Sparks’ Hello Young Lovers (2006) has a subtle yet brilliant concept at its core. It’s full of repetition, with the same phrases being...

Hi everyone, I've started a YouTube channel featuring my lyrical analysis of Ron and Russell Mael's songwriting for Sparks.. It's only a...

In 1980, Sparks released an album that's unfairly considered to be a misstep, and as with anything by Ron & Russell Mael, it shouldn’t be...

The Number One Song In Heaven, a two-part single by Sparks in collaboration with Georgio Moroder, was the first time that a rock band had...

Sparks’ self-proclaimed “career-defining opus” is misunderstood, and I’d like you to consider another way of looking at it. Think of it...

Sparks’ career can be neatly split into two halves. For the first half they’d switch genre, hop labels and seek out new audiences in...

It’s my theory that Ron and Russell Mael make intricately-plotted concept albums in which the concept is a closely guarded secret. They...

Leos Carax and Sparks’ modern musical is like a puzzle. It’s a thousand-piece jigsaw that leaves the audience to figure out how apes,...

Leos Carax's recent collaboration with Ron and Russell Mael has left people equally delighted and perplexed, It covers a vast array of...

SPARKS have just released ‘So May We Start?’, the opening song from their long-awaited musical-movie Annette, Like so much of Ron and...

'Number 1 in Heaven' is far more clever than people have realised. It's been praised for its innovation and for changing what a rock band...

Note:This is an early draft of a theory that's now more fully developed. A more complete view of these songs are detailed in the 'A meta...

Stravinsky’s Only Hit tells a wild tale in which composer Igor Stravinsky makes a foray into pop music. He strikes big with a...

In my last post I suggested that Sparks may be attempting to further the work of Stravinsky and other great composers, but for what...

Sparks' 1994 comeback single 'When do I get to sing "My Way"' wasn't a hugely successful record, but it deserves a place in history as...

I'm the kind of person that pores over the lyrics of each new Sparks release, looking for pearls of wisdom and easter eggs. New album A...

Part one of 'What does it all mean' can be found here. People think of Lil Beethoven (2002) as the start of a new era for Sparks, but the...

Ron and Russell Mael are not like other musicians. Back in the 90s, already a quarter of a century into their career, they staged a comeback