldn't even think of writing: it could be interpreted as an admission of the fact they'd dumbed down their sound a lot since the early 70s. In any case, it's an affectinly bathetic depiction of someone who used to have it and has now lost it descending into banality. The line 'Goodbye future Mrs Mael' seems unusally personal for a Sparks lyric and could be intepreted as definitively giving up the romantic ideal of one true love and a conventional lifestyle to descend into a commitedly shallow hedonistic lifestyle (a lifestyle which the followup album seems to describe at length).

'Monster Of Love' is a great driving anthem for 'red pill' men which evokes the image of the single uncommited man in his 30s as an endangered species, threatened at every corner of the nightclub labyrinth by the conventions of romantic commitment. It's swirling yet jerky pace makes it seem to ocillate between celebration and desperation.

 

No love for Tarzan and Jane, huh? It's my favorite song on the album!

 

Let's not forget the companion piece to Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, which came out on an official Disney album around this time. Strange to think of Disney associating with those glam rock weirdos Sparks .

 

I wish they would release a compact and shelf friendly book edition of the recent 4 cd box set so we could get a taster of some of these albums.
I hate those LP sized monstrosity's.