Sparks are at work on their 27th studio album
Sparks have entered the studio to work on what will be their 27th studio album, as revealed on the band’s Instagram.
The post, shared yesterday (July 4), shows the Mael brothers in front of a home computer set up with recording software. Vocalist Ron Mael is sat at the computer, while keyboardist Russell Mael is standing and holding a note pad with chord progressions written on it. View the post below:
The as-yet-untitled album will be the prolific pop band’s third of the 2020s. It follows on from 2020’s ‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’ and the band’s soundtrack album to the 2021 film Annette. In a four-star review of the latter, NME described the film as “a combustible musical melodrama peppered with meta meditations on fame”.
“Their cerebral approach to their craft has kept them on the periphery of mainstream music throughout their 50-year career,” it said regarding Sparks, “but their soundtrack to the film is an engorged melange of plucky synth and haunting glam rock, all underscored with tragedy even at the height of Henry and Ann’s handsome relationship.”
Sparks completed a North American tour in April, and announced that same month they would be reissuing five of their 2000s albums on vinyl for the first time.
In March, Edgar Wright’s documentary on the duo, The Sparks Brothers, won the BandLab NME Award for Best Music Film.
