Kimono My House

Played it through twice, it made me want to skip down the street!!!!!

"Kimono My House" is a dramatic and bombastic album, packed with exceptional musicality, sophisticated arrangements, intricate lyrical wit, and wonderful falsetto vocal harmonies. The first side is brilliantly eclectic and, to my mind, absolute perfection. Side two, while still containing very good songs, does not quite match its sibling, lacking one or two truly standout tracks to lift it to the same height. For an album that is now over 50 years old, the production by Muff Winwood holds up remarkably well. It remains remarkably sharp, dynamic, and uncluttered. "Kimono My House" marks the moment where everything clicked for Sparks, serving as the first of their great records. For many casual listeners at the time, the band seemed to fade away after this era, but their career was only just beginning. They went on to build a vast and high-quality discography that continues right up to their most recent releases. While "Kimono My House" is not my personal favourite album in their catalogue, it remains the essential, foundational cornerstone of their work. Side one 1 "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" (5/5) 2 "Amateur Hour" (5/5) 3 "Falling in Love with Myself Again" (5/5) 4 "Here in Heaven" (5/5) 5 "Thank God It's Not Christmas" (5/5) Side two 6 "Hasta Mañana, Monsieur" (4/5) 7 "Talent Is an Asset" (4/5) 8 "Complaints" (4/5) 9 "In My Family" (4/5) 10 "Equator" (4/5) Total - 45 Average - 4.5 445/1001 236/445 albums reviewed were new to me.

I feel like I’ve been punked and someone let the kiddies into the recording studio. Of course after suffering through this annoying shit I belatedly read the Wiki and surprise surprise, another lame UK band, and this one from the Golden Era when the UK produced giants and legends. Suffering hell this was just bad.

Flamboyant royal court musicians discover Bowie, Queen and cocaine.

What the fuck was this? I have no clue what I listened to and whether I loved it or hated it

This guy annoyed me most the album

This one is pretty wild, definitely catches my attention, but not always in the way I want. Some stuff kinda catchy, and sometimes the vocals are just not good.

I enjoyed it and it was verging towards a 4 but it didn’t wholeheartedly grab me. Maybe it was the day I listened but thems the breaks

So close to being tolerable. Bad punk with whatever that singing was

not really my vibe. like it’s not unlistenable but it’s not something I would go out of my way to find/listen to. I think it’s the vocals and how repetitive the songs are. Talent is an asset I liked. complaints too.

This is an American band? They larped UK glam rock pretty good. I don't like the operatic voices they do here but the energy of the production is nice. Reminds me of Roxy Music, which already comes off as mid to me (2.5-3).

I was aware of Sparks from their collaboration on the song “Happy dictator” on the latest Gorillaz album and actually saw them perform as the support act at the concert for that album, so I was happy to have the chance to listen to this one. While I’m not a huge glam rock listener but I do enjoy the work of Bowie and T. Rex so it was fun to listen to an album with similar qualities to some of this work. There was also some comparisons to Queen. The instrumentation is big and expansive while the vocal performance is soaring and almost operatic, with a lot of drama in the delivery. The overall sound is weird (non-derogatory), often highly dynamic and shifting. This can make for a really fun and compelling listen but at times also highlights my main issue with this sort of glam rock. When it works for me it really works but in a few of the songs here there are so many dramatic flourishes and changes in sound that I’m not able to be fully immersed in the music. I also felt this meant some of the songs sounded very similar and therefore indistinct, meaning the album dragged at points. I think amongst all the drama and flamboyance there needs to be a good hook, holding everything down. I appreciate this was a first listen though and this may be mitigated by more plays. Overall this was still a fun listen. Fav songs: Amateur Hour, Equator.

Holy shit, I thought these guys were a late 90’s band due to that remix they did with Mike Patton. Well “f” me in the goat ass. So if I were to sum this up, is operatic gay anthem music. Nothing wrong with it, in fact it is on the plus side of good. It’s repetitive though. Whereas Queen are sort of in the same category, they were able to fine tune the sound and cross spectrums. This, not so much but where it lies is far better than. Culture Club or Wet Wet Wet Choice cut: This Town Ain’t Big enough for the both of Us

very very fun album. theatric, high energy, bit ridiculous but in a good way favourite songs: falling in love with myself again, hasta manana, monsieur, in my family

Saw them live a couple of months ago, it's impressive that in over 50 years neither of them have lost their energy and passion for performing these songs, and this album perfectly shows off that energy.

