Sparks
Kimono My House

THE REVIEW

The New Glam-Rock of the Mael Brothers

Before reading the following review, I invite the kind readers to open their trusty WinMx and download [the site administrators disassociate themselves] "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us".
...
done?
Good, now there's no need to write a review to urge you to listen to "Kimono My House"... but I will proceed anyway for those who are not yet convinced and to listen to the CD once more.

We are in England, it's 1974, Bowie was declaring the end of Ziggy, Roxy Music was ending their best years with "Country Life," Lou Reed was surprising the world with the "Rock'n'Roll Animal" concerts, and in the music world, these two brothers called Sparks were emerging with the undisputed masterpiece "Kimono My House".
The singer resembles a bit of Marc Bolan and a bit of Cugini Di Campagna, only with a voice higher by about ten octaves, while the keyboardist looks like a cross between the stereotype of a Sicilian mobster and Hitler, and together they manage to engage the listener in a rock fury of paranormal power and originality.
The absolute master of the scene is Russel Mael's voice, demonstrating control and power beyond imagination in his falsettos and the most challenging sound passages. The guitar, inspired by hard-rock and, of course, glam-rock, is the second element of this group that strikes us: the solos and distortions may be conventional but always manage to surprise us thanks to the orchestration by keyboardist Ron Mael, who reinvents the band’s entire sound with tempo changes and numerous strokes of genius (at times reminiscent of Frank Zappa).

"Kimono My House" is a hallucinatory journey through ten frenetic songs ranging from more danceable episodes ("Complaints") to cabaret-like scents ("Talent Is An Asset"), from pounding and catchy riffs ("Amateur Hour") to quieter tracks ("Thank God It's Not Christmas"), almost close to waltz ("Falling In Love With Myself Again"). Sometimes it seems that the group creates its own paths with self-indulgence ("Equator"), but thanks to extreme self-irony, it never becomes irritating or annoying, in fact, it draws us more into the fabric of its magnificent pranks.
Thanks to these ten delirious, joyous, and light-hearted anthems to life, the Sparks rewrite the history of glam, a genre already on the path to decline, renewing it and inspiring, in my opinion, the Queen and part of the music of the '80s.