On my voyage through all the Sparks albums, some of which I haven’t heard in 20 or 30 years, here is my review of ‘No. 1 in Heaven’.
This album couldn’t possibly be any more different than ‘Introducing Sparks’.
1. Tryouts for the Human Race
I like the little noises at the start of the song, that kind of evoke the subject matter. Then comes the classic disco 128 bpm chugga-chugga. I’m glad they used real drums on this song, it makes all the synths seem that much more alive. This is a great song for me; I wish I could be creative enough to think of something like this. 9/10.
2. Academy Award Performance
Much faster. It’s long too! I guess all of the songs on this album are pretty long. You’d probably fall unconscious after dancing to this song in Studio 54 in 1979, after a night of MDMA and disco biscuits. 8/10.
3. La Dolce Vita
Cool they put this after ‘Academy Award Performance’. I’ve never seen the film (I assume it’s about the film? Does the title mean ‘The sweet Life?) Another fast song. I like the backward sounding background vocals. Lyrics are a *little* bit repetitive, but lyrics really aren’t the point of the song. 8/10.
4. Beat the Clock
One of the funniest, funnest songs in their whole catalogue. I like the way he goes insane with the last ‘Beat the Clock!’ in every chorus. I like the little breakdown in the middle with all the tom toms doing their thing.10/10.
5. My Other Voice
Much slower than all the other songs (not really that slow though). I don’t know, I’ve never been overly fond of this song. It feels very much like filler to me compared to the other ones. I don’t know what the lyrics are about at all. Song has a long, long fadeout then just some super loud drum loop thing that I don’t understand. 6/10.
6. The Number One Song in Heaven
I have to applaud anyone for writing a song and positing that it’s the number one song in heaven. This song is a masterpiece. Great lyrics, great vocal production; it sounds like some synth is tracked behind the voice with the same notes to give it an ethereal feel. Then halfway through, it takes off and gets even more goodly. Great, great song worth every second of its 7.5 minutes. I could listen to it every day. 10/10.
What a good album. I feel like it was more successful than the prior several, so it’s a mystery why they’d follow it up with another album with the same producer that’s way, way, less good. Album rates 8.5/10. Next up, ‘Terminal Jive’.