★★★★★
At the very least, the brothers Ron and Russell Mael, otherwise known as Sparks, deserve a trophy for perseverance. Over the course of more than four decades, Sparks' artistic evolution has been intriguing, even if that meant denting the Billboard charts only occasionally. Anyone mistaking Sparks for a novelty act most likely hasn't listened closely; a Sparks song might make you smile, but humor in music doesn't necessarily equate to novelty any more than humor necessarily equates to wit...
- www.undertheradarmag.com
2013-11-30
★★★★★
There's something wonderful about the concept of a band like Sparks. The band boasts of two brothers from Los Angeles - one who is the singer and looks like a fluffed-up version of Roger Daltrey (Russell Mael), and another is a scowling keyboardist who either comes across as a mustached version of Charlie Chaplin or, at worst, Adolf Hitler (Ron Mael). Both had a background in fashion modelling, so you could surmise that, right there, as musicians, they might have a flair for the extravagant...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-10-24
★★★★★
For a group who vowed never to look back, Sparks have neatly begun to curate their legacy, even as they've made three of their best records in the 21st Century. Since the world has waited this long for a complete career retrospective, it seems wholly appropriate that the only two people across every inch of it are Ron and Russell Mael, the brothers themselves.
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-10-10
★★★★★
In 1971, unless you werealready a krautrock aficionado,chances are that the majority ofthe new albums you werebringing home from thedisc-o-mat would have doffeda discreet hat towards (if notfully prostrated themselvesbefore) blues, jazz, soul, countryor folk antecedents. For sure,progsters talked a good gamewith regard to the Europeanclassical tradition, but whenHalfnelson emerged - en routeto becoming Sparks - theirparticular combination ofwaspishly witty, libretto-readylyricism and...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-08-21
★★★★★
After much demand and with typical perversity, the first-ever Sparks live album in 40 years captures the tour when it was simply Ron and Russell Mael onstage. When RC caught the Two Hands, One Mouth show last year, it likened the pair to a turn-of-the-20th-Century revue, performing parlour songs for the aristocracy. But, though it's just the two of them, this is no mellow "Sparks unplugged" experience...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Siblings Ron and Russell Mael, the core duo of Sparks, have made a career of making hard left turns into unknown territories. Since forming in 1970, pop's fearless experimenters have playfully ducked in and out of genres while maintaining a healthy sense of humor. From glam rock to orchestral pieces, Sparks continue to operate on their own terms, regardless of current trends...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
The original smart-arse pop brainiacs are back. Not that brothers Mael - Ron: keyboards, 'tache, piercing stare, Russell: vocals, unsettlingly youthful looks, permanently befuddled mug - ever really went anywhere...
- www.gigwise.com
2010-11-09
★★★★★
After decades of standing at the fringes of whatever kind of pop seemed modish, snickering, L.A.'s Sparks reinvented themselves impressively with 2002's Lil' Beethoven. That record's premise-- Russell Mael overdubbing himself into a mock-operatic chorus and playing up his mock-operatic diction, his brother Ron supplying mock-dignified orchestrations and keyboards, songs built around amusingly banal phrases endlessly repeated--was also the basis for 2006's even better Hello Young Lovers...
- pitchfork.com
2010-09-11
★★★★★
With the release of The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman, Ron and Russell Mael's 22nd album, the worlds of Sparks and musical theatre have finally become one. Originally commissioned by Sweden's national public radio station Sveriges Radio to write and produce an original radio musical, Sparks created the musical fantasy based on the internationally acclaimed film director Ingmar Bergman...
- www.forcedexposure.com
2010-08-27
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