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Franz ferdinand take me out album cover11/6/2022 Featuring a new backing band recruited from the pages of Melody Maker, the Muff Winwood-produced set was released at the height of the British glam rock movement, but Sparks provided their own take with a mix of experimentation and theatrics.Ī key moment of Kimono My House is the uncompromising opener “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Us,” on which Russell’s energetic falsetto vocals soar over a musical backdrop of operatic proportions. The city was the perfect setting for Ron and Russell, given their love of pioneering British bands like Pink Floyd and The Kinks, and the resultant album was a commercial triumph in the UK. With its eerie opening, haunting vocals, and an intense sense of drama, the track served as a powerful, albeit dark highlight of the group’s second album A Woofer In Tweeter’s Clothing.īy the time of their fourth release Kimono My House, the brothers had signed to Island Records and relocated to London, parting ways with the group’s other members. An early example of this is “Moon Over Kentucky,” the tale of an adolescent breaking the ties of his controlling mother and experiencing independence for the first time. The best songs from Sparks have a gift for taking mundane and everyday situations and blowing them up both musically and lyrically. Story continues Drama (Moon Over Kentucky, This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us, Amateur Hour, Your Call’s Very Important To Us Please Hold, Dick Around) (They released an album with the latter group in 2015.) In short, the list of artists they have inspired is as eclectic as their music. The indelible influence they have had on several generations of artists not only includes glam rock contemporaries such as Queen, but the likes of The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Nirvana, The Smiths, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, New Order, Bjork, and Franz Ferdinand. This began with the 1974 breakthrough hit “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us,” continued with a hugely-successful partnership with electronic music pioneer Giorgio Moroder, and continued on with A Steady, Drip, Drip, Drip, which in 2020 reached the British Top 10. However, the self-confessed Anglophiles have enjoyed far more attention and commercial success in the UK and Europe. Listen to Sparks' best songs on Apple Music and Spotify. While it has lifted them to cult status among a devoted fanbase, their incredible recordings remain largely under-exposed and under-appreciated, especially in their native US. Combining Russell’s stunning and extensive vocal range, Ron’s keyboard dexterity, and their clever and sophisticated songwriting, the group have created an outstanding body of work that absorbs countless genres of music. As for their music, it might have initially been lumped in with the parade of glam rockers crowding the British Top 20, but this group operated in a world entirely of their own making.įormed by the eccentric brothers Ron and Russell Mael, Sparks hold a unique place in popular music that is difficult, if not impossible, to pin down by musical approach or style. īut the strange appearance of the band with their hyperactive, falsetto-singing frontman and the deadpan keyboardist who resembled Charlie Chaplin (or was it Hitler?) would have strongly hinted these guys were far from typical artists. #Franz ferdinand take me out album cover tv#Their latest single was all over the radio in the UK and challenging to reach No.1, while they had become regular fixtures on the BBC’s mainstream music TV show Top Of The Pops. For the briefest of moments in the mid-’70s, Sparks could have been mistaken for conventional pop stars.
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