Lil Beethoven [Import, Limited Edition]

Sparks | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 1, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Limited Edition
• Label: Fullfill
• ASIN: B000070WRJ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #803,835 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Rhythm Thief

2. How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall

3. What Are All These Bands So Angry About

4. I Married Myself

5. Ride Em Cowboy

6. My Babys Taking Me Home

7. Your Calls Very Important To Us Please Hold

8. Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls

9. Suburban Homeboy

Editorial Reviews

Nine scintillating works of seduction and self-delusion by the diminutive master of the art of musical overkill. Lil' Beethoven is performed, written, and produced by Ron Mael and Russel Mael. Drummer Tammy Glover, and former Faith No More guitarist, Dean

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genius is a bumpy and lonely road, December 19, 2002

By 

David R. Swanson (Rocky River, OHIO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lil Beethoven (Audio CD)

God bless Ron and Russ Mael. They have provided the world with some of the most fantastic records of all time. From the understated and twisted sound of the first two lp's through the holy trinity that is "Kimono My House", "Propoganda" and "Indiscreet". Those three LP 's alone would make a place for Sparks in the higher plane of existance in rock and roll. Much music followed, some great, some good some, well they can't all be winners. The brothers have long dabbled in dance music way back when it was actually called disco ("#1 In Heaven") and they have stayed with the more electro side of things for some time now. I am pleased to announce that "the beat" is now banished. The first song here lays it out-"...I am the rythm thief, say goodbye to the beat". This CD is so utterly amazing I cannot possibly do it justice in a few paragraphs. There are strings, multi layered vocals, beautiful piano, full blown orchestration, drums and yes...guitars! The lyrics, as always, are genius. "What Are All These Bands So Angry About?", "I Married Myself", "Suburban Homeboy". Amazing! The flow of this thing is perfect as well. It is really structured like an album! Not one of those, put the catchiest songs at the beginning and pad the rest, this is perfectly paced and timed. Just cause you can fit 80 minutes on a cd doesn't mean you have to. the 41 minutes here will do just fine thank you. "Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls" is hands down my favorite here and is thee most rocking Sparks track in ohh sooo long. I would venture to say this is their best record since 1975's "Indiscreet". It certainly is the most consistant and engaging since that LP. It's good to know that creativity is not lost from one of the most creative. Buy this cd and a smile will come to your face and a song to your heart. Other people may give you funny looks, but that's the way it goes. Personally, I have listened to this CD nearly every day since it came out and it just keeps getting better. No, I am not insane. Just a longtime fan who is beyond happy with this one. I will stop now. Thank you. Goodnight.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SPARKS HAVE BALLS!!!, January 24, 2004

By 

F. M. Moses "insultant1" (Blacklick, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lil Beethoven (Audio CD)

The Mael brothers have done it again! They've redefined the musicical standards & have gone where no other band has gone before. As 1997's "Plagarism" proved -- the brothers sounded good on just about any musical style, from classicly orchestrated music to hard rock!

"Lil' Beethoven" is perhaps Sparks best advante-garde piece since the early 70's. Even then the band knew how to shock the critics -- either you loved them or hated em'. From the beginning of Sparks career, the Mael brothers knew how to create shock lyrics. Take "Fletcher Honorama" from the debut album for example, the song was written about throwing a party for a man on his death bed instead of having a gathering after the funeral! "Wonder Girl" reveals the lifestyles of the rich and famous & their spoiled children: "She was a wonder to her dad/A self-made man who owned all that he had/And after all, self-made men have daughters who just don't bail.

Just when the band's previous album, "Balls," seemed to address the "No.1 Song in Heaven" & "Music that You Can Dance to" fans, "Lil' Beethoven" revisits the early years of the debut self-titled album to 77's "Introducing Sparks." Not in the instrumental sense, but in its lyrical content. In fact, if you enjoy this album, don't hesitate to hunt for the band's first seven gems!

"Lil' Beethoven" will have you listening & listening all over again. It is the soundtrack of the 2000's and proof that mass-marketing is over-stated and over-done. Sparks have nothing to hide on this one! "Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls" could become the theme for the next reality series, where the victim is a man of good looks and personality, who loses his lover to a man with money. In the world of "friendly" customer service & mass communication, Sparks have proven just how far we've gone in the techno world with "Your Call's Very Important to Us, Please Hold." In the age of post-modern fury, "The Rhythm Thief" reveals the era of musical sampling and rip-offs. While, "What are All These Bands so Angry About" is perhaps a message to bands like Stained and Nickelback that write the same crybaby lyrics for the same dramatic fools!

