Sparks and Re-Creation

It may be the best part of five decades since the brothers of reinvention first made a generation of UK pop-pickers choke on their Angel Delight with their startling first appearances on TV, but Sparks have been enjoying a revival in their fortunes – celebrated on celluloid, endorsed by Hollywood, collaborating with the cream of UK indie-pop and back in the Top 10. As Ron and Russell Mael’s 21st-century studio albums are reissued, they look back on those LPs and three other creative diversions since 2000 and vow to continue confounding expectations. “That muse won’t accept a divorce,” they tell Jeremy Allen.

- Jeremy Allen

When one pictures Sparks, chances are it’s the 1974 glam rock incarnation: Russell on Top Of The Pops with long, tousled hair singing theatrically in knitwear to a bevy of teenyboppers; Ron astride an electric organ staring into the camera with an arched eyebrow, looking like, well… like Ron, but with that moustache. There may be fewer screaming teens now, but there’s a case to be made for Sparks being more successful now than they’ve ever been, in relative terms.

Look at the figures. They’ve all but matched pound-for-pound two Top 10 UK albums in succession: Kimono My House and Propaganda went to No 4 and No 9, respectively, in 1974; Hippopotamus and A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip both peaked at No 7 in 2017 and 2020. Secondly, their profile has risen even higher since, thanks to two films: Edgar Wright’s 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers and French director Leos Carax’s Annette from the same year; the latter MUBI-backed musical, starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, was conceived and co-written by Sparks – who performed and oversaw every note. In just a few years, Sparks have gone from nowhere to seemingly everywhere, with Wright’s film recently picking up an NME award and Annette taking home an impressive five Césars in Paris in February 2022.