One in all rock’s most oft-repeated clichés is that the majority bands discover it “difficult” to make their third album. Effectively, Sparks weren’t – and nonetheless aren’t – like most bands. As a substitute, Ron and Russell Mael’s group sailed by way of their third, Might 1974’s chic Kimono My Home – however whereas that gold-certified, game-changing document yielded mainstream acceptance, its success put Sparks underneath additional strain to ship with their fourth album, Propaganda.
“You’re always hoping there’s enough of an audience that’s expecting something, but making Propaganda was hard because we were under the microscope,” Ron Mael mirrored within the liner notes for Island’s 2006 version of the album. “We knew we’d staked out our own area that we needed to top. We didn’t want to work in a different style, but to evolve.”
Take heed to Sparks’ Propaganda now.
Sparks definitely caught the eyes (and ears) of the broader public of their adopted UK homeland throughout the summer time of 1974. Kimono My Home spawned two sizeable High 10 hits courtesy of the dramatic “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us” and the infectiously poppy “Amateur Hour,” whereas the album itself peaked at No. 4. On high of that, Sparks’ unmissable TV appearances – whereby Russell’s acrobatic vocals and energetic presence starkly contrasted with Ron’s toothbrush mustache and scowling demeanor – briefly turned the Mael brothers into family names.
Regardless of the adulation, Sparks had issues to resolve within the early fall of 1974. Firstly, they needed to endure a personnel reshuffle. The Mael brothers determined to retain the companies of drummer Norman ‘Dinky’ Diamond and guitarist Adrian Fisher from the Kimono My Home lineup, however they enlisted a brand new bassist, Ian Hampton, to interchange the departing Martin Gordon, and so they additionally recruited a second guitarist, Trevor White.
Much more pressingly, they’d no songs left over from the Kimono My Home classes – forcing major songsmith Ron Mael to embark on an intensive writing spree. Mael was prepared. “I remember strumming a guitar or sitting at the piano and just coming up with all these songs,” the keyboardist recalled in 2006. “We were so energized by the reaction to Kimono My House, the creative juices just went into overdrive.”
Whereas he might have written these songs with one eye on the clock, it’s to Mael’s everlasting credit score that Propaganda bore no discernible drop off in high quality from Kimono My Home. Once more recorded at London’s Air Studios with Kimono My Home producer Muff Winwood on the controls, the document supplied high quality from wall to wall. Sparks’ quintessential, glam-tinged rock sound once more triumphed on the likes of “Thanks But No Thanks,” “Don’t Leave Me Alone with Her” and the muscular “At Home, At Work, At Play,” however the document’s tracklist additionally welcomed considerably quirkier fare resembling “Who Don’t Like Kids” and the anthemic, scarf-waving “Reinforcements.”
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Witty, participating, and all the time resonant, all the above displayed Ron’s expertise for writing what Mojo’s Martin Aston known as “narratives of hapless men often pitched against authoritarian women, amid horribly misconceived notions of love.” These days, Sparks’ keyboardist is broadly lauded as one in every of rock’s most singular lyricists, however even this early in his profession, the senior Mael brother was subverting the usual guidelines for writing pop songs.
“I try to avoid clichés musically, or to use clichés in ways that haven’t been used before,” he revealed within the Propaganda liners. “It’s the same with romantic situations. Love songs are generally either happy or sad, but there are so many ways to talk about relationships and put them in a new context. ‘Don’t Leave Me Alone with Her,’ for example, takes the opposite tack to most guys’ wishes.”
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Elsewhere, an typically misunderstood Ron Mael lyric fashioned the premise of Propaganda’s greatest spin-off hit, the slow-burning ballad “Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth.” Misinterpret as a pro-environmental tune by one other grasp lyricist, The Kinks’ Ray Davies, throughout one modern BBC Radio broadcast, the tune truly pertains to what Ron refers to as nature’s “really mean streak” and the way people ought to by no means underestimate its fickle (and risky) qualities. Nonetheless, none of that prevented the tune from capturing to No. 13 within the UK and the album produced a second hit with the storming “Something for the Girl with Everything,” which rose to No. 17.
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The results of photographer Monty Coles’ request “to do something dangerous,” Propaganda got here housed in a memorable sleeve depicting the Mael brothers sure and gagged in a speedboat. It was greeted by a brace of optimistic press notices, with the Los Angeles Instances’ Robert Hilburn suggesting it was “a merger of the concepts/vision of Ray Davies, the wall-of-sound production style (without the tape echo) of Phil Spector, and the lavish peppery arrangement tendencies of [the] A Clockwork Orange soundtrack.”
Formally launched on November 11, 1974, Propaganda deservedly carried on the place Kimono My Home left off, rising to No. 9 on the UK album chart and profitable the band a silver disc. It additionally climbed to No. 63 on North America’s Billboard 200 (astonishingly, nonetheless Sparks’ greatest US album efficiency), and it stays a staunch fan favourite. It’s even the one from Sparks’ preliminary halcyon interval that Ron Mael is most liable to speak up at present.
“Some of the tracks on Kimono My House stand out strongly for me, but for me, Propaganda holds together as a musical piece,” he mentioned in 2006. “Maybe that’s because of the extreme quickness in which it was written, but the quality still holds up. It’s my favorite of the two.”
