Customer Reviews

In Outer Space

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the album that introduced me to the weird world of Ron Mael and his singing brother Russell. While this is hardly their best album (that goes to Kimono My House from 1974), it is one that's filled with such sarcasm and downright nastiness that it just elicits wicked laughs whenever I play it.

From "Cool Places," a song sung with Jane Wiedlin that seems to stress the need to be considered cool, even if it means going back to the same places over and over again to be snubbed, to "Popularity," which is clearly written by someone (Mael) who never really fit in in high school, to the nihilistic "Dance, Goddammit," you have the musings of a man who doesn't fit in, can't fit in, but will do his best to stick his square peg into that round hole as long as he can draw a breath. The album cover, which shows Ron being hit quite violently by a pie, while the better-looking Russell remains pie-free, gives you a kind of cryptic idea of what these songs are about.

This album also includes one of the best lines ever written by anyone: "You're the only girl I ever met who hates 'Hey Jude'/ Maybe that the reason that I'm so in love with you." (From Rockin' Girls)

This album is a very wicked, hilarious keeper.

I own the album & it contains some wonderful melodies. Songs such as Popularity, A funch bunch of guys from outer space & Rockin' girls are upbeat highly melodic & instantly catchy electro pop. I'd say 8 out of 10 of the songs on this album are good.

Sparks new album Lil' Beethoven (2002)is out now and it's fantastic!

Nothing is ever as it seems with Sparks. On first listen this sounds like fairly typical early-80s synth-dance music, but there is definitely something very strange and eerie underneath the surface. "Cool Places" opens the album - its a duet with Go-Go Jane Weidlin and one of the most normal tracks on the album - apart from the way Russell Mael sneeringly sings. "Popularity" is superficially a featherweight pop song about meeting up with friends and hanging out; however it is actually sarcastic and misanthropic. "All You Ever Think About Is Sex" has some very odd vocal FX that make the seemingly down-to-earth lyrics sound spooky. "A Fun Bunch Of Guys From Outer Space" is hyper-fast, electronic and dreamy (with Beatle-esque harmonies!). "I Wish I Looked A Little Better" and "Please Baby Please" have some of the most self-critical lyrics I've ever heard, all about being ugly as sin, making a fool of yourself and starting to act weird. "Dance Goddamnit" is sparse, funky and has a spine-tingling electronic tremolo that you have to really concentrate hard to hear. All in all, this is a classic case of "the devil is in the detail". You put this album on and everyone in the room will feel uncomfortable without really knowing why. It's not an easy listen but if you listen closely you can hear so much going on. It has really good stereo effects, hilarious lyrics and catchy melodies. Weird but brilliant.

Not exactly my favorite when it came out, not even liked (by me anyway) due to my adversive relationship with 'dance' music. Looking back now, I realize how far ahead of the rest of us these kitchy geniuses really were.

Although "Cool Places" is still one of their weakest efforts (actually charted in the U.S. - go figure), the brilliant "All You Ever Think About is Sex" shows them at their naughty and infectuous best. In "Dance, Goddammit" the brothers Mael push their cynical wit to yet another delightful extreme.

Not as vital as their 'rock' works in my book, but one of the best chapters in these prolific pixies' 80's dance pop historybook.

New wave, Devo, the Go-Go's, Huamn League...and Sparks. In 1983, the United States finally collided with the time-lines of Ron and Russel Mael. Their keyboard driven eccentric pop and wacky sense of humor fit right into the current musical scene, and with the host of New Wave acts that were all to happy to cite Sparks as one of their primary influences, "Sparks In Outer Space" became the brothers' biggest American hit.

One of those devotees, Jane Wiedlen, teamed up with Russell for the impeccably perky "Cool Places," and the accompanying video drove the single into the US top 50. It was also one of Sparks' catchiest songs in years, with Wieldlen's perky vocal the perfect counterpart to Russell's archness. The other, lesser known duet is a humorous tale of mismatched partners lost at sea, "Lucky Me Lucky You."

In addition to those two songs, we have the goofy "All You Ever Think About Is Sex" and the Devo-ish "A Fun Bunch Of Guys From Outer Space." I have always enjoyed the relatively straightforward "Rockin' Girls," where Russell falls in love "the only girl I ever met who hates 'Hey Jude'." As is the case with many of the best of Sparks' discography, "In Outer Space" always finds a way to subvert the most typical pop conventions with the clever and comic. As far as the 80's were concerned, this was the album to which they did it best, and is easily as good an album as "Propaganda" or "Indiscreet."

this is the best that Sparks put out. Pop 80's New Wave. Great stuff!

I'm glad to find this on cd. I had the tape for years and when it got destroyed it sent me spiraling into a deep chasm of depression that would only be cured by hearing "dance goddammit" one more time. I strongly suggest buying this very rare work

this is one of the rarest sparks collections available, and one of the most popular. im sure there were more tracks on it than what is shown. definitely a "feel good" album.

You won't find a review by a respectable music critic that does anything less that totally trash this album. But let's face it. This album is like a faded 1984 Pontiac Fiero with rips in the seat, stains in the carpet,...............and a Northstar V8 out back - about the most uncool thing you can imagine. But WAY more fun than some slow, ill-handling, but blinged-out Cadillac Escalade (ie the 'cool' music). So take your pick. Oh, and you might not want to let anyone hear you play this CD

Though not entirely a bad album..."Sparks in Outer Space" seems to be the first sell-out for a non-hit based band. Just while Sparks seemed at the height of their success with 82's release of "Angst in My Pants"...so were the Go-Gos with "Vacation." It seemed like the best pieces of the great 80's synthesized rock puzzles. Ironically enough, Jane Wiedlin (formely of the Go-Gos) teamed up w/ the Mael brothers to become a member of this long lost dance crazed classic. Speaking so, Sparks seemed to resist the fashion of making tunes for its more intelligent crowd and jumped for air-waves friendly music instead.

Though I loved "...In Outer Space" when I first purchased it at the age of 11... some 20 years later the appeal wears thin. Avoiding the fact that "Cool Places" seemed to "spark" some radio play...the rest of the album seems too simple and slippery.

"All You Ever Think About is Sex" is among the strengtheist on "...Outer Space." It demonstrates the witty, classic Mael brothers humour from the very opening of the song: "Think of all the places we've had our little fun/ In the church at Christmas, busted by that nun." While "I Wish I Looked a Little Better" almost seems like a sequel to "Funny Face" from their "Whomp That Sucker" album in the lines: "Turn out the light, yeah the light/ And I might have a chance/ I guess I look slightly worse than the Elephant man."

But, while the previous Sparks' albums tended to make its listeners chuckle and laugh, "...In Outer Space" only has its random moments. Not to say it's a bad thing for any band to try out a different turf, the love churned tunes such as "Please, Baby, Please" and "Lucky me, Lucky you" just seem too pop friendly to be recognized as Sparks forgivables.

The only other complaint about this album is its defeat in being timeless. As for an album that sounded good during its time it's sensational, but twenty years later, the "...In Outer Space" sounds like its from another planet. It's too heavily synthesized and it just doesn't prove any justice for the back-up band the Mael brothers had retained at the time (hence, it was perhaps the best line-up since 74's "Kimono My House").