The Burning of the Midnight Amp

In this episode we kick off our track-by-track journey through Sparks’ Terminal Jive (1980) with “When I’m With You.” The only one of Ron Mael’s twenty proposed songs that Giorgio Moroder kept for th…

We’re back on the Sparks track! After a brief detour into Noël’s side project Is There More to Life Than Dancing?, Frode, Trond, and Chris return to the Mael brothers’ main discography to explore Ter…

We wrap up our exploration of Noël’s Sparks-produced album with a real surprise: the bonus track “I Just Want to Be Seen With You.”

Recorded in the same 1979 sessions but unreleased until 2024, this s…

We close out Noël’s Sparks-produced disco experiment with the fifth and final track, “I Want a Man.”

This one divided the panel: Frode finds it quirky and intriguing, appreciating its off-kilter bassl…

We’re nearing the end of our deep dive into Noël’s Is There More to Life Than Dancing?—the 1979 Sparks-produced disco experiment—with the fourth track, “Au Revoir.”

Clocking in at a far more digestibl…

We’re on to Side B of Noël’s Is There More to Life Than Dancing?, Sparks’ mysterious 1979 disco side project, with the sprawling third track, “The Night They Invented Love.”

At over 9 minutes, this on…

In this episode, we continue our deep dive into Noël’s Is There More to Life Than Dancing?—the obscure Sparks-produced side project from 1979—by tackling its title track.

Clocking in at over 8 minutes…

In this episode, we kick off a new series diving into Is There More to Life Than Dancing?, the obscure 1979 side project by Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, fronted by the mysterious singer Noël.

We se…

We reach the grand finale of Sparks’ landmark album No. 1 in Heaven: the sprawling, two-part epic “The Number One Song in Heaven.”

We dive deep into its structure—shifting from a slow, celestial openi…

In this episode we delve into “My Other Voice,” the fifth track from Sparks’ No. 1 in Heaven. For one of us, it’s a hidden jewel — or maybe not so hidden, given how powerfully it stands out. The song…

We're flipping the record and diving into Side B of No. 1 in Heaven with “Beat the Clock”—Sparks’ urgent, synth-charged sprint into the UK Top 10. It’s fast, frantic, and funny, with Giorgio Moroder’…

We’re back with La Dolce Vita, the third track on No. 1 in Heaven—and the first single released from Sparks’ landmark collaboration with Giorgio Moroder. Despite being the album’s public debut, the t…

In this episode, we dive into Academy Award Performance, the lone track on No. 1 in Heaven written solely by Ron Mael. As the most “classic Sparks” song on the album, it stands out for its theatrical…

We return to Sparks’ No. 1 in Heaven with a deep dive into its powerful opening track, Tryouts for the Human Race. But first—live show recaps! All three hosts recently saw Sparks live, and the energy…

Sparks go electronic! In this episode, we explore how Ron and Russell Mael ditched guitars, embraced synthesizers, and joined forces with Giorgio Moroder to craft No. 1 in Heaven—a dazzling, divisive…