Sparks – Number One Song In Heaven (1979)
The third reinvention of Sparks – this ethereal pop masterpiece highlights the twisted genius of the brothers Mael with the same audacious flourish that ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’ brought to an unsuspecting public in the early seventies. The delirious confection of falsetto vocals, hysterical synths and swoonalicious strings swept all before it in 1979. The rest of the album was just as good, combining Ron Mael’s most acerbic lyrics with the transcendescent synth arrangements of Georgio Moroder and Harold Faltermeyer. In the process laying down a blueprint for the electropop revolution of the eighties that would be refined in 1980’s Terminal Jive featuring the incandescent ‘When I’m With You’. Sheer pop genius. Check out L’il Beethoven, Hello Young Lovers and this video for proof that Sparks are very much a living breathing pop phenomenon.
Remixed genius from the brothers Mael.
