SPARKS ALBUMS RANKED AND REVIEWED - INDISCREET (1975) 

Sparks are very talented and unique Larry and Hospitality On Parade's a great song,a little Beatlesque,Get In The Swing is also a good song,in the video Ron Mael reminds me of an evil Charlie Chaplin,can you imagine a guy like that living next door to you! Bob.

My favourite album of all time, and the first I ever owned. I heard the number one song in heaven in 1979 thinking sparks were a new band. My sisters boyfriend at the time already liked them and gave me indiscreet the following week. I still have that same copy, and it's one of my most treasured sparks items. He passed away a few years ago now, but I often wonder how he'd feel about sparks recent chart successes with hippopotamus and a steady drip, drip, drip. Every song is great. Hospitality on parade, happy hunting ground, looks looks looks, and miss the start, miss the end are fantastic. But my favourite song from indiscreet is under the table with her, another of my top 10 all time favourite sparks songs. I love the string quartet arrangements and Russell's vocals. Sorry to be long winded, but indiscreet is a huge part of my sparks story. Thanks for the review Larry, and I look forward to your big beat one. 😊

Definetly an album that deserves the masterpiece status.

I have attempted to check out Sparks many times in the past and truthfully have never really gotten the appeal. However, I listened to hospitality on parade again which was one of the songs I thought was okay before and really enjoyed it. So I will continue to give them a chance as it seems it takes time to understand them. Great video!

For years, this was just the album with "Get in the Swing" on it for me. Then I bought it and Happy Hunting Ground pushed it to the top of my Sparks album rankings.

That grocery bag photo is one of my very favorite (I had the poster included with the LP framed) and was shot in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, where I saw Sparks perform many times (they performed in the auditorium, not the parking lot). One time my friend and I followed the Maels' limo back to their hotel after the concert (yes, a hotel even though they lived in LA), hurtling on and off freeways and through yellow lighted intersections at speeds I'd never driven before, so that my friend could then leap out of the car to get autographs at the hotel. While that was happening, the limo driver came up to my car and said "Great driving!" The very next night at the very next Sparks concert to another full house at the same venue, my friend and I waited outside the stage door to catch a glimpse of (but not follow again) the Maels. A business-suited guy came out of the building and slapped his backstage pass on my chest, and my friend and I went into the backstage area and the Maels' dressing room. Listen to my podcast to find out what happened next! www.andystreasuretrove.com.

Hi there 🙂. FYI the magazine Classic Pop outta the UK has Sparks on it's current issue. Thought you might want to know. I just ordered me a copy. I called a local record-CD store in my area and they had 4-5 CDs by Sparks, including Propaganda. I went there today and somebody bought Propaganda CD last night. I couldn't believe it lol. I should've had them hold it for me. I still picked up Indiscreet and Big Beat CDs. The only other one I have is the deluxe edition of Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins. What a unique experience it is listening to Sparks. Thank you for your great content Larry 🙂

Indiscreet is the album that many Sparks followers consider their best. In the 70’s I was ranking Indiscreet first or second but since that, Sparks have produced so many good offerings that it has slipped to 7th place in my appreciation. For my Sparks, One Album One Song playlist I choose In the Future. Bonus tracks rarely match original album songs but in my advice Profile could have figured decently on the Indiscrreet original release.

Happy Hunting Ground in particular sounds ahead of its time to me like something from the 1977 British punk era.

This is another classic album and one of their very top best. Not a favourite number 1 album in their discography but it is another variety packed and fun masterpiece. Propaganda is my favourite.

Hands down my favourite Sparks album. That said, my brother forced me to buy it off him with my birthday money and I didn't get it( I was only about 10 at the time!)..I have grown up with this record and after several hundred plays, it is now completely under my skin!.I liken it in variety to Peter Gabriels' first album, rich and diverse, a veritable smorgasbord!!..ha!.. My favourites are Hospitality on Parade , Get in The Swing, Miss The Start, Miss The End. Nice one Larry, really enjoying these reviews.😉👍

Listening to your review Of Indiscrete I just wish I could invite you round and we could spend the evening listening to and talking about Sparks Albums and inparticular this one TV is an FB friend of mine too because yes he produced Bowie but he also produced most T.REX and they are my absolute favourite band in all the world but Sparks are up their too (as I think you know) now you're in Canada and I'm here in Wales and it's like 'here in heaven' when I think of our seperation :D (now I've made myself laugh - shall I post this - oh well in for a penny....

