Record Review: Hello Young Lovers-Sparks

Well, I finally got around to listening to the latest Sparks record, Hello Young Lovers, after my girlfriend picked it up at Scotti's Record Shop. And, in some ways, I enjoyed it even more than I did their last effort, 2002's Lil' Beethoven. The first single of the CD, "Perfume", is quite catchy and bouncy, and has had a lot of airplay on WXPN this Spring. The song is a recitation of a man's 30 former lovers, and the scent (Helmut Lang, Davidoff, etc.) he associates with each of them. He's thinking, though, of his current girlfriend:

But you don't wear no perfume
That's why I want to spend my life with you

There are other cool songs as well. "Dick Around", the opening track, is a "Bohemian Rhapsody"-style epic that throws everything but the kitchen sink out there-lush string sections, electric guitar, and more-to illustrate how the song's narrator is frittering his life away. And this is typical of how the Mael brothers take some mundane parts of life, and so totally overdramatize them, to absurd levels, really, by repeating the lyrics over and over again. In "Your Call Is Very Important To Us", a phone call-hold message is repeated as well and alternated with a piano line.

Another highlight is "Metaphor", an advisory about how a firm understanding of metaphor is a key to getting women. There's a simple,clever chant:

Use 'em wisely, use 'em well
And you'll never know the hell of loneliness

But it soon builds up to a terrific crescendo: "Chicks, dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig, metaphors!" Funny stuff!

I've listened to these guys sporadically over the years, and their changing sound. This is a good, fun CD, and now, I think I'll go back and listen to what I've missed.

The Official Sparks website
The Sparks MySpace site
My previous post linking "Perfume" and Stilton Blue Cheese