From shimmery glam rock to tantalizing disco, Sparks is a band that navigates genre transformation as effortlessly as anyone, and they’ve been doing it for over half a century. It’s rare to find a band that has been active for this long, and many of those who have made it this far tend to glide along on the same collection of tracks from their greatest hits compilation. Sparks, ever the anti-legacy act, have made a career of constantly evolving into new territory, with youthful vitality abound. Made up of Ron and Russell Mael, the brothers have left no musical stone unturned. Metal, pop, art rock, and even neo-Charleston—they’ve tangoed with it all.
This constant evolution means the band’s fame has waxed and waned over the years. Some prospective fans are left disappointed by the constant changes, while others thoroughly enjoy the long, illustrious career Sparks continues to build on. The band might not be for everyone, but no one can deny their commitment to innovation. Active since the late ‘60s, when they operated under names like Urban Renewal Project and Halfnelson, each Sparks album explores new territories. Still, all the songs have some throughlines: a universally satirical, quirky streak found in Ron’s lyrics and maximalist arrangements, and Russel’s signature falsetto tones.
Sparks’ newest album, MAD!, is another look at social norms framed by colorful and intricate instrumentation. Following 2023’s The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte, this is the band’s 28th album and their first with Transgressive Records. Opening track “Do Things My Own Way” is a bubbling cauldron of looped synthesizers. The balance of grittiness and bubbliness, and the brothers’ chants of “gonna do things my own way” in stacked harmony, makes for a compelling hype-up anthem, not to mention an ode to the brothers’ philosophy as a whole. Still, is all the ear candy hiding a lack of substance? The melodies themselves feel simplistic and repetitive at times. Maybe with a statement as self-assured as this one, that’s part of the point.
The stacked harmonies continue in the operatic “JanSport Backpack,” calling out alongside a sparkling synthesizer with ethereal chords ringing out into the soundscape, bringing an ironic tilt to the song’s unserious lyrics. Still, something deeper swims beneath the surface. The narrator is watching the woman he loves walk away from him forever. The last thing he notices? “She wears a JanSport Backpack,” the brothers sing in operatic unison, like a happy-go-lucky doo-wop group. The song is light and fun, and subtle in its deeper meaning, but once again, the repetition makes the melody feel old after a while.
“Running Up a Tab At The Hotel For The Fab” is framed by a stacked synthesizer straight out of a vampire flick, relaying the horrifying anxiety that comes with embarking on a vacation of excess. “My Devotion,” on the other hand, is a chamber pop track that sounds like it was pulled straight from a meditation playlist, and that’s the whole point. It’s an ode to that one person, cause, or brand, and our lengths we go to show our obsession with them. Framed by ethereal synths, the song’s lithe melodies provide expert contrast to the song’s satirical view of people turning love into a performance.
“I-405 Rules” takes listeners on a chaotic orchestral journey with a hurried bee of a string section, showing the chaos and magnitude of the road, not to mention life as a whole. “A Long Red Light” continues with the strings, but much more pensive this time. An eerie synth comes in to reflect the annoyance of the waiting driver. Harmonies and percussion come in to reflect a ticking clock, and angels call out as the red light changes. A song about dreams stolen by the world, told through a simple parable, it’s a topic that is a common thread in the brothers’ discography. “Drowned in a Sea of Tears” is the lone wolf of MAD! Free of the satirical jest present in the rest of the album, it’s a serious look at someone holding in their emotions until they eventually succumb to the pressure. While the heavy story comes through, it’s jarring to hear a serious song on a Sparks album, and it feels a bit out of place on a record that is otherwise dripping with irony.
Each song from MAD! is a unique exploration of worldly issues. From the chamber pop of “My Devotion” to the orchestral madness of “I-405 Rules,” the genre-switching from Sparks is as impressive as it always has been. The songs have such unique structures, and the group’s signature satirical looks at modern society and life are never too on the nose. Instead, the songs leave room for the thing that makes songs so great: a mystical ambiguity. Some of the monotonous lyrical structures and instrumental loops on MAD! might make it fall short of other projects from the brothers, but Ron and Russel are experts at genre-switching, even if there is some fall-through. That said, there’s no band that has so consistently evolved in music like the brothers, and this is certainly another feather in the cap for Sparks.
