5.

Sparks – Kimono My House

The first time I heard Sparks was on those Ronco compilations of chart hits. One of them had ‘Beat The Clock’ on it and another one had ‘When I’m With You’.

Later I heard ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’, which is an extraordinary rock single. To call it a glam rock single does it a disservice. The album itself is all killer. Oh my God, what an album!

I’ve bit listening to it a lot recently since Sparks did the album FFS with Franz Ferdinand, which is highly, highly entertaining. I went back and listened again to the 1970s albums, especially Propaganda and Kimono My House, which were like a one-two punch in 1974. They are both amazing but there’s not a duff moment on Kimono My House. Obviously, ‘This Town’ is the most famous song but the album reaches its peak when there’s a run of three songs which are perfection: ‘Here In Heaven’, ‘Thank God It’s Not Christmas’ and ‘Hasta Manana Monsieur’.

The Mael brothers must have been somewhat miffed to see Queen, another band with a similar operatic sound, soaring to huge chart success, while Sparks stayed relatively culty.

But I think in retrospect Sparks made albums that were more consistent in theme and tone and still to this day they keep putting out records that are always just a little ahead of their time. To keep doing that for nearly 50 years is no mean feat.