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 ‘Hello Young Lovers’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When this album came out, it was the first new Sparks album I had even heard about in a long time. I heard this before several of the preceding albums. I remember thinking ‘Those guys are still around?’ They just weren’t on any kind of radar in the US Midwest in the 90s\/early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Dick Around<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a perfect song for me. Another mind movie, it’s super-fun to sing, and it sounds great. The heavy guitar coming in and out through the song is fantastic, and I love the drummer on this album; all the drums sound fantastic. I feel bad for the protagonist; I don’t think it will end well for him. This is one of my favorite Sparks songs. 10\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Perfume<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another great song. I like the subject matter. The guitar and piano together tie the song together and drive it. I like the breakdown where he starts talking about ‘The olfactory sense’, etc, and the repetitive background vocals getting back into the chorus. 10\/10<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. The Very Next Fight<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This song terrifies me. This is exactly what abuse sounds and feels like. I love the echoes on the vocals, like it’s a thought or feeling that’s always going on inside the person’s head. The vocal production on this album is so good. I love the layering of ‘What you want’ and ‘It’s always the same’ and how the first vocal gets steadily more urgent and crazed sounding. 10\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. (Baby, Baby) can I invade your Country<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Super fun, bouncy, catchy song. The ‘Check it Out’ is hysterical to me. Another double entendre of course, and I feel a deep meaning in this song. It really impresses me that they brought that meaning out in the way that they did. 10\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Rock, Rock, Rock<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is another song that feels frightening to me for some reason. I have a recurring dream where I’m kidnapped, and the kidnappers tell me I have to play the Partita in D Minor on my violin perfectly. If I do I’m released, if not, well\u2026that’s that. This song always makes me think of that, with the person with the gun to their head promising they will ‘Rock!’. There some instrumentation that I think was done with a voice that always catches me. 9\/10<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Metaphor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This song is one of the funniest things that exists. I’ve keep saying it, but it’s Russel’s earnest delivery that gets me. ‘Don’t don’t don’t don’t\u2026don’t mix them’. Another very well constructed and arranged songs. 10\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. Waterproof<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is another of my favorite Sparks songs. I love the lyrics and the delivery. ‘The pressure you’re exerting is irrelevant to me’. Who thinks of stuff like this? I love the bridge, and all the fun instrumentation they bring. Maybe bridge is the wrong concept; there’s so many little parts to this song. Then when the drums and guitar come in, it’s just bliss. It’s great how open and forthcoming the jerk of a protagonist is. 10\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8. Here Kitty<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My wife makes fun of me if she hears me listening to this song. I get it. My cat is always interested too. I think this is another hysterical song\u2026poor fireman that can only rescue cats, no matter what happens. 9\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9. There’s no such thing as Aliens<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hmmm. This is probably my least favorite song on the album. But It still hooked me in and got me. It’s just so well put together and arranged, and pretty sounding. The vocal harmonies are gorgeous. 9\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10. As I sit down to Play the Organ at the Notre Dame Cathedral<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is another mind movie for me. I always find myself singing it, and tapping my watch over ‘time time time’ etc. It’s crazed and desperate sounding, and so weird the way they then break into the pipes and the second part of the song. I don’t know if he used an actual pipe organ, but if so, it’s very impressive that he could play the part on it. It’s great, and a great album closer. 10\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is just a monster of an album. I just listened to it start to finish, and I want to listen to it again. I honestly could have rated every song a 10, but there are a few I like slightly less than others. They took all the great ingredients of the last album, and just took it up a notch. It’s such a smart album, double meanings everywhere, and musically it’s brilliant. Album rates 9.7\/10. Next up, ‘Exotic Creatures of the Deep’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 ‘Hello Young Lovers’. When this album came out, it was the first new Sparks album I had even heard about in a long time. I heard this before several of the… Continue reading Hello Young Lovers – 2006<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}