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"If the public were only allowed to hear one song from the new album," says Ron Mael, "I have no doubt that 'Dick Around' would be the one selected to best encapsulate the spirit and scope of our new work."

The track is featured on a seven-inch vinyl edition -- backed by a live version of "Hospitality On Parade" recorded May 20 at The Avalon in Hollywood -- and on CD accompanied by three different live tracks, an alternate version of "(Baby Baby) Can I Invade Your Country," an interview with Ron and Russell conducted by Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and two videos. This is an absolute must-have for any Sparks fan.

30-second MP3 excerpts:

Dick Around
(Baby Baby) Can I Invade Your Country (alt. lyrics)
Happy Hunting Ground
Bon Voyage
In the Future
Interview of Sparks by Steve Jones of Jonesey's Jukebox

If you have a recent version of iTunes software on your computer, clicking on the link immediately below should open the iTunes application and take you to that album's iTunes page-- where you can listen to samples and buy this album, or individual tracks:

go to iTunes to browse downloads for Sparks "Dick Around EP"

For a complete listing of Midheaven exclusive albums available for download from the iTunes Music service and emusic.com, please visit the Midheaven Mailorder/Revolver USA Downloadables page.

"If the public were only allowed to hear one song from the new album," says Ron Mael, "I have no doubt that 'Dick Around' would be the one selected to best encapsulate the spirit and scope of our new work."

The track is featured on a seven-inch vinyl edition -- backed by a live version of "Hospitality On Parade" recorded May 20 at The Avalon in Hollywood -- and on CD accompanied by three different live tracks, an alternate version of "(Baby Baby) Can I Invade Your Country," an interview with Ron and Russell conducted by Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and two videos. This is an absolute must-have for any Sparks fan.

30-second MP3 excerpts:

Dick Around
(Baby Baby) Can I Invade Your Country (alt. lyrics)
Happy Hunting Ground
Bon Voyage
In the Future
Interview of Sparks by Steve Jones of Jonesey's Jukebox

If you have a recent version of iTunes software on your computer, clicking on the link immediately below should open the iTunes application and take you to that album's iTunes page-- where you can listen to samples and buy this album, or individual tracks:

go to iTunes to browse downloads for Sparks "Dick Around EP"

For a complete listing of Midheaven exclusive albums available for download from the iTunes Music service and emusic.com, please visit the Midheaven Mailorder/Revolver USA Downloadables page.

When Sparks' last album Lil'Beethoven hit the streets critics lauded and applauded, fans smiled smugly with overdue vindication and fellow musicians wept when faced with the reality that, once again, Sparks had raised the bar by which all other albums should be judged.

Now the Angeleno brothers, Ron and Russell Mael present Hello Young Lovers, their twentieth album. To achieve such enormity and expansiveness they worked in a limitless vacuum for the best part of eighteen months. The only inspiration taken from any current music was the provocation to go as far as possible in the opposite direction. When writing and recording Lil' Beethoven, Sparks broke the rules, but in creating Hello Young Lovers the rule book has been thrown away. Once again, the Angelenos are joined by Tammy Glover on drums and guitarist Dean Menta with special guests Jim Wilson on guitar and Steve McDonald on bass. The resulting album is an extraordinary masterpiece.

• 20th release from pop chameleons and former young menswear models Ron and Russell Mael Angeleno

• Follow up to 2002's critically acclaimed Lil' Beethoven

  30-second MP3 excerpts:

  Dick Around
  Perfume
  The Very Next Fight
  (Baby Baby) Can I Invade Your Country?
  Rock Rock Rock
  Metaphor
  Waterproof
  Here Kitty
  There's No Such Thing Than Alien
  As I Sit Down To Play The Organ At The Notre Dame Cathedral

  If you have a recent version of iTunes software on your computer, clicking on the link immediately below should open the iTunes application and take you to that album's iTunes page-- where you can listen to samples and buy this album, or individual tracks:

  go to iTunes to browse downloads for Sparks "Hello Young Lovers"

  For a complete listing of Midheaven exclusive albums available for download from the iTunes Music service, please visit the Midheaven Mailorder/Revolver USA Downloadables page.

On their incomparable new album, Sparks protest predictability, obliterate the ordinary and demand utmost respect. Hello Young Lovers is cinematic, bold, and lyrically liberal, with moments of sheer beauty, dissonance and harmony. It may not win a Grammy, but an Oscar's not out of the question. Never, never, has there been an auditory assault of such magnitude presented in the realm of pop music.

When Sparks' last album Lil'Beethoven hit the streets critics lauded and applauded, fans smiled smugly with overdue vindication and fellow musicians wept when faced with the reality that, once again, Sparks had raised the bar by which all other albums should be judged.

