Sparks - Music That You Can Dance To (40th Anniversary Edition) (2CD)

I am a massive Sparks fan. One of the first three albums that I bought was Propaganda. I knew all the words then as I do now, although I may understand them more now. Over five decades on, the Mael Brothers have kept their followers along the way and added a whole new audience. They are as popular now as they have ever been and the material may be different, but is just as revelatory as those Island Years. I don't contribute to the fan groups as you are not allowed to be objective about any album and I am always objective.

Their 70s was great, maybe with the exception of the muscular Big Beat. They surprised everyone with the two Synth Pop albums at the turn of the decade and then went back to the band format backed by L.A.'s Bates Motel and produced two wonderful albums. Angst In My Pants battles with Indiscreet as my favourite Sparks album. They were followed by an ok album then the dire Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat. They then turned back to the synth duo format and offered up Music That You Can Dance To An amazing affair that showed Synth Pop could be intelligent and have more than one stream.

I loved the album. At the time, I was around the country and managed to gather all of the 12 Inch Singles, including a couple of white labels, so I have a lot of the second disc material, but there are additional surprises that I don't. The album has been remastered and brings both the UK and US version together in the 9 Tracks. Change bizarrely was the single in the UK, but not on the album. Armies Of The Night was removed from the US Version and replaced by Change.

The album still sounds as great as ever. The stand out being the bass driven, The Scene. The title track. Armies Of The Night and of course Change are great Pop songs. Let's Get Funky and The Shopping Mall Of Love show how weird and wonderful, Sparks could be and I have a special place in my heart for Rosebud with its Orson Wells Inspiration. The second disc contains 17 songs and is largely the 12 Inch mixes and B Sides. Although two demos of Music That You Can Dance To, are accppanied by demos of Rosebud and Fingertips. There is also the unreleased, How To Survive demo. Strangely, the Fright Night version of Armies Of The Night isn't here.

The remaster is great and this is an album to be treasured, certainly one for the new fans to jump on and the second disc will be essential for long time fans. The double Vinyl version only includes six of the bonus tracks.

You can buy both the CD and Vinyl versions here.

 

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