Product Description

Freddie Mercury wasn't the only operatic rocker on the block in the mid- '70s. The genre was pretty much taken to its logical conclusion by Ron and Russell Mael, the decidedly oddcouple who formed the nucleus of Sparks. Dropping references to Immanuel Kant and Yehudi Menuhin, these boys weren't your average dumb rock band. KIMONO MY HOUSE was their third album, recorded after the brothers had relocated from LA to London (where tolerance of tongue-in-cheek pomp pop was obviously much higher).
Lyrical wit is in abundance, magnifiedby Russell Mael's soaring falsetto gymnastics. Failure withthe opposite sex is a recurring topic, from the adolescent fumblings of "Amateur Hour" to the resignation of "Falling in Love With Myself Again". It's easy to see why the teenage Morrissey was a dedicated fan. The track that really grabbedthe public's attention was "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both of Us", a classic stomper with a gravity defying melody. KIMONO MY HOUSE is the sound of Sparks firing on all four cylinders, providing one of the most curious and comical albums of the '70s.

Track Listing

1. This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us
2. Amateur Hour
3. Falling In Love With Myself Again
4. Here In Heaven
5. Thank God It's Not Christmas
6. Hasta Manana Monsieur
7. Talent Is An Asset
8. Complaints
9. In My Family
10. Equator
11. Barbecutie
12. Lost And Found

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46622 in Music
• Released on: 1994-08-04
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Sparks have been mixing pure pop with outrageous musical experimentalism and high intelligence for almost 30 years, and Kimono My House is still their best album. If just for "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us", one of the most startling and singular singles ever released, like a wilder and more perverse Roxy Music, or a surrealist Gilbert & Sullivan ("The thunder of stampeding rhinos/ Elephants and tacky tigers"). But "Kimono My House" is full of the same symphonic delirium, Ron Mael's sharp, funny lyrics and brother Russell's vocal acrobatics, self-consciously spectacular songs that seem to be charging in three directions at once, eruptions of extrovert eccentricity. And the fairground whirl of "Amateur Hour" offers better advice to fumbling teenage lovers than any advice column. "It's a lot like playing the violin," suggest Sparks. "You cannot start off and be Yehudi Menuhin." --Taylor Parkes

Customer Reviews

Marlene Dietrich eat your heart out
Yes, ageed one of the best rock albums of all time. I always though they were German till a few years ago such was the influence that Dietrich must have had on the Mael brothers. The pace is relentless from start to finish. Listen to this and you hear so much that they have influenced today and its good to see that they're still going even though they never made an album in this genre after this.

The number one album in heaven?
Sparks' 'Kimono My House' ranks as one of the greatest albums of all time- despite the fact Sparks have created a wealth of excellent records, this is one that stands out. It's a record that has been cited as an influence, or just is an influence, by/of such acts as Morrissey, Depeche Mode, Siouxsie & the Banshees, New Order, Faith No More, Franz Ferdinand, Associates, The Darkness (and so on...)It's also one of the great long-players of the glam-era, taking its place alongside such classics as Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust', T-Rex's 'Electric Warrior', Roxy Music's 'For Your Pleasure', Todd Rundgren's 'Something/Anything' & Lou Reed's 'Transformer.'

Recorded in the UK, where the Mael-brothers were joined by Dinky Diamond (Drums), Martin Gordon (Bass) & Adrian Fisher (Guitar) - Sparks' had a suitably rock-band sound for their Mael-pop. That line-up have played this album alongside the recent 'Lil' Beethoven' at Morrissey's Meltdown festival and beyond (there is a DVD) Whoever said this album was rubbish & nothing more than 'This Town...' is clearly talking out of their posterior. 'Kimono My House' is loaded with pop-classics, even bonus-track 'Lost and Found' (a dead ringer for Suede, like Ultravox!'s 'Life at Rainbow's End') is a classic!

Highlights on an album populated by highlights include 'Amateur Hour', the caustic 'Talent Is An Asset', the prog-ish 'Equator' & the fantastic ode to narcissism 'Falling in Love with Myself Again.' & these are probably not the uber-highlights, which include the caustic gripe 'Thank God It's Not Christmas' - which with 'Here in Heaven' (Juliet bottles out of the suicide pact) makes clear the reason why Morrissey adores them. The humour is fantastic, and possibly the reason why people don't take this album as seriously as they should- classic-lines include "It's a lot like playing the violin/You cannot start off and be Yehudi Menuhin" ('Amateur Hour') & "You mentioned Kant and I was shocked/You know where I come from none of the girls have such foul tongues" ('Hasta Manana, Monsieur'- up there with Monty Python's playful Philosophy Song!).

The two ultra-uber highlights have to be the most well known track 'This Town...', which is a glampoprockrush which nods sinisterly to war ("You are a Khaki-coloured bombadier- it's Hiroshima that you're nearing...the bullets cannot cut you down")& have the euphoric repetition, "Heartbeat/Increasing heartbeat." & my personal favourite 'Hasta Manana, Monsieur' - which manages to allude to 'Strawberry Fields Forever' intelligently (note to Oasis' 'Go Let It Out') and sounds wonderful with such odd lines such as the refrain, "Kimono My House, Mon Amour/I am sure that this motion don't need no accompanying words/Guess I was wrong because you've fled/Leaving me with my Michelin Guide and a half-empty foreign bed." It's kind of amusing and melancholic, a happy-sad-odd pop-rush that makes me wonder if they're the Kurt Vonnegut of pop-music?

'Kimono My House' is quite reasonably the number one album in heaven - though follow-up 'Propaganda' is as great too!

Don't be fooled
Don't be fooled by the first track, which I still think is the best thing they ever did. This album is really bad. Track 1 is great, track 2 is an almost terrible song almost but not at all like the first track, from then on it is downhill and by the end of the CD you want to die. They are bland and horrid things and this is a bland and horrid album not worth having just for "This Town Ain't Be Enough For Both Of Us". You have been warned!