Forget The Darkness and Queen - The Mael brothers are back with a vengeance!

Ron & Russell Mael from Sparks have experienced a renaissance over the past year with their appearance in British Whale's cover of their 1974 classic "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us". Something must have made their ears burn with all the time they spent languishing in the dance scene to want to return to their rock roots, but without being too retro.
Opening up with the originally proposed single "Dick Around", this is quite possibly the best Sparks track to come out in years. It's chopping and changing moods from a brutal smack in the face operatic track to a blistering thrash metal stomper shows that Sparks aren't afraid to rock out or keep the listener guessing as to what could happen next. "Perfume" sounds like a cross between Mud's "Tiger Feet" and Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5" with an instantly catchy piano track, some nice growling guitars and Russell proposing to a woman because of her lack of interest in perfume and his dislike of the past.
"Metaphor" is a grower, but it owes more to a genre that Sparks had previously ignored: American AOR. Nice to hear Russell's trademark falsetto back on this track, as well as the guitar solos.
Sparks go protest rock on the Latin-Americanish "Baby Baby (Can I Invade Your Country)", which sounds okay on first listen but the joke quickly wears off. "Waterproof" goes back to their heyday of 1974 with it's cute singalong of being a heartless person until it goes into a dizzying rock opus with pounding drums and fuzzed guitars.
Other tracks like "Hey Kitty", "The Very Next Fight" and "As I Sit Down To Play The Organ At Notre Dame Cathedral" take a bit of getting used to if you are not accustomed to Ron Mael's irreverant songwriting style. They are at best quirky, and at better demanding of your intellectual attention.
This album might not make major inroads in the Top 40, but it is certainly one that challenges your pop sensibilities. You can just see Ron & Russell having the last laugh at fellow po-faced indie bands, and jumping with joy to have an album that has been so well-received by a once lambasting press that shat on them for selling out to disco. Rock, rock, rock with the Maels! You won't be disappointed!