‘They’re the best British group ever to come out of America...’
Sparks are a band I’ve always admired from afar. While I’ve often enjoyed the occasional track that I’ve heard, their collaborative album with Franz Ferdinand was the only time that they really moved in the same musical circles that I do. I was hoping that Edgar Wright’s definitive documentary The Sparks Brothers would be the key to unlocking an enigmatic and fascinating band. Alas, I was to be disappointed…
Hailing from either California or some kind of insane alien planet depending on your viewpoint, Sparks are a band that inspire as much as they bewilder. Beloved by hipsters everywhere (this documentary features contributions by both Jason Schwartzman and Beck – the two clown princes of hipsterdom), Sparks have never been a band to rest on their laurels. With The Sparks Brothers, Wright, perhaps deliberately, never really attempts to remove the veil of mystique that the band have worked hard to maintain over the years. Instead, we have a chronological run through of each Sparks album. While this pushes the music to the forefront, it does mean that the band’s creative peak is covered fairly early on. This is a film that could have benefitted from a less prescribed narrative structure, particularly for a band so eager to shun convention.
Featuring contributions from talking heads as varied as Bjork, Adam Buxton and members of New Order, The Sparks Brothers is certainly comprehensive, and even at over two hours it’s never dull, but it does feel like Wright never really does justice to the oddball sensibilities of the band. What this documentary does confirm however is that the Mael brothers just seem like really nice guys. I’d love to share a beer with them. I imagine they would drink some kind of cocktail flavoured with the ink from a squid or something.
Anyway, while The Sparks Brothers is not a masterpiece, it is a compelling and competent retelling of an astonishing musical career. I enjoyed it.