Why it is that after years or even decades some artists continue to thrill and entertain while others just burn out badly is one of those great mysteries, but in the example of
Ron
and
Russell Mael
, aka
Sparks
, they're firmly in the former category.
Hello Young Lovers
is their 20th studio album in 35 years, not to mention one of their best. Following on from their enjoyable all-
classical
instrumentation experiment,
Lil' Beethoven
,
take their cue here from the album's one song that added full
rock
band instrumentation to all the strings,
"Ugly Guys with Beautiful Girls."
The resulting fusion on
-- with the brothers and drummer
Tammy Glover
now accompanied full-time by former touring guitarist
Dean Menta
, along with
Redd Kross
'
Steve McDonald
guesting on bass and
Jim Wilson
on guitar -- audibly harks back to the U.K.
glam
era of the band but crucially does not simply replicate it. Instead, it's as close to a full melange of all the band's various sounds thus far over the years, as
's
orchestral
swoops are shot through with feedback and subtler hints of the various dance incarnations of the duo. Opening track
"Dick Around,"
with its rapidly ascending and descending melodies, absolutely precise performance (
Russell
's voice continues to be one of the best ever in the field while
's ear for immediate but busy-as-heck hooks similarly hasn't gone stale), and back-and-forth arrangements between strings and guitar is a tour de force on its own, not to mention showing that the trademark
Mael
misanthropic wit remains fully intact. From there,
is off to the races, with only a tiny misstep or two along the way (
"Here Kitty"
is cute but slight,
"Metaphor"
takes a while to connect fully). First single
"Perfume"
is a delight, a finger-snapping swing of a song that's still very 21st century, with a classic
spoken word
break to boot. Other highlights include the outrageous
"(Baby Baby) Can I Invade Your Country?,"
a reworking of the American national anthem that turns into the slyest post-9/11 song yet, and the stellar conclusion
"When I Sit Down to the Play the Organ in the Notre Dame Cathedral."
"Waterproof"
might be the best song in the end,
singing like butter couldn't melt in his mouth about being a merrily heartless bastard untroubled by his former love's "
Meryl Streep
mimicry" while the sound moves from
chamber music
to a hint of '30s
jazz
to a full rock-out apocalypse. If, as is often alleged,
Queen
ripped off
to fully kick-start their own career,
is
having the last and best laugh, not just on their former rivals but on all those bands now and then whose members may have listened in but never showed even a tenth of
the Maels
' genius and inspiration. ~ Ned Raggett