Exotic Creatures Of The Deep

It being Halloween night as I type this, I found myself listening to, of all things, the latest Sparks album Exotic Creatures Of The Deep. Sadly, it came and went with little fanfare this past May (the downside of being on an indie label, I guess) despite being quite a remarkable return to form for the brothers Mael.

While their past two efforts, Li'l Beethoven and Hello Young Lovers, drew plenty of critical raves from other sources, I found the duo's minimal approach to be lacking because, quite frankly, the songs weren't there.

On their latest effort, though, the duo dispenses with the minimalist experimentation and gets down to business with some of their best material in ages. Not only that, they sound positively inspired, which is quite remarkable considering just how long these guys have been at it. I was beginning to think they'd reinvented themselves so many times they no longer knew whether they were coming or going.

Most remarkably, Russell Mael is in great vocal form, layering track upon track of lush harmonies on top of his lead track, creating a multi-dimensional soundscape that meshes will with the mostly synth-based musical backing courtesy of brother Ron.

Highlights, which are many, include "I Can't Believe You Would Fall For All The Crap In This Song" and "Lighten Up, Morrissey".

BUY IT!

The band kicked off the release of this CD with a 20-night stand in the UK, where each night was dedicated to a specific album in their sizeable back catalog in its entirety. Sadly, they chose not to do this in the US. Rumor has it they aren't sure there's enough of a US audience to warrant such an undertaking, but I would beg to disagree. In fact, I would contend that they could successfully pull this off in not only their hometown of L.A., but perhaps NYC as well.

Of course, no mention of Sparks would be complete without me letting you in on my Russell Mael story, so here goes:

I was living in Studio City, CA at the time and the local Ralphs supermarket was just up the street from my house. As a rocker, I was living on the other side of the clock, so to speak, sleeping through the day and doing most of my activities at night. I would often do my shopping at some ungodly hour and, thus, my girlfriend and I found ourselves picking up some groceries at around 2am.

As I cruised the aisles, I kept crossing paths with this older guy in a black-and-white striped shirt who looked vaguely familiar. Having encountered many celebrity types at this particular Ralphs, I just shrugged it off and continued my shopping.

It wasn't until I was standing in the checkout lane, just behind this guy and his female companion, that I overheard enough of their conversation (about some record company stuff) to come to the conclusion that he must be "in the industry".

As I took a closer look at the fellow, it suddenly registered:

Holy fuck, that's Russell Mael!

Now, I've been lucky enough to meet most of my musical heroes and I've always been very mellow in doing so. My approach has always been that we are peers (as crazy as that may sound) and that I'm merely making polite introduction.

In this case, though, I think the sudden realization of who it was standing next to me did not allow me the proper time to cool my jets and take said mellow approach.

Truth be told, I remember very little about what happened after that point.

My girlfriend contends that I literally pushed her out of the way in order to introduce myself and shake Russell's hand. I vaguely remember saying something along the lines, "Oh man, I'm a huge fan of your work..." and then....nothing.

I had said everything I had ever wanted to tell one of my favorite singers of all time and just had absolutely no ability to propel the conversation any further.

By then, Russell and his lady had finished paying for their items and they both just stood there for a moment, slightly dumbfounded. The look on Russell's face was one of "Uh, that's it?" before he turned and left the store, both of them stunned into total silence.

I, myself, stood equally silent and noticed that even the cashier had an odd look on her face by now.

In my rush to shake hands with one of my heroes, I had alienated the entire store - granted, this amounted to all of four or five people.

My girlfriend, of course, never let me hear the end of it. Each time she brought it up, the intensity with which I suddenly pushed her out of the way to shake Russell's hand seemed to grow by leaps and bounds.

Good times.

So, hey, how about a Top Ten list?

DARREN'S TOP TEN FAVORITE SPARKS SONGS (in no particular order)

Tips For Teens
The Number One Song In Heaven
With All My Might
Sextown U.S.A.
Change
Reinforcements
Eaten By The Monster Of Love
Beat The Clock
Lucky Me, Lucky You
Dance Godammit