Search - Sparks :: Lil Beethoven: Definitive Edition

Sparks: Sheer Brilliance!!!

04/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lil' Beethoven by Sparks will go down in pop music history as one of the most significant albums of all time. This album pushes the boundaries of pop music, yet at its heart, is still a pop album. Sparks have always been ahead of the curve, yet this time they push things to the limit: swirling strings, layered vocals, orchestral flourishes, sophisticated recording techniques, the absence of rock cliches and extremely clever lyrics. From the classic "The Rhythm Thief", which not only questions the viability of pop music in this day and age, but questions the meaning of life, to the showy "Suburban Homeboy", this album is not like anything else you have heard before. "My Baby's Taking Me Home" is destined to be a pop milestone: infectious, unique, mantra-like--- a modern classic!!In a pop world where everything has begun to sound a lot like everything else, this album provides a bright ray of hope. The spirt of adventure in pop music has been sadly missing in much of what is out there today. Where are all the challenging bands?? Where is all the challenging music? Where is the provocation that is supposed to be at the heart of great pop music? It's all here in Sparks' "Lil' Beethoven." I strongly urge everyone to buy this album. (on this Deluxe Edition, you also get the amazing video for "The Rhythm Thief" plus several bonus tracks not on the original version.) Excitement and ambition have been reinstated into pop music. Long live the brilliant Sparks!!!"

Roll over Beethoven - Tell Sid Vicious The News!!

Madeline Bocaro | New York, New York | 10/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sparks' weird and wonderful opus, Lil' Beethoven commences with "The Rhythm Thief". We hear the words, "I am the rhythm thief - say goodbye to the beat." In the darkness we envision the Mael brothers in burglar masks, unplugging drum machines world-wide from disco to disco like a pair of sinister Robin Hoods!



The mischievous baton-wielding, sneaker-wearing character on the cover of Lil' Beethoven could very well be Ron Mael's inner child. Devious in his neat, respectable on-stage appearance and operatic presentation, our maestro lashes out at hip-hop hypocrisy, popular culture, and at life in general. The bitter bard conducts the proceedings, `scratching' and `sampling' behind the synth, with Russell `on the mic' rapturously rapping `the message'. Move over Grandmaster Flash!



Lil' Beethoven is not only Sparks' Sgt. Pepper - in fact, it could more likely be their Never Mind The Bollocks! It has more balls than Balls, more angst than Angst In My Pants, and Plagiarism only touched upon the plethora of musical genres emulated here. Each song is a strange, smartass symphony that so eloquently and elegantly ridicules everything that is wrong with music and with life today. Never mind Pet Sounds...this is Sparks' `Pet Peeves'! The classy presentation undermines the rebellious nature of the lyrics. Sparks don't mind making public enemies because they so much admire Public Enemy! Once again, to their credit, no one except for their fans will appreciate this masterpiece for many, many years!



The album's second selection, "How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall?" answers its own rhetorical question many times. Vaudeville is alive and well in this tune. Russell seems possessed by the ghost of Henny Youngman as he endlessly repeats the question (almost as maddening as Abbot & Costello's Who's On First? routine!) However, his golden voice returns to lament, "Still there is no sign of you."



Yes, real-life affairs should really take precedence over some bands' hissy-fits as stated in "What Are All These Bands So Angry About?"



The romantic "I Married Myself" is simply beautiful. Congratulations to Russell! He is a much better match for himself than that old Jacqueline Kennedy! This song maintains a certain theatricality despite its simple arrangement. Ron is still grappling with the traditional concept of the `love song'. He can out-write anyone with his beautiful melodies, but always throws in a curse word (as in "The Angels") or an odd situation as his signature mark.



"Ride `Em Cowboy" wavers from Victorian to Wagnerian. The song is simultaneously complex and minimalist.



"My Baby's Taking Me Home" begins with simple piano, and an old-fashioned megaphone affect on the vocals, but it becomes more lavish and ultra-modern as the song progresses. The multi layering of Russell's voice seems infinite. Then the song steadily expands with a long momentous crescendo, invoking grand cinematic visions.



"Your Call Is Very Important To Us. Please Hold" (who else would start a second sentence within a song title but Sparks?!) picks up where Kraftwerk's "The Telephone Call" left off. Rather than making weird computerized noises, Sparks allow us re-live the frustration of that cold familiar teasing phrase repeated ad-nauseum over a strangely beautiful yet angry classical piano trill amidst more orchestrations.



"Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls" is a humourous headbanger (disguised by a sweet sounding intro and outro) about a preposterous topic that has dumbfounded many since the phenomenon became prominent in music videos in the 80s.



Any Broadway show-tune composer would envy "Suburban Homeboy". He's a modern-day "Yankee Doodle Dandy"! Now That's Entertainment!



- Madeline Bocaro"

Extraordinary by any measure

Michael C. Browning | Palm Beach Gardens, FL United States | 05/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Mael brothers are extraordinary by any measure, and this is the most remarkable album of theirs I have heard in many a moon. The sheer skill and brains behind it are beyond praise. You get the impression they can just do anything they want, musically, intellectually, artistically. There are rave reviews from London newspapers on the back and they are deserved. This is really astonishing music, glassily shimmering with wickedly clever, glittering shards of lyrics. There are echoes here of John Lennon at his most iconoclastic, and Radio Head, but the album is in a class by itself. It's gorgeous to listen to, piquant to decode. There are a couple of weak, repetitious tracks, such as Your Call's Very Important To Us, a smart idea that goes nowhere, and Wunderbar, which seems aimed at German audiences who are sehr, sehr Kuhl, and sometimes the lyrics verge on psychobabble, deliberately so, I guess.



But I've never heard anything quite like this in my life. It's an astounding piece of work. It is very "out there," very "beyond," very Twilight Zonish. I did not think the human brain could work so strangely, or come up with such a hall of mirrors with such exquisite, gorgeous-sounding acoustic reflections and super-reflections. It is bizarre and at the same time indescribably beautiful. Highly recommended.

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