Sparks Appreciation & Album by Album thread

Still my favorite Sparks album. Although it is probably a close tie between this and 'No 1 In Heaven' as to which I've played most often over the years. Even though I've had it on CD for about twenty years now, I still expect the print-through pre-echo of the synth intro to 'In The Future' to show up and there's always a split-second when it seems wrong that it doesn't. (Not "why doesn't 'Throw Her Away' fade out anymore" wrong, but still… wrong.)

 

Indiscreet is their most willfully eccentric album, and it works, for the most part. I agree that taking a couple of songs off of it would have made it stronger. 'Tits', 'Without Using Hands', Looks looks looks, 'The lady is lingering' all could have been absent making stunners like 'Hospitality on parade, 'Get in the swing', 'Happy hunting ground', 'It ain't 1918', 'In the future' result in their strongest album to date.

The style of Indiscreet was all over the place, and they had just about any sound you could think of tossed in here or there. But even with how much material was used on the LP, it was great to eventually hear some of the excellent outtakes in the form of the super catchy 'Looks aren't everything' and even the early take on 'Confusion' titled 'Intrusion'. The B side 'Profile' is a favorite, but it's actually an outtake from the Propaganda sessions.

It seemed that Sparks may have been shooting themselves in the foot with the unrestraint of Indiscreet, but it's still essentially a brilliant album. The next step is the hard rocking American rock band that, though still pretty good had mixed results.

Scott

 

"Indiscreet" has been my favourite Sparks album, and indeed, one of my favourite albums of all time, from the first time I heard it. It isn't that it has any less filler than the two predecessors, ("Hospitality on Parade" is testament to that), but it stretches the pop melody format to new, and dare I say unreplicated, levels. Another feature I find very welcome is the clarity of the lyrics. I have always struggled with understanding the words on "Kimono my House" and "Propaganda", but here, finally, it is possible to understand every word Russell is singing. When this was the only post-Propaganda Sparks album I had heard, I thought it had something to do with Visconti's production. But having heard most of their albums, it seems as though this clarity was to be a feature of all future Sparks releases. I am therefore tempted to blame the producer of "Kimono" and "Propaganda", who's name I can't recall at the moment, for the unclear phrasing on those albums, as the problem was not present to the same extent on the first two records.

Apart from the aforementioned "Hospitality on Parade" and "The Lady is Lingering", "Indiscreet" does not contain a single weak track. As well as the experimental nature of the melodic structures and arrangements, and the lyrics actually being interpretable, the subject matters have become even more unorthodox than on the previous efforts. This is especially apparent in "Under the Table with Her", "Pineapple", "Tits" and "It Ain't 1918", which has a demented Ray Davies feel to it; both for its music hall influence and lyrics about the conflict between nostalgia and modern life.

It's hard to pick out highlights on "Indiscreet", as the album is so excellent in every sense of the word. When you listen to one track, it's impossible not to want to hear the whole thing. And may I be the first, and probably only one to say that "The Wedding of Jacqueline Kennedy to Russell Mael" is one of the funniest and most absurd tracks I have ever heard. I don't think I'll ever tire of it.

 

A problem of "Indiscreet" was the choice of the "wrong" singles. To start with "Get in the Swing" and then follow with "Looks looks looks" was probably the wrong signal to the record buying audiences.
74/75 had so many great acts happening and most had so little money, that buying an album was a well planned act. You would "play safe" and avoid "try and error". I did not buy this album when it came out, it was years later when I found it as a cheap "cut out". And since then I was amazed how great it was - and still is.

 

Agreed , those songs should never have
been A-side singles

 

What songs would have worked better as singles in your opinion? I'm looking at the tracklist, and most of the songs are so eccentric it's hard to think of many better alternatives. 'Happy Hunting Ground' is about the only track that particularly sticks out as being a better choice imo.

 

Definitely HHG

& Hospitality !

 

I know many Sparks fans like it, but I've never been a fan of 'Hospitality On Parade'.. the chorus melody always sound too much like The Scaffold's novelty No.1 hit song 'Lily The Pink' from 7 years earlier;
Even ignoring that, in any case imo the song is far too subtle to have caught on as a hit. 'Get In The Swing' and 'Look Looks Looks' may not have been stellar singles, but you can understand why they were chosen: 'Get In The Swing' was the kind of insistent marching tune that at least had the potential to be a big crossover pop hit (think 'Banner Man' by Blue Mink from 1971) and 'Looks Looks Looks' chimed with the vogue for 30s/40s glamour that was in in the air in the early/mid 70s (think the London-based Biba fashion house)

 

Happy Hunting Ground....In the Future...might have been better than those brass band sounds.
Don't forget what a huge part of their audience was like - as can be seen in this strange performance.

