Classic Pop - UK (2019-11)

REISSUES

SPARKS

PAST TENSE: THE BEST OF /

GRATUITOUS SAX & SENSELESS

VIOLINS: 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

BMG

★★★★

While it’s only six years since

Sparks’ previous Best Of

compilation New Music For

Amnesiacs, much has happened

since: they’ve made an album

with Franz Ferdinand, gone Top

10 for the fi rst time in over 40

years thanks to most recent

album Hippopotamus, are the

subject of a forthcoming Edgar

Wright documentary and have before the majestic Gratuitous

Sax & Senseless Violins.

Although released at the height

of Britpop, the triumphant single

When Do I Get To Sing ‘My

Way’ returned Sparks to the

Top 40. One of their fi nest all-out

pop assaults, it’s expanded here

with 17 demos, 11 remixes, two

live songs and fruity B-side She’s

An Anchorman. Motiv 8 and The

Steamroom’s mixes are, politely,

of their time, but The Grid,

Bernard Butler and Vince Clarke

are all in tune with the Mael

humour and The Beatmasters’

energetic take of (When I Kiss

You) I Hear Charlie Parker

Playing is further evidence

someone needs to bring them out

of cryogenic suspension. It’s just

a shame the vinyl edition doesn’t

feature any of the extras.

Even in the brief pause before

the Edgar Wright fi lm and

Annette, Sparks have managed

to treat us as these packages are

an excellent stopgap. JE

written new musical fi lm Annette

starring Adam Driver and

Marion Cotillard.

Every moment Sparks are

back in vogue should be

cherished, and Past Tense is as

comprehensive as it should be, a

58-track 3-CD chronological run

starting with the ethereal 1967

outing Computer Girl to the

hypnotic pulse of Check Out

Time 11AM. In between you’ll

fi nd opera, the birth of synth-

pop, the future of synth-pop,

disco, surprising amounts of

fragility, hilarity and very few

wrong moves. (1988’s So

Important is sub-Shep Pettibone

blandery where Sparks were for

once following rather than

setting the agenda.)

After So Important’s parent

album Interior Design, the Mael

brothers took a six-year break

© Phillipe Mazzoni

FREDDIE MERCURY

NEVER BORING

WARNER

★★

the highlight of the package.

Barcelona is the only single

radically different from Queen,

despite Freddie’s protestations

that his solo work wouldn’t fi t

into the day job. For all his vocal

theatrics, Mr Bad Guy was a

desperately conservative album,

lyrically facile and musically

ranging from the sub-Sparks

disco Let’s Turn It On and Living

On My Own to empty ballad

There Must Be More To Life Than

This via the title track’s tacky

attempts at bar-room boogie.

Rightly ignored at the time,

nobody has bothered

claiming Mr Bad Guy

as a lost classic

since. After the

fun of the title

track, Mercury

and Caballe’s

Barcelona mini-

album sounds

forced. It’s some feat

that the rarities on

the third disc are even

more pedestrian. JE

Essentially unknowable even –

perhaps especially – after the

Bohemian Rhapsody biopic,

Freddie Mercury gave away no

clues to his inner life in his music

away from Queen. It’s wholly

fi tting his solo boxset does well

to hide its lack of substance with

fl amboyant extras: a colourful

120-page book, a poster and

an art print join the three CDs

and a Blu-ray disc. Mercury

and Montserrat Caballé singing

Barcelona at Ibiza’s Ku Klub

was his last great performance,

DAVID BOWIE

CONVERSATION PIECE

PARLOPHONE

★★★

The major complaint you can

level against the otherwise

gold-standard current Bowie

boxset series is the lack of

unreleased material. A collection

based around the Space

Oddity breakthrough period of

1968-69, Conversation Piece

fi xes that – but in a messy

fashion wholly unsatisfactory by

Bowie standards. Much of the

unreleased material has already

been teased by three vinyl

boxes, which collectors will have

snapped up for a total of £120.

All of it’s here – alongside 12

additional demos which aren’t

on vinyl, as Conversation

Piece is only on CD and

streaming services. At £85, the

5-CD set is overpriced by

£20 any way.

The format and pricing

debacle is so disappointing,

as fi nally hearing unreleased

Bowie songs is a gorgeous

experience. Angel Angel

Grubby Face is a lovely

bit of whimsy. Made with

future sleeve designer George

Underwood, the primitive

Hole In The Ground hints at

glam and has some great slide

guitar. Some is queasy folk of a

piece with the previous Deram

Records album but, y’know, it’s

UNHEARD BOWIE.

Conversation Piece feels

comprehensive, but it also

feels exploitative. When the

unreleased golden years Bowie

starts to emerge, you really hope

his camp has a more sensible

release policy in place. JE