LISTENING TO - The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte by Sparks

There are not many bands who make it as far as their 26th album. Either imploding under the weight of drug use, creative exhaustion or shattering into self recriminating pieces well before they reach their 5th release. And the twenty six does not include any 'best of' or greatest hits compilations, its just individual studio albums. So by the time you reach your 26th - The Girl is Crying in Her Latte - what have you got left to say, that you haven't already said a thousand times? You could be forgiven for thinking it would be variations on the same old same old. Whilst themes do reoccur they are usually dressed in new guises, there is precious little about this album that doesn't come across as fresh and as innovative as any debut.

What is impressive about The Girl is Crying in Her Latte is the sheer breadth of the songwriting. Encompassing existential loneliness, The wartime influence of Veronica Lake, being love struck on an escalator, the authoritarian prowess of Kim Jong Un as a dance DJ, not to mention the obligatory Sparks theme of male insecurity, and a person who is so unimpressive no one knows who they are  - as on Not That Well Defined.

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Musically they've used instrumentation so sparingly. A prime example being Escalator, an ode of love by a man who everyday sees a woman he fancies on the escalator. Its such a beautifully simple electronic composition of blips, chords and burps. Reminding me of early work by German electronic pioneers from the 70's like Harmonia or Hans Joachim Reodelius. Filled with a plaintive catchy minimalism. 

There is always a least one song on any of the more recent Sparks album that is really out there pushing the envelope on a sonic level. On this its We Go Dancing with its authoritarian march mixed with trumpets, tympani and dance strut. Its a political lampoon, with a more underlying serious intent than you normally get from Sparks. We've not seen its like since Baby Let Me Invade Your Country.  The duality of sending up and poignant statement about the world or human condition is perhaps the most distinguishing feature of note with this album. Its been present occasionally previously, but never quite so marked and consistently as here.

Lyrically, as one has come to expect of a songwriter as experienced as Ron Mael, there is plenty to appreciate with incredulity and sheer delight filled wonder. Able to use the most banal turn of phrase and make it poignant or fill it with greater meaning simply through repetition. Such as on Escalator and the song that closes the album Gee, That was Fun.

The band that has proven time and again never to write them off. And among so many great era defining albums, its impossible really to rank the best ones. The Girl is Crying in Her Latte does however have classic Sparks written all over every single groove of it.

CARROT REVIEW - 8/8