 

I agree In The Future maybe could have worked as a curveball hit.. it's very proto-Devo!

 

Looks, Looks, Looks, and Get in the Swing were brilliant singles in my opinion. I remember their witty TV performances of them and they were firm favourites at the Manchester nightclub I patronised back then.

And both songs were highlights of their Christmas concerts with the Heritage Orchestra at the Barbican.

 

Nice Rubettes hat Ian.....

 

The diversity on this album is astonishing. No track is anything like the one that preceded it. Nowadays you get an album where themes and sounds are similar.... so many acts want a 'sound' across it and the finished product can sound too same-y. Not on this one baby!

 

No doubt great songs, but no singles. The statistics speak for themselves, both songs charted nowhere except in England, where they only reached No 26 and 27.
Of course we are wise now after the event....

 

I vote for 'The Lady Is Lingering' as the best choice for the single.

 

Not a terribly great song, but absolutely the most accessible.

What do people think of the bonus tracks on the CD versions of the Island albums?

 

Question for Sparks experts: Did the band record a longer version of "Propaganda" during the sessions that produced the album of the same name? I know a longer version appeared on Plagiarism, but was an extended version of the song recorded earlier and then edited down for its appearance on Propaganda?

 

No, the original only had one verse (unlike 'This Town' and 'Gone with The Wind' both of which had a verse edited out before release). 'Propaganda' was originally an acoustic guitar backed song, but it was apparently easier to work out additional vocal parts than instrumental ones.
I would have replaced 'The Lady Is Lingering' with 'Gone With the Wind' and 'Looks, Looks. Looks with 'Looks Aren't Everything'. I know Trevor hated 'Looks, Looks, Looks' at the time and wasn't happy with it's inclusion on the 'Indiscreet' album.
As for the other bonus tracks 'Barbecutie' and 'Lost & Found' were far too good songs to be reduced to B-sides, 'Alabamy Right' and 'Marry Me' (which is actually a 'Kimono' out take with overdubs by Ian and Trevor replacing Martin and Adrian's parts) are great B-side material, but not strong enough for inclusion on 'Propaganda'. The same goes with 'Profile' which sounds unfinished to me.
'The Wedding Of Jacqueline Kennedy...' is fun but throwaway (the CD issue cuts off the Tony Visconti "rolling!" intro), 'Tearing the Place Apart' is superb and should have been a B-side at least as would 'Confusion/Intrusion'. 'Looks Aren't Everything' - the great long lost gem is a wonderful and would have been a much stronger single than 'Looks, Looks, Looks' although the lyrics aren't Ron's greatest.
'England' is another good track, a welcome return to Earle Mankey, but it sounds more like an Earle solo song than a Sparks song and so out of place with anything else from this period.

 

Those bonus tracks show, that they had a great run as songwriters at that time. Which somehow ended soon after for quite a while.
Interestingly all these bonus tracks were once compiled for a further Island album called "Relativity", which never was released officially.
So the information on this site.
http://graphikdesigns.free.fr/sparks-mael-relativity.html

 

Ah, the legendary 'Relativity' hoax.

 

But what would be the point to create a "hoax" like this ? B-Side compilations have happened before with several acts.

 

Yes, but if you look at the back cover, the track listing includes a song titled 'Cigarettes And Politics' which is not even a Sparks song, it's actually 'Gimme Cigarettes' by the Cigarettes (which was circulated for a while as being a 'Kimono' out take!) Just to add to the joke underneath the picture they add the line '...and Ron Mael and Russell Mael are Doris Day's sons'.

 

Complete fan made hoax. Love the cover and tracklisting though.

 

I've just spoken to Ian Hampton about your question. He says:

"Yes! We did a longer version (still all acapella) but it just didn't seem to work. I recall that the truncated version was Muff's doing . I think he got it right".

 

Thank you! I'm not loosing my mind after all.

A couple of years ago someone posted a longer version of "Propaganda" on YouTube (It's since been removed). There was a picture of the Propaganda album cover, and a short blurb explaining that it was the longer version of the song, and that it was trimmed down for the album.

I knew that Sparks recorded a longer version of "Propaganda" at a later date for the Plagiarism album, but I was under the impression that version I saw on YouTube was an earlier version of the song than the one that appeared on Plagiarism. However, until now, I could find no other evidence that it existed.

Thanks again,
Alex