I first saw the iconic Los Angeles art-rock band Sparks at the Birmingham Odeon in the UK on November 6th, 1975, and nearly fifty years on they are still my favourite band. I`ve seen them numerous times across the UK and hope to see them again later this year as they promote their 28th studio album `MAD!`, due to be released in May.
`Nº 1 in Heaven` is the eighth studio album by the Sparks brother`s Ron and Russell Mael and was produced and co-written by Italian composer and music producer Giorgio Moroder, dubbed the Father of Disco and released in 1979. Chelsea Spear, the creative force behind Boston ukulele power-pop project Travels With Brindle went to see Sparks perform live. “Watching the joy in their performance reconnected me with why I made music,” Spear admits. “A few days later, I was listening to `No. 1 in Heaven` while making dinner and the melodic and rhythmic similarities between the songs on the album and the music of early 20th century vaudeville and music hall struck me. I also wanted to work on something that would make me happy, and the original `No. 1 in Heaven` is one of my favourite albums.” So began a lo-fi ukulele power-pop project reimagining of Sparks’ classic album.
This extended play opens with `Tryouts for the Human Race` a song written from the perspective of sperm, hoping to reach an egg, and become someone. It`s a delightfully stripped back offering with finger snaps and a torn-paper snare drum. The clear and sharp vocal from Chelsea adds a further wonderful sense of irony to the number. The original release of `Academy Award Performance` was fairly manic but here it`s anything but. It has in the background a tap dance performed by Circe Red and engineered by William Hall Esq. Another endearing listen.
`La Dolce Vita` has a flowing rhythmic beat interspersed with trumpet blasts from Tyler Hauer and retains the slight “nudge-nudge, wink-wink” innuendo of the original. I was wondering whether Chelsea would be able to hit the high falsetto notes of the chorus on `Beat the Clock` but she did it admirably with the song also maintaining the foot-tapping almost dance like rhythm of the initial offering.
Chelsea has stripped out the elongated intro into `My Other Voice` and has trimmed the number to all of eighty four seconds but still preserves the otherworldly dreaminess of the Sparks version. The final track is
`The Number One Song In Heaven` and while completely differing to the Sparks classic it does have a superb spiritual nigh on angelic vibe about it.
This six track extended play runs at just under twenty minutes in length and will bring a brief ray of sunshine into a fairly dreary winter`s day. It`s released roughly 46 years to the day that Ron and Russell Mael unveiled the Giorgio Moroder-produced 1979 classic. An offering that is both faithful and unfaithful to the original but nevertheless wonderfully joyous.
Rating 9/10
