Sparks - Kimono My House (50th Anniversary) [Green & Brown UK Import]

Fifty years after it first startled British television viewers, Sparks' Kimono My House returns as a 140 gram green and brown coloured pressing, imported from the UK.

By 1974 Ron and Russell Mael had left Los Angeles for London, swapped their old band for a crew of British players and signed to Island. With Muff Winwood producing, the brothers' third album took their arch, cartoonish ideas and gave them the punch of a proper rock record. It made pop stars of two very unlikely men: Ron glaring motionless behind the keyboard, Russell bouncing around him in a giddy falsetto.

"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" opens with drums that sound like gunfire and a melody that keeps climbing past the point where any sensible singer would stop. "Amateur Hour" is a bouncy lesson in romantic inexperience, "Hasta Mañana Monsieur" turns a language barrier into a flirtation, and "Equator" closes the album on a strange, swirling note that refuses a tidy ending.

The songs are clever without ever feeling cold, crammed with wordplay, sudden key changes and choruses that stick for days.

Half a century on, the Mael brothers are still making records with the same raised eyebrow, and this is the album where that singular voice first came fully into focus.