The Sparks Brothers Review
9/10
Edgar Wright’s The Sparks Brothers is one of the most exciting music docs I’ve seen in a long time. I have a particular background with this band. Back when I was a wee lad in high school, I had the tendency to “rebel” against anything. It didn’t matter what. I even rebelled against things I liked. It wasn’t the most practical approach to forming one’s artistic tastes. One of the first bands I genuinely got into was Sparks. My high school was tiny, so small that I was the only person in my grade when I graduated. Not because I was so exceptional and everyone else was crap; I was literally the only person in that grade. Trying to stand out from the crowd with my tastes was quite silly considering the population of the school. I used to plug my headphones into the dusty stereo console on top of the TV in our school lounge. Yes, we had a school lounge. There I listen to Sparks, PJ Harvey and others like Nick Cave, Porcupine Tree, etc. I would block out the world with these eccentric sounds that spoke to me. People in the room probably tried to speak to me too but I tuned them out.
That’s my long-winded way of saying I have a history with Sparks. So, I was curious how this documentary would handle such an enigmatic band. The format of the film is straightforward. It gives us personal backgrounds into the two leads of the band, Ron and Russell Mael. We get a glimpse into their past, their parents and how they got inspired to make music. The film wisely stays away from deep analyzing of their history. It lets the artists have their secrets. That air of mystery is part of the band’s appeal. We see how inseparable they are as brothers and artists, although we never really get much sense of their musical bond beyond how Ron writes and Russell doesn’t. The film brings up a consistent self-deprecating tone in their songs. Ron Mael’s lyrics often deal with an inability to connect and get the girl. Many other bands have songs about love and losing the girl. Ron’s lyrics keep him at a perpetual distance from the love interest. There is a sense that he feels inadequate and unable to make that leap. Whether that applies to his personal life or not, we don’t know. The film never shows us if they have wives and kids.
Once we establish how the brothers got into creating music and their early college band days, we jump into their first album and its creation. This becomes the setup for the rest of the film. Not every album gets the same amount of attention, but the film pieces together the world of Sparks album by album. We observe their trajectory from rising stars, to hovering somewhere between famous and obscure. There was a time in the early to mid-70’s when Sparks was the next big thing. They sold out venues and their fans were ravenous for more. Then they tried to branch out. Their sound became more interesting and eclectic, but it strayed too far off course from what their established fans wanted.
That is the eternal curse of the artist. You become well known for a certain sound, but if you stray too far from that sound you risk losing fans. Sounding the same for too long is just as risky. You are either too different or too similar. What can you do? Some bands play to the era. They put their ears to the ground to figure out which way the trends are going. Sparks never did that. They always remained true to themselves. That is what makes them unique. The term “sellout” is overused, but it can certainly apply to bands constantly trying to recapture that Zeitgeist. The documentary interviews various artists from different genres and eras. Beck, Flea, Weird Al and Patton Oswalt are just a few of the famous fans who talk about the band in depth. The well-known faces come from completely different backgrounds. There is not much musical similarity between them, but what unifies them is their admiration for Sparks and their independent spirit. They may be popular in their genre and to many people, but they stay true to themselves and put out music they want to hear.
We could learn a lot from Sparks. Their dedication to their music through years of struggle is inspiring. There were many times in the bands’ life where they thought their time was up. They got knocked to the floor constantly, changing bandmates, going back and forth from the U.S to the U.K, album sales dropping, etc. Their supposed glory years sustained them enough to put out the albums that many didn’t connect to initially. Unfortunately, it’s often only in retrospect when people can properly appreciate an artist’s work. Some of their albums were major financial and sales flops. That would make many bands lose their spark (hurhurhur) and want to play it safe. As the documentary carries us through their lives, we see how they never compromised. No matter how many times the music industry didn’t appreciate them and pushed them away, they got back up and fought back. They couldn’t just not create. When that passion to make art is in your blood, nothing, not even financial and personal hardship can drench that fire. Unless you get hit by a train.
Listening to Sparks’ most recent album from 2020, A Steady Drip. Drip, Drip, then going back to Kimono My House from 1974 is a poignant reminder of their passion. There are certainly similarities in sound and an evolution, but never to the point of compromising their integrity. They have pushed themselves nonstop to get to this point. The documentary does settle into a steady rhythm from album to album. Some have a less interesting backstory than others. Sometimes the backstory is as simple as yeah we tried this but it didn’t turn out great. That is the way of the world. Not every piece of your life is going to have an equally engrossing story. By the time we get to the end of the film, the audience develops a genuine respect and admiration for the brothers. Their ups and downs helped them get them this level of appreciation that they could not have predicted when they started in the early 70’s.
They are more relevant now than they have ever been. Growing up listening to pop music on the radio, I became quickly disconnected from what was perceived as good. That’s not to say the music I listened to back then was bad, but the formula was so obvious to me I found myself exploring other paths. Sparks’ music gives hope to those striving to find their voice. There are so many people, myself included, who are used to a kind of assembly line driven industry. I used to think that’s how the music world worked- a factory manufacturing hit after hit, never diverting course from what most pleased the audience. There is so much more to art than predictability. Edgar Wright did a wonderful job introducing the world to Sparks. They now feel like an old friend. Even when you don’t see them for a long time, whenever you do it feels like they never left.
