Sparks, is a musical group with 50 years of artistic career and its main members and founders are the Americans Ron and Russel Mael. They have been pioneers of glam-rock, synth-pop, disco and techno and have influenced renowned groups and figures such as Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, New Order, Thurston Moore, Bryan Ferry, Beck, David Bowie, and Freddy Mercury.
These brothers studied film, drawing and English literature at university, and founded their first band in 1968, naming it Halfnelson. For two years they recorded demos of songs almost all inspired by film plots, attracting the attention of Philadelphia singer and guitarist Todd Rundgren, who signed them and produced their first album in 1972. The Halfnelson album was a flop.
In the same year a second album was released, A woofer in tweeter's clothing album was also commercially unsuccessful but served to get the group's name out there. Given their lack of success in the United States, the group moved to Great Britain. In May 1974, Sparks presented a somewhat crazy and disturbing song, This town ain't big enough for both of us, on the Top of the Pops program, which quickly became a hit.
This was the group's first TV performance, Russell sang in falsetto and Ron remained impassive in front of his keyboard, throwing sinister glances at the camera and exhibiting a Charle Chaplin-style mustache and even getting himself compared to Hitler. The band changed style with each new album, flirting with punk rock, New Wave, and electronic pop.
This constant evolution of genres and rhythms was perhaps the reason why they were ignored by the public, and critics did not know whether to take them seriously or not.
However, Sparks have managed to experience a rebirth thanks to both FFS, a supergroup they created together with Franz Ferdinand in 2014, and the albums Hippopotamus (2017) and A Steady, Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip (2020).
The Mael Brothers are devoted cinephiles and in 2021 they wrote the story and songs for Annette, a musical directed by Leos Carax winning the Cesar Award for Best Soundtrack.
That same year Edgar Wright directs the documentary The Sparks Brothers, which is proof of a group with many lives and that never stops reinventing itself.
Sparks presents a new album, The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte, which will be released in May; as a bonus track here is the song of the same name from their new album:
The choreographer and female protagonist of this video is none other than Cate Blanchett and her co-directors are Ron and Russel Mael.
I am planning to make a more exhaustive publication about this group in the near future. I'll say goodbye for today and I hope to have made you curious about this influential and unclassifiable group.
Greetings and thanks to 
