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 ‘Pulling Rabbits out of a Hat’.
Based on the response some people had to me rating ‘In Outer Space’ as that basically I think ‘It’s a GOOD Sparks album, but not a GREAT one’, people are going to yell at me again. Oh well, people got mad at me for liking ‘Introducing Sparks’ TOO much as well. Actually, if this album is in someone’s top 5 Sparks albums, let me know! Like the last one, the album sounds good.
1. Pulling Rabbits out of a Hat
I’ve always really liked this song. It’s one I find myself singing to myself all of the time. I take it as being about songwriting and songcrafting, and the pressures and struggles that can go along with that. The drums sound great, the other instrumentation sounds great. I like the ‘Plagiarism’ version more, and usually go there when I want to hear it…I’ve played both strings and timpani in an orchestra, so that feels better to me, but that’s a completely unfair comparison to make anyway. 9/10.
2. Love Scenes
Eh. It’s…alright? It kind of has a creeper vibe to me. Probably in 1984 it didn’t feel that way, but this kind of thing hasn’t aged well. I guess it’s probably a 6/10, I like it alright, but it’s not one I’d often seek out.
3. Pretending to be Drunk
Good energy, nice and danceable. It’s a very simple song structurally, but that’s not a bad thing. Not too much to say about it, but I like it. 7/10.
4. Progress
It’s a good synth-pop tune. Not much more to say about it than that. It sounds like a million songs from 1983-1984. I’m sure people that like Oingo-Boingo probably love this. 7/10.
5. With all my Might
I like this song. It’s a fairly simple love song, but I like the insecurity that comes into the later verses. Good vocals and background vocals. The wash of keyboards after the instrumental until the end of the song is not my favorite thing. 7/10.
6. Sparks in the Dark[Part One]
It’s 30 seconds of instrumental. I’m leaving this out of the rating.
7. Everybody Move
It’s another generic feeling synth-pop song. About dancing or some 80s workout I guess? You know, genetically this album is not THAT different from ‘No. 1 in Heaven’. I’m trying to put my finger on why that album rules and this one doesn’t for me. A lot of the songs on this album don’t seem very inspired. They tick off all the boxes for synth-pop music of the time I guess, but don’t soar…they don’t inspire, they don’t make me feel very much inside. 6/10.
8. A Song that sings Itself
It’s fine. Another fairly simple love song. I probably like it more than ‘With all my Might’. 7/10.
9. Sisters
Gross. I hate stuff like this. 2/10.
10. Kiss Me Quick
The treble-ness of this album is starting to get to me. This is fine. I like the chorus. 6/10.
11. Sparks In The Dark [Part Two]
It’s baffling to me what they did with the instrumentals on this album. I don’t mind this but I can’t give it a good rating. 5/10.
Whew. Album rating is 6.2/10, which is the same as ‘In Outer Space’. That doesn’t seem right; I liked that album more than this one, though the title song pulled this one up. I think I’m going out of my way to try to like this and am overcompensating. I don’t remember the next several albums very much, then I’m in more familiar territory. Next up, ‘Music You can Dance To’.