I actually own that album. I bought it in 1978 in the dollar bin at my area record store. I bought it for the cover. Some fantastic tracks on this album... always loved ‘this lady is lingering’

Larry, ever hear "The Marriage of Russel Mael to Jaqueline Kennedy"? It was the flip of the "Looks, Looks, Looks" 45.

This was my favorite Sparks album for some time, until Propaganda grew stronger on me. Now, it's my 2nd, with Kimono as 3rd favorite, overall (though they could be tied, really.) Still an excellent album, with more orchestral arrangements this time around. Love everything on here, but top picks for me would be Without Using Hands, the giddy caroling of Get In The Swing, It Ain't 1918, the all-too-chic In The Future, and the jump/big-band/swing-fused Looks Looks Looks. These boys were badass...still are!

I gotta say Sparks do have some wicked covers!

I’m impressed that you corresponded with Visconti.

I got this after Propaganda. This didn't quite hit the heights of Propaganda for me but it was a cigarette paper between the two. I still loved it and I still do. I am looking forward to hearing your other reviews as I stopped getting their albums after that for about 20 years ( in Britain, I think they stopped having hits until No1 song in Heaven - so got less radio play)

I really can't tell which one of Kimono/Propaganda/Indiscreet I prefer. All equally at the top ! But I can say that Indiscreet has my favourite album cover. My favourite track on this one ? Same, very hard to tell, it would be one between Hospitality on Parade / Get in the swing / Without Using Hands.

Great album, not sure why some have disparaged ‘In the Future’. I think it’s one of the best songs on the album, manic tempo and oddly prescient lyrics which I always took to refer to the negative effects of consumerism/capitalism. Could just be me though?

My favourite song on this album is "Under the table with her". :)

Indiscreet to me is their greatest album, every song is a killer, Hospitality On Parade, Happy Hunting Ground, Get In The Swing, ("but they have their friends" part is probably my favorite Sparks moment ever), How Are You Getting Home? is a punk song before punk was a real thing, Tits and Lady Is Lingering are also among their best and as you said the variety on this album is what makes it so great.

I just got a copy of this one on cd this afternoon. I have played it a couple of times. It's awesome!

I Loved Sparks in the 70's. NOT into them in the 80's and then I loved them again in the 1990's and later. Kind of like Bowie actually! My two favorites, 'Kimono my House' and 'Gratuitous Sax and Senseless violins' as the best examples of their strong early and the later era Sparks that I prefer, Their 80's stuff left me totally cold and indifferent to the point i forgot they even existed. ('Number One in Heaven' being their last good song until much later for me) But then came their second era of greatness which has even more great material in than their classic 70's stuff IMHO. No other band has ever come back stronger for a 2nd reign after an initial era of success. Not even Bowie!

Even though you already said that you like some Bob Dylan's albums, it would be cool if you did a 'Bob Dylan albums ranked and reviewed'. I mean, the lyrics are 10/10 in every album, especially on Blood On The Tracks. Just a sugestion! Great video as usual.

Indiscreet (1975) -Great songs: Hospitality On Parade, Happy Hunting Ground, The Lady Is Lingering, Profile -Good songs: Without Using Hands, Get In The Swing, How Are You Getting Home, Tits, Miss The Start Miss The End -Normal songs: Under The Table With Her, Pineapple, It Ain't 1918, Looks Looks Looks, The Wedding Of Jacqueline Kennedy To Russell Mael -Bad songs: In The Future Rating: 7(+)/10

Tits, Get in the Swing, Pineapple, etc, it's really hard to pick a favorite from Indiscreet, they all could be contenders for the best song on the album depending on what type of music you're into at the moment. There's a part in Happy Hunting Ground at about 2 minutes 50 where Russell is about to start the ending fade-out, and he takes a really deep breath. Often those kinds of vocalizations are edited out of the final mix but I think it's great they left it in. Sounds like he's really giving it his all, which he is. Some of Ron's best lyrics, and Russell's best singing on this album.

Great Album!!!!

OOH how I loved this LP!! :) Especially of course Hospitality on Parade... but also Looks L L... The Lady is lingering.. and others, all in all a GREAT work! I even know and can sing Hospilaty.. inward nowadays, 30/35 years later!! :But also I have to avoid to hear it again, because its a persistent earworm.. ;-) Greets man, wolfflow

Never Heard Of This Album!

You kinda remind me of Art Bell.

Were you adopted because you look just like my business partner. He was adopted.