"Lil' Beethoven" is the best album of 2003! It is instrumentally refeshing and lyrically rejuvinating! Sparks haven't missed a cue on this one. It is simply Sparks at their best!

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unexpected masterpiece, July 8, 2003

By 

Michael C. Bennett "http://habloennui.blogspo... (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lil Beethoven (Audio CD)

In promoting this disc, Ron and Russell Mael continually noted how they wanted to make a record that rewrote their own rules. That they did. Ron is back playing piano. As announced by the opener "The Rhythm Thief", it's time to "say goodbye to the beat". No more dance tunes. Songs are fueled by strings (albeit synthesized strings) and often augmented by heavily layered choruses of Russell Mael. The effect on some songs is to create some sort of pop opera -- but unlike Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody",which applied modern techniques while trying to sound old, Sparks is bringing back the old to be newer than ever.
Two tracks serve as the center of the album's thematic premise. The former encapsulates the style. "My Baby's Taking Me Home" compresses Russell's vocal, accompanied only by some backing vocals and Ron's saloon style piano, coming off like a blast from a `20s speakeasy. And Russell sings the title phrase...again and again and again. The backing vocals swell into a chorus, the keyboards come in more fully, a hint of guitar creeps in. The Maels just keep adding element after element into the mix. The song is the hook from a Tin Pan Alley ditty elevated to massive status. The only deviation is a brief spoken interlude that explains this repetitive chorus is the sound that two lovers hear in their heads. Finally, the beat kicks in. This song has two strong joyous foundations -- one is the sheer joy of creative effort, the other is how it boils love and attraction to an essence.
The other key thematic track is "What Are All These Bands So Angry About?". At one level, the song is a mere jape, Russell noting "hey everybody, they called our bluff/our profane ain't profane enough". His deadpan vocal is accompanied by another angelic operatic chorus. Right away, this commentary on superficial p----- off dudes in bandanas and baggy jeans gains weight due to Sparks expressing their view in music that is 180 degrees the opposite of the nu metal noise. Then Ron and Russell's lyrics bring it home: "Beethoven, Coltrane, or Lady Day/some might have done it, but not today...Wagner, Tatum, or Howlin' Wolf/some might have done what we'll never do." By contrasting the emptiness of current popular rock with truly substantive artists, the Maels really expose the cynicism of contemporary `rebellious' music, noting how pain and other genuine emotions have been so much better expressed without all of the bluster. These observations are all the more interesting coming on a track that is so baroque and coming from a band who is best known for writing for the head and not the heart.
Yet this song and the whole album show that music from the heart can be made more for the head -- this is not that emotional of an album, but it is wholly human. At one level it is light entertainment, but at another level it is a plea for musicians to make music for a purpose, whether's it's to express an idea or to pour out your soul (and not the act of appearing to pour out your soul -- there's a difference).
There are two other phenomenonal tracks. "Ugly Guys with Beautiful Girls" comes in on a whisper, the quiet broken by Russell's yelping and the serrated guitar work of Dean (ex-Faith No More) Menta. Sparks has not rocked so much since 1973's "Whippings and Apologies", as Russell narrates the verses, trying to explain the conundrum set forth in the title. This song uses dynamics very well. The most conventional song, "I Married Myself", is simply a superbly written soft pop song. It seems to be a sequel to the 1974 Kimono My House classic "Falling in Love with Myself Again" (and Sparks has revisited themes before -- this is the band that has recorded two songs from the viewpoint of a sperm). The lyrics are again pretty spartan, as Russell extols the virtues of solo "long walks on the beach...candlelight dinners home". The symphonic touches here are joined by some jazzy horn and vibes touches. It's post-modern demented Sinatra.
Wisely, the band ends what is a fairly intense album (and it should be intense, it's throwing down a gauntlet, after all) with pure whimsy. "Suburban Homeboy" scores a bullseye on an easy target. Taking on upper class white wannabes may seem easy, but the observations are funny and setting them to what sounds like a melody from a `40s movie musical is brilliant: "I'll pop a cap/up some fool at the Gap".
Ira Robbins once wrote that "Sparks remain unpredictably capable of greatness each time they enter the studio." This album puts an exclamation point on this notion. Maybe other bands can take this masterful album as a call to try something new on their own records.