For a duo with a combined age topping 150, Sparks have pulled off a dazzling sustained career renaissance in recent years. After a run of Top 10 albums, Edgar Wright’s all-star bio-documentary The Sparks Brothers (2021), Leo Carax’s prizewinning collaborative musical Annette (2021) and more, the veteran LA avant-glam brothers Ron and Russell Mael have become their own greatest creations, a deliciously surreal living artwork. To quote Todd Rundgren, who produced their 1971 debut and worked with them again recently: “There is some comfort in the fact that something this weird can survive that long.”
With appealing symmetry, the Maels have returned to Island Records almost 50 years since the label launched their mainstream pop career. As determinedly quirky as its title, The Girl is Crying In Her Latte is a very strong collection of vintage Sparks moods, plus a few new left-field twists.
