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Sparks’ 1994 album, Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins, provides an outlandish sound that surprisingly works.
Sparks is a band known for its eclectic music, and the group’s sixteenth album is no different.
The opening track, “Gratuitous Sax,” is only 30 seconds long, but is a bop for all 30 of those seconds. It is a song that doesn’t take itself too seriously and pokes fun at the band’s change in sound.
That introduction blends into “When Do I Get to Sing My Way?” This is an upbeat song about how musicians such as Frank Sinatra have an iconic sound. The brothers Ron and Russell Mael had been releasing music for nearly 30 years at the time of the album’s release, so it is a fun jab at how they did not reach that level of fame.
The album continues on through various electronic beats and pop culture references, such as in the song “Frankly, Scarlett, I Don’t Give a Damn.” The song references Gone With the Wind and criticizes the character Scarlett O’Hara and her romantic pursuits.
The song has a mystical feel to it, but it adds to the romance and drama. All in all, the song remains quite theatrical.
Later in the album, Sparks continues to have fun with the art they release. A good example of this is “Now That I Own the BBC.”
They are referencing the British Broadcasting Network, and they do not own it. It is just a jazzy tune about owning the network and has little meaning. If anything, it is a criticism of the privatization of news media, but it simply is a catchy song.
In true artistic cohesion, the album ends with “Senseless Violins” as an outro. It follows the pattern set by “Gratuitous Sax,” clocking in at 49 seconds. The song is as senseless as the title would suggest. It simply says a man came home and heard violins instead of more traditional instruments.
Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins is absurd, but that is what makes it great. It is a fun record that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is as catchy as listeners can expect any eclectic art to be.
