Sparks: "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip" Double 45 rpm 12" Vinyl, 2020 (BMG))

Sparks is the portrait of Dorian Gray.  As they go on, their music never ages, yet I, as a listener, is clearly getting older.  Their bite is still energetic, and the melodies that they make seem effortless. "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip" is a remarkable work, due that its excellence is forward-thinking but without tainting their past.  For me, Sparks's albums are just a chapter in a long (and so far endless) novel.  Ron Mael's lyrics are the most literate in pop; in a sense, one notices the craft that goes into his writing, and then beyond that format, which makes it art.  I never think of Sparks in the terminology of rock n' roll.  To me, their work belongs to the Great American Songbook tradition of songcraft and writing.  Each Sparks album is a multi-media presentation, but for the ears.  Sitting in front of my speakers, I can see the entire show taking place.  "Lawnmower" is one of those Mael's Raymond Queneau type of songs, where the words are playful as well as adding a catchy beat.  Russell Mael's voice takes character and is clearly one of the great vocalists of the last 40-something years. 

There are no 'weak' cuts on this album.  The songs flow from one to the other as if they all belong to the same and close family.   What I do hear that is new is a sax here and there, and some songs have a loud acoustic guitar driving the melody hard.  "A Study Drip, Drip, Drip" is an exceptional album in horrific times.  May Sparks bring light to our world. 

Sparks - "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip (BMG)

Sparks - "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip" (BMG) Streaming

The brilliant aspect of Sparks is not only their way of writing the most catchy melodies, but how they take a subject matter and make it with weight and profound intelligence. "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip" is such a work that touches greatness with no great effort. Take "Lawnmower," for instance. A song about the love of owning and riding on a lawnmower: it's the obsession of having an object is similar to John Cheever's short story "The Swimmer," where the character goes into the pool after swimming pool to get home, which of course, he never makes it. In all cases, there is a world without Sparks, which is a very blue and bleak world indeed, and then there is a presence where you have Sparks among your favorite items, so the lawnmower is Sparks.

The songs of Ron and Russell Mael, in theory, play in the medium of pop or rock, but in actuality, I think of them as songs set as a chamber piece or a theatrical piece of staging, without the stage. When I sit down in front of a pair of speakers, or on my computer earbuds, I feel like I'm reading either a short story collection or an absurd novel of some design. To me, Sparks doesn't really have a collection of songs, but more of a singular piece of work where the songs fit into a specific format. Like their other albums, all the songs on "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip" flow one to another in an organic sensibility as of putting peanut butter and jam together.

The sound that rings out to me on this album is the sound of the acoustic strumming guitar. The album is beautifully orchestrated with textural sounds of what sounds like un-electronic instrumentation. Or the sound of a synth that is very Moroder-like in touches here and there. On the other hand, Sparks are masters of illusions, but what I hear is beautiful oriented pop music, in its most natural existence. Perfection is an art, but for Sparks, their music is also business as usual. The big mystery is, how do they keep up their standard of excellence, for so many decades?

This is a big album full of more massive sounds. If one makes comparisons, I would think of the theatrical songs by Weill/Brecht or even Stephen Sondheim. The articulate words meet the well-defined melody, and that, in a nutshell, is Sparks' sense of magic. - Tosh Berman