Museum Musica

USA, 1973, glam rock / art pop / art rock

Sparks – A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing: My friends and I have listening parties every week, and Sparks was the band my friend said he wanted to introduce me to. I told him I already have, like, five Sparks albums in rotation, but it’s all good, because I’d not heard this particular one yet. And after multiple attempts, he finally broke through with a recommendation that stuck. This is a decent album but certainly not Sparks’ best. Not even close. For my friends in my listening party group, however, this was revolutionary. They’d never heard music like this before. They compared it to of Montreal, Zappa, Dr. Demento, and They Might Be Giants. Yeah, not really. For me, Sparks sounds like… Sparks. On this their second album, Sparks has only two missteps, one being the predictable “Do Re Mi”, but I guess if you think of the track as an aural intermission, it works in the context of the album. The other tracks are typically Sparks schizo in their experimentation and eclecticism. Carefree in their music making, a complete lack of self-consciousness. Sarcastic as ever, of course. They’re not afraid to do their own thing, and of course they follow their own formula, something no one can replicate. The multi-track overlapping vocals also demonstrates their superlative talent.