On my voyage through all the Sparks albums, some of which I haven\u2019t heard in 20 or 30 years, here is my review of \u2018Hippopotamus’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Probably Nothing<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Statement of intent: This is an album not to be taken all that seriously. Silliness will probably follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Missionary Position<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This song took me by surprise. Looking at the title the first time I heard it, I didn’t think it was to be taken literally. The lyrics to me showcase someone just at the top of their game lyrically…it’s SO funny. I like the guitar that comes in the middle and drives everything, and the change in feel at the end as the song ebbs. 9\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Edith Piaf (Said it Better than Me)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What a well engineered song. The whole thing sounds fantastic. I like the bombast of the whole thing, then the hypnotic ‘Live Fast or Die Young’ that leads into the end; again I like the guitar in the end that just lifts the whole thing up a little. 10\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Scandinavian Design<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got a little stuck on this song. Why is she bored with the sky if all she thinks about is Scandinavian Design? Why a song by Sam and Dave? Why a job as some guy’s concubine? I have no idea. I like the song though. The slide guitar sounding thing at the end is fun. 8\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Giddy Giddy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Great song for the theme; another song not to be taken very seriously, in a good way. Frenetic and crazed, I like the techno sort of bass thing going on. Great vocals. 8\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. What the Hell is it This Time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What’s the reaction if you ask something of God and you’re cursed at in return? Very funny lyrics. 9\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. Unaware<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nice eastern sounding groove. I own this CD but I can’t find it right now. Listening to it just now I was almost convinced it wasn’t Russel singing, though I’ve changed my mind…I can hear his voice in the way he ends some of the words, but it sure sounds different. 9\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8. Hippopotamus<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the one that’s been stuck in my head for the last 4 years. I constantly find myself singing ‘How did it get there, I don’t know?’ whenever I find something that was misplaced. The music over ‘Someone must have been fooling around’ etc. sounds like the music to the SNES game ‘Zombies Ate My Neighbors’. I like the different instrumentation that comes in through the song. Of all the songs on here this may be the silliest, but I love it so much. 10\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9. Bummer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like the groove to this song. I love all the layered vocals and the pulsing keyboard sounds great. A number of people that didn’t like the last few albums praised the next few for being different and the band finding their way again. I can’t hear it to be honest, this sounds very much like something that would have been at home on any of the last several albums. I love this song. 10\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10. I Wish You Were Fun<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like this song. Fun lyrics, and fun to sing along with. I’d like to hear it arranged with horns, like they would have had it been on ‘Indiscreet’. I think that would have pushed it up one to two points. I like the ‘Glad she’s no Ayn Rand’ lyric. The piano outro is kinda baffling. 8\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
11. So Tell Me Mrs. Lincoln aside from that how was the Play?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can’t figure out how to capitalize this title and have it look right. This is a very fun idea for a song. I’m not sure that they nailed it though. It’s good. It sounds like ‘Gratuitous Sax’ era Sparks. It’s a good song, but I feel like there is a GREAT song in here that isn’t quite coming out. 8\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
12. When You’re a French Director<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strange, but atmospheric. As I’ve said, I can’t help not swaying to anything in waltz time. Great instrumentation and funny lyrics. 7\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
13. The Amazing Mr. Repeat<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two sex songs on one album. I like the frenetic feeling verses, then the stop going into the chorus. Very well put together song, I’m trying to decide if I like this one or ‘Missionary Position’ better. I’ll say 9\/10 for this one too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
14. A Little bit like Fun<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s fine. It also feels A Little bit like Filler. 7\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
15. Life with the Macbeths<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another super fun idea for a song. Rebecca Sj\u00f6wall is great on here. Fun and super strange, and the opera vocals really, really work. Great album closer. 9\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a very good, solid album. It’s also a very long album (by Sparks standards, lots of albums these days feel like they have to cram every second they can onto a CD); their longest one I think. I don’t own anything on vinyl anymore but it must be a double LP. I can’t help but feel if it was a little tighter and trimmed a little bit that it would be an even stronger record. But hey, it’s great as is and some people probably WANT every second they can get off an album. Album rates 8.6\/10. Next up, ‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On my voyage through all the Sparks albums, some of which I haven\u2019t heard in 20 or 30 years, here is my review of \u2018Hippopotamus’. 1. Probably Nothing Statement of intent: This is an album not to be taken all that seriously. Silliness will probably follow. 2. Missionary Position This song took me by surprise.… Continue reading Hippopotamus – 2017<\/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-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","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=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114,"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hearthfireband.com\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}