It is hard to believe that this album was released in 1974! Way ahead of its time. This music was way ahead of its time. There are not many pop, or pop-adjacent, albums that I would describe as innovative, but this album is among them. Exceptional songwriting throughout. The falsetto and range of Russel Mael’s voice is impressive throughout. Sparks always incorporate humor into their lyrics and there are points where this is a little cringe now, but it is also >50 years later. Sensibilities change, especially those elements that were intended to be weird. Art rock with pop hooks, love it! It has been too long since I listened to Sparks, something I intend to remedy.

This feels like it was just added to say the author has a deeper understanding of music than you

Glam Rock.

Fun album, light-hearted songs and great execution. I hope I listen to this band more often, as it's very underrated.

It's alright? Those vocals are not nice, no matter what people say. I guess this is basically fun to listen to, and maybe even a little ahead of its time...but is it? It's like a worse version of Queen. But Queen was around and big at this time anyway. So why not just listen to Queen?

This was nuts, mostly in a good way. It felt like a campier version of "A Wizard, A True Star." And I felt like that campy attitude may have influenced many more people than Todd did. For me it made it less moving emotionally. And of course the title and cover image are just embarrassing. Still, I'm glad I encountered it. It's the sort of music I hoped to discover through this project... it's on the family tree of stuff I knew and yet I had never heard of them. I'll have to check out the documentary everyone keeps talking about.

i think i would enjoy more upon relistens

vittu tää pmo

Well..innovative music is sometimes pretty exhausting to listen to. I did not have the patience to listen to it again but I assume it gets better if you do...

Bowie-esque

YGTBFKMWTS 0

Had its ups and downs, but overall fine

This is a fever dream that I could only listen to maybe once a year. It's insane but in a good way

Opening track obviously a killer, but sort of failed to hold my attention after that. Probably deserves a re-listen.

Miles better than i expected it to be which is either a comment on the album quality or on my level of expectation, not sure which....

Brilliantly camp, great vocal range, good album

very weird but the music rocks

First song definitely the strongest. It was listenable but still not my thing

The first song was really interesting but it rapidly devolved in to an average sounding, if talented technically, late 70's style rock band. You can tell all of the members are good at their instruments/vocals/etc, but the songwriting just didn't grab me at all. With such an interesting hook and verse structure in "This town aint big enough for the both of us" I expected more. I guess the sound is ahead of its time. If I didn't know the album came out in the 70's I would've placed it in the 80's.

I can't help but feel like I am at the circus through most of this album. Feels like heavy baroque style rock pop. I really dislike the vocal sound, I can hang for a few songs but 45 minutes of that high shrill gets too me. I like the guitar and piano duels and the album hits a nice stride about 4 songs in but this isn't something I would replay as a whole a ton. I did save a handful of songs to my playlist though, like Amateur Hour, Thank God it's Not Christmas, and Lost And Found.

Listened. That was fun!

These gals walked so Kate Bush could run up that hill

Groupe connu uniquement par ses tubes des années 80 (‘when i’m with you’ entre autre). J’ai été surpris de reconnaître le premier morceau ("This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us") et ses harmonies vocales originales. Les morceaux suivants sont assez originaux eux aussi, avec un son de basse massif. Mais l’album finit par s’essouffler. À réécouter, sans plus. =>3/5

This is quite mad. But definitely in a good way. Know the opening track as it has been a bit of a cult favourite here in the uk, turns out it was a no 2 hit, who knew, well not me for sure. This was, surprisingly a good listen for this morning, which I wasn’t expecting when it came up. And didn’t expect to be able to do the vocal thing for a whole album. But it was actually a comfortable experience. There were definitely points picked up by Queen at that residency at the Marquee club in 72, that’s pretty obvious. This was a nice surprise, not really my thing but a revisit is on the cards 4 Stars

Refactored Review: Sparks – Kimono My House (1974) On Day 282, this record simply did not connect. The eccentric, hyper-theatrical vocal delivery immediately proved distracting, and the dense, cluttered production frequently felt like it was suffocating the vocal track rather than complementing it. While the relentless, upbeat energy of the rhythm section prevented the album from completely collapsing into 1-star territory, the overwhelming lack of breathing room left me thoroughly disengaged from front to back. Outside of momentary flickers like "Lost and Found," there was very little to latch onto amidst the breathless, chaotic arrangements. An exhausting listen. A 2/5.

Just kind of songs. Could have been interesting with the Japanese style but didn’t lean in to it. 4/10

this came out of nowhere and absolutely bowled me over. probably the lowest five I'll give on this album list but I'm easily won over by an androgynous falsetto. went in expecting to hate this, too.

Theatrical glam rock. Weird but enjoyable.

Pretty good - I kind of like it.

I'm really not the biggest fan of Glam Rock but this album has a certain charm that enraptured me from start to end. I am honestly surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did considering my past encounters with this genre. It is surprisingly modern in its sound to contemporary Alt Rock or Shoegaze and at times I thought I was listening to an early form of Wolfmother or The Darkness. Standout songs include "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us", "Falling In Love With Myself Again" and "Thank God It's Not Christmas". The second half of the album really degrades in terms of creativity and quality, but that's how most of these old albums are. It's an album I would listen to again if the mood strikes. 7/10

1974 album heard of (much later) but never heard - on track 2 but so far amazing in a Queen like way. Edit: By track 3 their intensity grows a little too much. Will have to take in bits and pieces. Give it my first 5.

Love it! 70’s rock women not too heavy a bit pop

It was pretty fun and catchy but not something where I was like, OMG, this is amazing. Idk if I'll ever really need to listen to it again.

Review - great album, brilliant songwriting, bizarre deliveries and subject matter, chunky bass. A classic. Score - 7.5/10 Need to listen? YES

3.5

Love Sparks! Great album.

Interesting album, certainly better than I expected - although I don’t know why my expectations were low. I don’t see listening to this a lot, but its a solid collection of songs

Keep in mind these are two white American dudes. Doing their best to act like culturally appropriating idiots on recording. Very heavy on post-rock piano and that disturbing echo-vocal effect that was all the rage in the mid-70s for some reason. Couple that with high-range singing that doesn't try particularly hard to sound good, and you get something so bad it wraps around to being kind of good again. Kate Bush, while better in every way, had to have been inspired by these guys – who themselves took obvious inspiration from early Bowie and other glam projects. We start with the deliberately wacky, off-kilter This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us. Disjointed falsetto vocals that manage to be equal parts entertaining and off-putting, accompanied by aggressively retro synth noises. And drumming that is surprisingly good considering how... well, terrible... the rest of the music is. It's all confusing and hilarious and what am I doing here? Amateur Hour is a little easier to digest, now that I'm warming up to Sparks's questionable style. I like the driving rock-piano in the high register, the straight-ahead drumming, the ecstatic vocal constantly moving up the major scale. Falling In Love With Myself Again is a waltz-like piece whose relative slowness makes it a bit more danceable and digestible. The quintessential Sparks falsetto comes back in full force with the wall-of-sound-esque Here In Heaven, which sounds a bit like Funny How Love Is (Queen) from the same year. Speaking of Queen: interesting that Thank God It's Not Christmas predates the Queen song Thank God It's Christmas, even though the former seems like an obvious parody of the latter. Anyway, Sparks's song is about being glad the nightclubs are open so the narrator can be more freely unfaithful to his wife. The lyrics are kind of hilarious, but the music is terrible and unmelodic. Hasta Manana, Monsieur, I think we can all agree, is a better track. Nice electric guitar (which has been sorely lacking thus far!). I agree that Talent Is An Asset, but judging by the song's sound, Sparks don't. To their credit, though, there are some fun chord changes, melodies, and an overall solid peppiness that is missing from most other tracks. Maybe the poppiest song here, too, almost verging on bubblegum pop. Following that, Complaints is pretty similar. In My Family is surprisingly great, incorporating the overly theatrical elements of glam rock with an almost Beatlesque complexity of harmonising and texturing and song structure. I would've expected this to easily eclipse most of the other songs on the album, but on Spotify it has the second-least number of streams. Mysterious. Equator ventures higher into the vocal register than any previous effort, and it's so hilarious cheesy that I'm obliged to kind of enjoy it. That a cappella outro is horrific but I'll let it slide. Barbecutie, barbecutie, barbecu-yew-yew... Yeah, I have no idea what's going on. Please send help. Lost And Found, the final track, is a load of balls. I was glad to be done with the album, but damn it if I didn't enjoy the journey. 3/5 Key tracks: Falling In Love With Myself Again, Talent Is An Asset, In My Family

Just about managed to not annoy me, which in itself annoys me, generous 3

Absolutely loved this!

Best Track - "Amateur Hour"

Mid

Είχε αρκετό ενδιαφέρον και ήταν σε αρκετά σημεία πρωτοτυπο, αν και ελαφρώς ενοχλητικό σε κάποιες φασεις

I actually really enjoyed this. Silly and fun!

Some of the musicality was interesting, but overall it felt repetitive (just loud) and subdued vocals made it hard to enjoy. Yay for classic rock tones tho.

Not sure what to say about this one ngl. Obviously some pretty far reaching stuff for the 70’s, and you can hear this kind of sound in later music — I understand its inclusion in that regard. However, the actual listening experience was such a mixed bag for me. I liked the sound a lot, and enjoyed a lot of the songs nonetheless, but decent chunk of them would have been so great if they were 90 seconds shorter. 6/10 Favorites: - Thank God it’s Not Christmas - Hasta Manana, Monsieur - Talent Is An Asset - Barbecutie

Interesting art pop. What a great track to lead off the album. 4

Absolutely crackers

XC40, Würzburg - Aschaffenburg, Deutschland. Tolle Scheibe!

2/5

This one was quite sweet. I always though for some reason Sparks was this lone globally-noticed Japanese glam rock band, but no they're American! I suppose the album cover fooled me. It has good hooks and silly lyrics. This album has aged pretty well I'd say, I assume because of the production. It does every good of glam rock, it sits right up there with other glam classics like Ziggy Stardust and Electric Warrior. I think I'd need another listen to understand this album more, so I think it will be a 3 star from me. Highlight Song/s: "Falling in Love With Myself Again" and "Thank God It's Not Christmas"

Not really for me. I can appreciate the creativity and the unique sound, but the theatrical style and vocals just didn’t click with me. A few interesting moments, but overall it wasn’t my thing.

I'm starting to think glam rock is my thing.

I found it truly original - a pleasant surprise - which left me keen to find out more about these guys. I eventually realised that I was actually already familiar with the track ‘This Town [...]’, but the whole album turned out to be absolutely fascinating. 5/5, without a doubt

Not my cup of tea. I like some of Sparks later stuff, the new wavey synth pop. But I just wasn't into this.

This one is one of the most polarizing for me because it’s both doing stuff that I should like but also stuff that I don’t like, and often at the same time somehow. Gonna have to give it a 2 because I just think it’s not for me.

3.5 rounded up.

Hard not to get up in and be amazed by the path these two have forged. Probably gonna be a sparks kind of weekend.

¿Glam? ¿Queen? ¿Quiénes son? ¿Es un grupo de chicas? Después de buscar más info, veo que son dos chicos y hoy en días dos señores. Continúo escuchando y ya el falsete no me parece tan femenino a ratos, pero sin mirar me habría costado. La portada es atemporal y su tema principal tiene su gancho "This town ain't big enough for both of us".

Notable Textzeile: That's how it's gonna be Before and, after me-ee Manufacturing many, many me's Gonna hang myself, from my family tree Nach einem kurzen "Oh man, was ist das schon wieder"-Moment hat es mich absolut gekriegt. Das ist auf eine verquere Weise absolut Catchy. Der Falsettogesang, die Gitarre die als Partner damit spielt und die Entscheidung, dass man den Quatsch wenn schon dann schnell und energetisch machen sollte überzeugen mich. Hab Lust mehr davon zu hören. Und außerdem: "Fremde, diese Stadt ist zu groß für uns beide"

Ich vergesse immer dass Kunst auch Spaß machen kann. Wie auch immer man das hier beschreiben soll, es hat Spaß gemacht.

Thats Quirky. Holt mich nicht ab. Aber stört auch nicht.

Good.

I should like it for it's weirdo vibes, but today it's just not hitting. Nothing really stood out to me. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. Like they'd be a great opening band for someone more interesting.

Odd, imaginative, and mainly enjoyable.

Not for me.

Reminded me of Kate Bush, quirky and interesting.

They’re having a lot of fun up there, and that’s great. I had a good time.

Listened to this while I cleaned my room, good

A bit too wacky for me. Usual pop rock from the 70s but nothing to memorable or interesting that I took away from it besides some songs that were just weird

All over the place

Iako ostatak nikad ne dostigne vrhunac koji odmah postavi This Town, volim sve što nije uredu s ovim albumom. P.S. ako ko slučajno ovo pročita postoji verzija This Town sa Faith No More koja je još genijalnija!

