Rocktrospectiva: The Clever And Animated "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip" Turns 5

Released on 15 May 2020 "A Steady, Drip, Drip, Drip" was the 24th., studio album by US band Sparks, recorded between Sparks' film projects, the album used a full rock-group format to draw on the band's full range of musical styles and was universally acclaimed by critics, who praised both its lyrical and melodic content. The album spawned four singles "Please Don't Fuck Up My World", ""Self-Effacing", "I'm Toast" & "One Of The Ages". The album peaked at No. 8 in the iTunes chart. 

 

Unfortunately the release of the physical formats was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and only followed on July 3, 2020, accompanied by the YouTube premiere of a Cyriak Harris music video for the song "The Existential Threat", the physical release saw A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip enter the UK charts at number 7, making this the group's second consecutive UK Top 10 studio album and their fourth overall. The album also made the Billboard 200 list of the top albums in the US, the first time Sparks has had a hit album in America since In Outer Space in 1983.

 

Following the 2017 release of Hippopotamus, Sparks toured, continued their work as screenwriters and composers for the upcoming musical Annette starring Adam Driver and participated in a documentary about their career directed by Edgar Wright.

 

As Sparks' keyboard player Ron Mael told that there were gaps in their schedule allowing A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip to be written and recorded: "We had been working so long on the Annette film, and there was a time when there was kind of a lull while they were sorting out just different business sides of the film. Rather than just sit around and wait, we kind of were anxious to get back and record individual discrete songs the material just seemed to kind of come fairly easily this time around."

 

Like Hippopotamus, the studio album preceding it, A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip used a full rock-group format. Described as "contemporary, electronically driven art-pop", reflecting on Sparks' traditional stylistic versatility encompassing "pop, rock, New Wave, synth-pop, disco, dance, electro, orchestral, opera" while prominently featuring Russell Mael's layered vocals, accompanied by rocky guitars and drums.

 

Russell Mael said that this record was a  good introduction to Sparks, it's one of those albums that's all over the map sonically, and lyrically it's really kind of uncompromising too. It's not timid in any way." The album was noted for its multiple occurrences of the word "fuck", which is somewhat unusual in Sparks' catalogue – the Los Angeles Times quoted Ron Mael quipping, "We held off for 23 albums".

 

Lyrically, the songs' content was described as "funny, clever, arch, wry, dry, witty, smart, strange, and, at times, actually rather moving"."employing wit in the form of puns and metaphors, yet his subject matter and his concerns are always contemporary; never more so than on 'iPhone', a song whose chorus is something we can all empathise with: 'Put your fucking iPhone down and listen to me.^"

 

The album's closing track "Please Don't Fuck Up My World", was considered as a "poignant ecological plea" that "managed to use a children's choir to non-cloying effect", is also unusual in Sparks' body of work for having an overt political message. A number of other song lyrics, featuring phrases such as "All interaction's now suspended" and "Threat outside, let me hide, just until the danger passes, then I'll go outside ... the Existential Threat is at your patio door and do not let it in", recorded before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, appeared eerily prescient in retrospect.

 

The critics were positive  indicating "universal acclaim", characterised it as "classic Sparks moments, full of comedy, clever wordplay, deft explorations of all the myriad issues of the world, with arrangements that sound as current and fresh as a dew-soaked spring daisy."

 

A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip Track List: 

 

1. All That

2. I'm Toast

3. Lawnmower

4. Sainthood Is Not In Your Future

5- Pacific Standard Time

6. Stranvinsky's Only Hit

7. Left Out In The Cold

8. Self-Effacing

9. One For The Ages

10. Onomato Pia

11. iPhone

12. The Existential Threat

13. Nothing Travels Faster Than The Speed Of Light

14. Please Don't Fuck Up My World