SPARKS

[Lady Is Lingering]

In a recent interview about downloading music Russell mentioned the diminished opportunity to experience an album as a physical thing and to appreciate its art work. Sparks' 21 album covers span decades of changing concepts both about Sparks and music more generally. What's your favourite? I've at least 6... Kimono, Propaganda, Indiscreet, Angst and Gratuitous Sax but I'm going to have to go with Kimono despite the lack of R&R on the cover, it's just such a good cover, especially without any script on the front, unlike some later versions. I know these covers vary... there's stickers on some sometimes and others sometimes feature either Ron or Russell but you can make your own decisions about that. I think its helpful to have all the covers shown here and I hope uploading all these pics isn't a problem. If it is I'll delete them. As there isn't enough room for all Sparks' 21 albums! in the poll options I've broken this posting into 3 sections.
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[E-Clect-Eddy]

I chose Woofer even if it like almost them all equall, Big Beat would be my second and Indiscreet third from this bunch.
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"Somebody's been putting pineapple juice in my pineapple juice!"

www.last.fm/user/E-Clect-Eddy

[deadcalm]

"Propaganda" for me ... Although I sometimes wonder if the Album was at some point going to be called "Kidnapped" going on the Artwork..

[Lady Is Lingering]

Wow, I'm really quite surprised that Kimono has only gotten one vote and that's mine! I just think it's such a striking and dare I say seminal piece of cover art. I love its colours, its harsh lighting, its decision not to include text or an image of the band, its non-Euro and non-Americas theme, the different expressions on those low-rent Geishas' faces. There's something about its eccentricity, its fun yet vaguely threatening theme that sums up Sparks perfectly for me.

Here's a little bit more about the cover:

"The photo by Karl Stoeker used for the front cover was an outtake that happened at the end of the session that everybody thought worked. The models posing on the green background were from the Red Buddha Theater. The girl on the left was Michi Hirota, the wife of famous percussionist Joji Hirota." http://graphikdesigns.free.fr/sparks-kimono-cover.html

Can anyone remember the name of the model on the right of the cover? Russell introduced her at the Kimono gig. I was standing beside her at the time and, my god, she hasn't aged a bit!

I'm really glad they went with the outtake photo but here's an alternate photo:


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[deadcalm]

Ive always thought theres a Mael arm or two in that Photo !!!

[Mistress Demona]

I just prefer Indiscreet's cover best out of the ones listed in this poll