I've seen this album cover before both in the book and on the web. It's a pretty good cover, though one can only wonder where the sudden fascination with Japan came from in mid-70s Western rock music. I'm also familiar with the new wave "Japan" band which was active around the time of this album, which means that we Westerners were champing at the bit for some Nippoon action because it happened twice. Anyways, this is either a punk or a hard rock album. Hard rock seems to be the more likely guess, so I'll hedge my bets on that. Here goes. Nope. Glam/art rock. This was alright. No complaints from me. I have an appreciation for the jittery, stilted sound and androgynous, flamboyant vocals which feature on this album, but man if these aspects aren't samey. There aren't many places a song can go when the music is constantly being jilted by some breakneck guitars. Still, the album's adept. I enjoy the early, proggy-sounding synths, growling bass guitars and the jingling ambience which lingers in the background of many of these songs. The songs generally have satisfying outros thanks to the building vocals, though the remaining stretches of this album kind of linger in place. All in all, I'm right down the center on this album. I always have room in my heart for some discordant, strange music, though this wasn't entirely up my alley. Still, I might give it a second chance somewhere down the line. Book time. Sparks got their start in America, but relocated to the UK after the English music press proved to be more favourable to their style. "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both Of Us" was a top ten UK hit. Immediately met with critical and commercial success at release. Morrissey is a big fan of this album. Wikipedia says this was Sparks' breakthrough release in addition to being considered one of the group's best albums and one of the best glam rock albums of all time. Critics liked the album. Bjork, Thurston Moore and the guitarists for the Sex Pistols and Red Hot Chili Peppers are among the other artists who have cited this album as a favourite. The album peaked at No. 101 in the US, No. 58 in Canada, No. 22 in Australia, No. 10 in the Netherlands and No. 4 in the UK. The album's singles were also successful all across Europe - notably in the Netherlands, UK and Germany. Yeah, this seems like a solid pick. I cosign this inclusion.

It's alright, but I just think it's a little too weird for me.

Weird vocals just didn’t jive with me. The instrumentation was decent but not sure about this one

This was an unexpectedly fun listen, and it feels remarkably ahead of its time. There were moments where I genuinely thought: this is Chappell Roan, just 50 years earlier. The theatrical lyrics, the way they’re delivered, the playful shifts in the music and the whole slightly eccentric energy feel surprisingly modern. It’s weird, clever, catchy and completely its own thing. Kimono My House sounds like Sparks knew exactly what they wanted to make, whether the rest of the world was ready for it or not.

It’s ok. Kinda cool that they made this in the time period they did. However, it’s a little over the top and campy to me.

Sounded like they wanted to be Queen

For a brief shining moment Sparks sounds like it's playing a cheap trick on us with sharp driving guitar and growling bass in focus. Then they quickly shift into more theatrical territory — here I don't simply mean dramatic but I mean show tune and theater inspired song structures — revealing piano-centric songwriting with occasional operatic vocal flourishes. This album has a special charge as it oscillates between these impulses. And yet, overall, there's another element at work in the music I can't quite identify on first listen — a tendency toward density or complexity that's simultaneously resisted — I'm intrigued and repelled. Maybe the third element is just the observation of these two forces at play? It's simply an accounting of the different interactions. Feels like this quirky (or quarky?) album deserves a second spin before rating it. My only concern at this point is: will I make it through the back half the next time around? From a sequencing perspective it feels like the quality proving ground, and perhaps, it's helpful to see the Equator as the true demarcation line given it's the last track of the original release and anything thereafter is bonus material from re-issues. For an album under the microscope, I'm not sure the extra tracks help the total vision of the album as a whole and I might prefer it to stop its rotation there — as much as I appreciate the pun of Barbecutie. Now we're in the territory of over-integration and saturation (maybe a third condition too). The readings are no longer clear, the experiment has gone on too long.

Fascinatingly strange, layered, and catchy pop music. I had never heard of Sparks, but just by listening to this album I can tell how influential their sound has been to pop, rock, and other genres in the decades that would follow. As a Beach House fan, Russell Mael's vocals felt strangely in line with those of Victoria Legrand.

Amazing guitar solos, very funk/groovy album overall. Vocals are not my favorite but still a fun listen

01) This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us - 10,0 02) Amateur Hour - 7,5 03) Falling in Love with Myself Again - 7,5 04) Here in Heaven - 7,5 05) Thank God It's Not Christmas - 7,0 06) Hasta Mañana, Monsieur - 7,0 07) Talent Is an Asset - 7,0 08) Complaints - 6,5 09) In My Family - 6,5 10) Equator - 7,0 TOTAL: 7,35 (74/100) Current ranking: 454/1017

1. touun - 1 2. hour - 1 3. falling - 1 4. heaven - 1 5. god - 1 6. monziuer - 0 7. talent - 0 8. complaintz - 0 9. family - 0 10. equator - 0 11. bq - 0 12. lozt - 0

A little too out there for me.

Weird ass pop, very fun album.