I've spent some of the day being entertained by the genius of the Mael brothers. Their new album is just superb, and often their biting but wistful approach can have me laughing out loud and wanting to blub almost concurrently. Long may Sparks give us a little light.
Ah, a fellow Sparks fan - seeing them do 'This Town Ain't Big Enough...' on TOTP in 1974, I thought "Brilliantly bonkers, but a one-hit wonder novelty record". I'm sure most people watching thought the same.
Yet 50 years later, they're still producing fantastically quirky and lyrically-brilliant songs; their relatively recent 'Hippopotamus' album (about 6 years ago) is one of their best; not a duff track on it, and the track 'Missionary Position' is genius.
Off the new album, these two are my two faves: