The previous poll was lost in the server crash, so here's another.

I'm quite new to Sparks. Listened to Hello Young Lovers today and thought it was pretty good.

Your favourite LP?

What a great band, always full of ideas.

I used to collect vinly from the Bearsville record label who released the Halfnelson album (under the band name Halfnelson, re-released as "Sparks" by Sparks) - plus Sparks other early albums.

Neat record label - worth checking out.

Voted for Kimono as its a good place to start.

Hello Young Lovers is actually a fantastic album.

The first five are great, too.

Hello Young Lovers is my favorite but N°1 in Heaven (produced by Giorgio Moroder ) is a great "Disco not Disco " record.
I just bought the New DVD (called Dee Vee Dee) from the last tour and it's fantastic.

I only know the early ones - might have to check out Hello Young Lovers based on the comments above. Voted for Number One in Heaven purely on the basis of the absurdly good title track (a firm favourite when I'm hogging the turntables for the entertainment of the great unwashed) but now I'm wishing I'd gone for Propaganda because it's sitting there between Kimono and Indiscreet with no votes, which doesn't seem right as all three are equally excellent albums.

predictable, but kimono takes it, honourable mentions for Propaganda, Indiscreet and Gratuitous. I must get those last two one of these days.

They've done some proper turkeys though

I read an interview once where Ron said his least favourite was Terminal Jive

On the basis of that I never bought it; I had just got the breathtakingly bad Whomp That Sucker and, y'know, once bitten...

Whichever one has Fletcher Honorama on it.

The singer's operatic vocal gymnastics get on my nerves a bit but I do like some of their stuff in small doses. I tried Kimono My House recently but I couldn't really get into it.

i've only head no. 1 song in heaven album

love that elephants girrafes and tigers stuff mind :)

It's got to be Kimono hasn't it?

Kimono, by a nose over Propaganda. The first five are all excellent though.

I have Tweeter on continuous play in the car at the moment. I especially love "Batteries Not Included"

Kimono, BUT will he heading to see the No.1 in Heaven full-album gig in May (?) cos a bit of gay disco never hurt anyone.

All the pre-disco stuff is good. Toss-up between Propaganda and Kimono for me.

I always thought Sparks were German and only found out last year they were actually American :wacko:

What's The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman like?

Woofer by a long way, the first two albums are incredible: far wilder, strange and original than Kimono for me, although that and most of the other Island material is excellent too.

It's good, kind of like the previous three albums sonically, but stop-start narrative, with some excellent proper song passages, quiet and noisy ones. I wish they'd used real strings though; a string quartet doesn't cost much to hire, Sparks synthetic fake strings make their recent material stay in my cupboard most of the time I'm afraid, it's one of my pet hates :( .

The Bergman thing was officially streaming for free somewhere via the Swedish broadcaster who commissioned it, but I can't recall where, sorry .

I've only heard one or two from that, but do yourself a favour and check out Kimono and maybe Hello Young Lovers or Exotic Creatures of the Deep. Haven't heard the new one yet.

Propaganda was the only one i ever owned so have to vote for that.

Without pissing on anyones cornflakes, i hate the idea of themed gigs playing an album from back when.

I know what you mean, but to be fair on Sparks they first did it 8 years ago with a brand new album (Lil Beethoven) not an old one to get the nostalgia crowds in, because it had accompanying projections to go with the songs they wanted to play in the same order as the new record. Then later they jumped on the old album bandwagon by doing Kimono at Morrissey's Meltdown Festival. I think 2002 was when Bowie did it first, with Low in New York, but I'm not certain.

And no one else has ever played all their albums (21, in this case), one night after another.

Thanks, MESMMC, for the tip: will seek out the latest.

That's fair enough, didn't realise they did it that far back.

Just seems (to me) to be the ultimate gig cash cow.

Didn't know Bowie had gone down that route, either.

Saying that, if MES started doing that caper i would feel obliged to go. Or there again...

Here's the link Stephen, I found it in my favourites. The free stream of the whole album seems to still be active, although bear in mind it's the Swedish language version. There must be a plot synopsis in English somewhere. I've heard the English version but forgot the story.

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?...artikel=2973054

Ive got a tape of the David Bowie doing Low in New York which I think was the first case of this sort of thing, and it enters the section where they're doing all the serious Germanic synth instrumental tracks from side 2 of the album, and it's all very earnest, then the power packs up. Bowie says, "Hmm, we didn't have this problem in 1976 because all our synthesizers were made out of wood..". It kind of ruins the entire atmosphere!

I've got them all and my favourites are the last three: Lil' Beeth., Hello young lovers and Exotic creatures in the deep.
Kimono and Propaganda are classics but everybody should give a listen to Hello Young Lovers, incredible record.

For the albums played in their entirely on stage, Lou Reed did it for Magic and loss in 92. Arrhur Lee with Forever Changes in 2002, Brian Wilson with Smile and Pet sounds, Bowie with Low and Heathen in 2002, The Cure with Disintegration a few years ago and The Stooges with Raw Power actually.

Come to think of it Lou Reed toured New York and Songs For Drella (with Cale) in their entirety in 1989-90 so maybe he was first?

Thank you!

I voted in this long ago - have recently hoovered up all sparks lps I didn't have, and inevitably in massive sparks 'phase' now...

The first, unreleased album (with arts & crafts spectacular on it) is amazing - as are kimono, propaganda, indiscreet - also gratutitous sax, balls, lil beethoven, hello young lovers & exotic creatures - the ingmar bergman thing is staggeringly good - what are they, 60 years old or something?? How are they still good??

many good bits inbetweenst all this, of course, but those are my faves. What a fucking incredible band.