Now the Angeleno brothers, Ron and Russell Mael present Hello Young Lovers, their twentieth album. To achieve such enormity and expansiveness they worked in a limitless vacuum for the best part of eighteen months. The only inspiration taken from any current music was the provocation to go as far as possible in the opposite direction. When writing and recording Lil' Beethoven, Sparks broke the rules, but in creating Hello Young Lovers the rule book has been thrown away. Once again, the Angelenos are joined by Tammy Glover on drums and guitarist Dean Menta with special guests Jim Wilson on guitar and Steve McDonald on bass. The resulting album is an extraordinary masterpiece.

• 20th release from pop chameleons and former young menswear models Ron and Russell Mael Angeleno

• Follow up to 2002's critically acclaimed Lil' Beethoven

  30-second MP3 excerpts:

  Dick Around
  Perfume
  The Very Next Fight
  (Baby Baby) Can I Invade Your Country?
  Rock Rock Rock
  Metaphor
  Waterproof
  Here Kitty
  There's No Such Thing Than Alien
  As I Sit Down To Play The Organ At The Notre Dame Cathedral

  If you have a recent version of iTunes software on your computer, clicking on the link immediately below should open the iTunes application and take you to that album's iTunes page-- where you can listen to samples and buy this album, or individual tracks:

  go to iTunes to browse downloads for Sparks "Hello Young Lovers"

  For a complete listing of Midheaven exclusive albums available for download from the iTunes Music service, please visit the Midheaven Mailorder/Revolver USA Downloadables page.

The result of a year spent in near-isolation, Exotic Creatures of the Deep could, perhaps, be seen as a natural evolution from their last two records, on which pop-opera, rock, and high drama combined to redefine Sparks' sound. During these recent times, the cognoscenti have lauded and applauded Sparks while enjoying membership of an exclusive club. However, the remarkably exceptional and notably catchy creations on Exotic Creatures of the Deep are the key that enables many more, as Sparks have said, to "come and meet them."

30-second MP3 excerpts:

Intro
Good Morning
Strange Animal
I Cant Believe You Would Fall For All The Crap In This Song
Let The Monkey Drive
Intro Reprise
I've Never Been High
(She Got Me) Pregnant
Lighten Up, Morrissey
This Is The Renaissance
The Director Never Yelled 'Cut'
Photoshop
Likeable

If you have a recent version of iTunes software on your computer, clicking on the link immediately below should open the iTunes application and take you to that album's iTunes page-- where you can listen to samples and buy this album, or individual tracks:

Go to iTunes to browse downloads for SPARKS "Exotic Creatures of the Deep"

If you have a subscription account at emusic.com, you can download tracks for purchase here.

This title is also available for download at AmazonMP3.

For a complete listing of Midheaven exclusive albums available for download from the iTunes Music Service and emusic, please visit the Midheaven Mailorder/Revolver USA Downloadables page.

David Bowie wasn't the only chameleonic figure in '70s rock. Introducing Sparks finds the Mael brothers, in the company of an array of top session musicians (mirroring Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan in this respect), caught between the innovative glam-prog-pop of their four early-to-mid-'70s Island albums (Kimono My House, Propaganda, Indiscreet, Big Beat) and the audacious proto-electro of their 1979 collaboration with Giorgio Moroder (No. 1 in Heaven).

Introducing Sparks was their first and only album for Columbia, who pushed the boat out at the time by releasing it on red vinyl. They also spared no expense when it came to the recording, allowing or perhaps encouraging Ron and Russell to engage the cream of LA's backing singers and session guns for hire. Just as the front and back cover of the album presents our heroes as faux matinee idols, all soft-focus and airbrushed perfection, so Introducing Sparks has a polished, slick, sophisticated, big-budget sound that reflects the record company's desire to get the Maels' music on the radio.

Heard today, Introducing Sparks sounds less like made-for-heavy-rotation AOR and more like a comment on, or rather series of pastiches of (all right, then: acerbic attacks on) daytime US radio-fodder: imagine Randy Newman as program controller in charge of America's airwaves for some idea of this satirical yet highly commercial meta-rock.

30-second MP3 excerpts:

A Big Surprise
Occupation
Ladies
I'm Not
Forever Young
Goofing Off
Girls On The Brain
Over The Summer
Those Mysteries

If you have a recent version of iTunes software on your computer, clicking on the link immediately below should open the iTunes application and take you to that album's iTunes page-- where you can listen to samples and buy this album, or individual tracks:

Go to iTunes to browse downloads for SPARKS "Introducing Sparks"

If you have a subscription account at emusic.com, you can download tracks for purchase here.

This title is also available for download at AmazonMP3

For a complete listing of Midheaven exclusive albums available for download from the iTunes Music Service and emusic, please visit the Midheaven Mailorder/Revolver USA Downloadables page.

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